Packing Spiderwort for Trade

Any tips??? I am trying to dig some of these up, and they are so thickly rooted I'm having to use the pitchfork AND shovel from every angle. This, of course, requires stepping all over the plant! Then I have to tug it out, and am ripping off the stems, flowers, and leaves. That leaves me with masses of roots. If I soak and clean these well with peroxide and water, can I wrap them in paper towels, then newspaper, and put them in plastic to ship? Will they survive like this, or do I need to keep a certain anount of the stalk on them.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated (by me and the recipients!). I really don't want to send her a dead rootball!

Thanks for reading this!

I don't know why these keep coming out blue - they are really pale purple. Actually I have one set that is really pale, abd the other 3 areas are darker pruple.

I'm wondering if I should cut them down to about 3" before I try tugging them out of the gound as see if that works?

Sequee I'm convinced you can't kill this plant. I dug up a huge clump and tossed it the hot sun. I thought for sure it would die. Nope, first rain and it perked right up and would have continued to grow. I would cut the tops back and dig up as much as you can (the roots will break)and wrap the roots in a moist towel. Roll the whole thing in newspaper like a sausage and send it on the way.

I sent some to someone a few weeks ago. It was a tangled mess. I soaked them overnight and they fell apart even more. I enclosed them in a huge ziplock soaking wet. zipped them up and poked a few small holes in. Put wet paper towel in too.The person I sent them too said they had thei own personal greenhouse and were fine.

Are you talking with soil attached, or bare roots?

Bare root, the soil came off when I soaked the plants.

Great! Thank you soooo much for your help!