Venus Flytraps - free for shipping

[xscd]

THIS OFFER IS NOW CLOSED

(Edit, 7:25 p.m. MDT, Aug. 30, 2006)
This offer is now closed. I have more requests than I can fulfill. Thank you everyone for reading and responding, and if I don't choose you, I'm sorry, and please try again in a future giveaway if you wish. I'm trying to be as fair as possible in these giveaways. I'll contact those I choose by private message before 10 a.m. MDT tomorrow, Aug. 31.

I will probably post a couple followup messages at the bottom of this discussion thread. Thanks and best wishes,

Steve / xscd


--- --- original message below --- ---

TEENAGE VENUS FLYTRAPS UP FOR ADOPTION
on Wednesday evening, Aug. 30, 7 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time

What I will offer:
2 groups of 2-4 VFTs in each group, free except for shipping.

When I will make the offer:
Wednesday evening, August 30, 2006, 7:00 p.m. US Mountain Daylight Time.

Where I will make the offer:
Right here, at the bottom of this message, by editing this message at the time mentioned above. Anyone already viewing the message at that time might have to click the "Refresh" button on their web browser to see the edited message.

What to do if you're interested:
Write me a private message AFTER the offer is made, stating which offer you are interested in. This offer is only open to persons living in the 48 contiguous U.S. states (although I wonder if VFTs would ship OK to Alaska).

What I will do:
I'll choose the responses I like the best (not necessarily the first ones I receive), and I'll write a private message to those people, and then I'll edit this post to say that the offer is now closed, in bold type at the top. If a respondent doesn't receive a private message from me by the following morning about 10 a.m., that means that they weren't chosen--sorry.

What to do if chosen:
Pay a $6.00 shipping fee in advance, via PayPal.com. If the shipping fee is not paid within a day or two, those VFTs will be withdrawn from the offer, or offered to someone else.

When will the VFTs be shipped:
This coming Saturday, September 2, by United States Postal Service Priority Mail.

I'm posting this notice a day early so that those who are really interested can have a chance to respond, instead of the first people who see something and want it as an impulse just because it's free.

I plan to make several similar announcements during the upcoming weeks, so if an interested person misses out on this one perhaps he or she will be able to take advantage of a subsequent giveaway.

VFT varieties that I may include in these "up for adoption" offers:
<ul>
* Blood Red Traps
* Dente
* Fang
* Big Mouth
* Banded
* Fine Tooth x Red
* possibly others
[/list]

The free offers will appear below on Wednesday evening, August 30, 2006, about 7 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time, when I edit this message.
--- --- --- --- ---

Editing message, Wed. Aug. 30, 7 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time
Free VFTs (for shipping charge), current offers--

Offer #1
1 Big Mouth, 1 Blood Red Traps, 1 Fang

Offer #2
1 Big Mouth, 1 Fine Tooth x Red, 1 Dente

These plants are not quite as big as the ones I have offered recently, but rather than wait a few weeks until they are larger, I decided to offer them now. Although medium sized, they are nevertheless very vigorous, healthy and hardy.

Although Blood Red Traps has an evocative name and can give spectacular deep red color under certain circumstances, it can be very stingy with that color under most circumstances. Fine Tooth x Red, on the other hand, has given me (along with Banded) the deepest, most consistent red color this year.

All of these are good VFTs. Good luck.

Steve / xscd

 

[flytraplady5]

Setting my cell phone alarm clock for 7:00 pm Weds Aug 30th

 

[Cynic81]

PMed you

 

[xscd]

OK-- the original free giveaway message at the top of this thread has been edited and updated with tonight's offers.

Best wishes,

Steve / xscd

 

[flytraplady5]

OOOps for got to set my alarm.
LMO

 

[xscd]

Followup--Comments about these giveaways--

I think these free giveaway offers for a modest shipping charge are a good deal, and I enjoy sending my young VFTs to good new homes. That's why it is disheartening when people try to turn a good thing into something else, like--

<ul>
* wanting to pick and choose from the varieties I have and customize the "order" instead of accepting an offer as it is;

* turning the offer into free, private technical support by asking questions about how to grow VFTs, both before and after the offer is sent, when there are numerous places to get expert information without imposing on my own private time; I'm giving away free plants, not free time.

* wanting to make special arrangements or wanting me to make exceptions regarding paying the shipping fee. Using PayPal and paying the shipping fee in advance is a way I figured out to make it easy on me, after some bad experiences in the past. Unless and until a person can suggest a better or alternate method that's just as easy, if a person can't do PayPal, they won't get the VFTs, period.
[/list]

Without mentioning names or nicknames, here are a few extracts from private messages I received in response to this latest free giveaway, by way of hopefull gently chiding those who wrote them and others who might do a similar thing, and giving examples of my points above, without publicly embarrassing the people who wrote them--

Quote[/b] ]
"... And not to push my luck, but if it's at all possible for you to toss a royal red seedling my way, I'd REALLY appreciate that as well (it's one of my must-haves )."

(The person above wrote to me before my offers were even officially posted.)

Quote[/b] ]
"Can I have both offers? I would like have offer #1 and #2. Thanks!"

(The person above has already received free VFTs from me in the recent past.)

Quote[/b] ]
"I am interested in the free VFTs, preferrably Offer #1. Hopefully, I can get the offer!!

I do have a question regarding VFTs. I've got 1 growing outside and a couple weeks ago we had a particularly bad heatwave, all my upright leaves immediately became droopers like nepenthes. They were kept on a higher watertable but could this be because of heat exhaustion? It's something that really bugs me but at least now the VFT is reverting back to producing upright leaves ..."

(Aside from not being an "expert on call" to answer VFT culture questions (unless I want to answer questions or provide my own take on the issue in the public forums where more than one person may benefit or be able to consider the information), there are so many possible explanations, and this person didn't mention crucial details, like what the climate and humidity is like at his location and how it varied during the "heat wave", exactly how the VFT has been grown and is being grown and for how long (just a vague "I've got one growing outside"), etc. This "free tech support abuse" **smile** is beginning to affect me like my Windows computer using friends who want me--an exclusively Linux guy--to help them fix their broken Microsoft boxes. **grin--ain't gonna happen**)

Quote[/b] ]
"... Also, I do not have a paypal account, but do have a credit card with which to pay online. I've never used paypal (that I know of, I do periodically make purchases on amazon), so let me know if this is all I need to seal the deal."

(Uh--no.)

Best wishes, Steve / xscd