What sets Tankquility apart from other plant sellers?
At Tankquility, the integrity and authenticity of the plants in our collection is of the utmost importance. We spend considerable effort confirming and clarifying the identities of our plants, marketing them honestly, and keeping them free of aquatic snails, so that you can have confidence in the plants you buy from us. Some of the practices and procedures we have in place to guarantee this are:
Clonal Lines: The vast majority of plants that we grow are grown as clonal lines, meaning that they have been grown from a single rhizome piece or plant. This guarantees that we can never accidentally sell two different plants under the same identification (or keep them under the same TQ code). We follow these clonal lines carefully to guarantee confidence in our identifications and ensure you always receive exactly what you expect.
Growing Emerse: We grow out almost all aquatic and semiaquatic plant clones in an emerse state - out of water. This method of culture usually allows identification from the flower and other morphological characters, and this is often critical for a reliable identification in genera such as Bucephalandra and Cryptocoryne. It also allows us to assist you if you would like to learn to grow emerse, too - we have done it ourselves and can give you first-hand culture information!
Scientific Collaboration: We collaborate with both botanists within Australia and overseas to assist in identifying our plants. This is not a one-way relationship either – Tankquility’s plants and knowledge have assisted botanists in their own studies!
Naming of Plants: The naming convention we use accurately describes and indicates the level of confidence we place in the identity of a plant you buy from us. Unlike many retailers, if we are not entirely certain of an identification, we make sure you are aware of this – it is not concealed for you to find out down the track, like is so often the case with aquarium shops! You can find out more about the naming conventions used by Tankquility here on our website.
Catalogue Numbers: You might be wondering why some of our plants are sold with letters and numbers instead of trade names. These letters and numbers are part of our catalogue numbering system, which will allow you to keep up to date with any changes in the taxonomy of any plants you may have bought from us.
No Reselling: Other growers do not go the lengths we do to ensure that the plants they sell are accurately identified. Often, other retailers will buy in plants from a grower or wholesaler to quickly on-sell to you. At Tankquility, we do not believe this allows for a retailer to provide certainty in plant identification or a guarantee of reliable quality or pest-free status in their plants. For this reason, we never resell plants from other growers or wholesalers – what we sell to you has always been grown in our nursery long-term, in some cases for more than a decade!
Honest Marketing: All pictures used on our website and Facebook and Instagram pages are images of the plants in our collection. Many of our competitors use unreliable and deceptive Google images to market their plants – we do not agree with this practice. We never use images from Google and our plants are always photographed under white natural lighting to show the true colour of the plants we sell – never under LED RGB lights to accentuate plant colour! This means that you never feel misled, deceived, or disappointed after opening a package of our plants.
Aquatic Snail Free: Tankquility is proud to be able to sell plants that are free of aquatic snails. Strict pest treatment and quarantine procedures in the nursery ensure that our aquatic and semiaquatic plants are guaranteed to be snail-free. You can find out more about what we do to ensure you receive snail-free plants here on our website.