Mailing Plants - Please assist me!!

I'm going to be sending out cuttings of common vines (Wandering Jew, Heart Leaf Philodendron, etc) and I want the plants to arrive in good shape but the people getting them to pay the minimum amount of postage.

Please give me suggestions how to go about doing this. Keep in mind I expect to have a bushel basket of cuttings so this will be a tremendous effort on my part but I want to do it RIGHT!!

well, I'm sure you will gets lots of good advice but here's what I would do:

Wash all the soil off the roots. Wet a paper towel or newspaper and wring it out and wrap around the roots. The take something like a cut-up walmart bag or bread wrapper, etc., and wrap around the the paper towel or newspaper and secure with string. Wrap the foilage with a sheet of newspaper to protect it. That should do it. The first plant I ever mailed, I sent the soil clump and all. I had no clue. Good Luck!

Judy, read about halfway down here on The Trading Primer http://davesgarden.com/trading/primer/4//

The Trading Primer is found on the Home Page under the Extras link at the top.

The first plants I sent I mailed with way too much "stuff", too. They arrived just fine! But I later "discovered" the link that Darius sent. It makes it a lighter package to be sure!

Thanks for the info.

Judy, I am not experienced (yet) but one thing I have been doing to help out my --rooted-- plants/cuttings is letting them sit in a bucket of water while I get my materials ready. Someone can correct me here but it seems it would help fight stress and possibly hydrate. Helps rinse off soil as well. Hopefully it's not a waste of time! I know when you receive plants it's a good idea anyway.

I usually dig my plants the day before I mail and let them soak in water for 24 hours before I mail.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/462015/

Here are some pictures of what I'm sending out.

This is what I decided to do, but please remember they were cuttings:

1) Put "Old Time Rock N' Roll" CD on, turned music up medium loud and started snipping. (Remember the scene in the movie Car Wash??? The movie is old and so am I.)

2) On the first 6 boxes, I did the wet paper towel, wrap in it plastic wrap procedure, plus I put them in gallon zip lock bags, sealed, then opened a tad, blew up the bag, sealed it back to hold the air. This prevented most leaves from touching bag, cushioned the ride and provided insulation.

3) On the next 4 boxes, I just snipped, threw them in the zip lock, blew it up etc. I was too dang tired!!!! lol lol

The first box arrived and the cuttings were in good condition!!! When I hear about the others I will post it here.

Judy

Sound like a good plan to me.

i would have went with a mellencamp or journey cd! ;)