How do they get here?

I have heard of many different mail-order plant companies,but how can they mail a plant?The box could be tipped the wrong way and the soil spill out,it could die without sunlight and water,and so on. I mean,it can't just be packed in a box and shipped across the country,can it??

Hi Triss96, we have many mail order plant companies and nurseriers in UK, I have used them and many of my friends have too, I have also had bulbs and plants sent from Holland etc, I have never had a problem, one or two needed to be put in a bucket of water on arrival but so has some I have bought from local garden centers, so if you like what the mail order co has, go for it, the plants are either bare rooted, in special containers, and as with everything now a days, packages are made for the job, Mine always arrive first class mail, delivery time/day given in advance and only sent when the season is right for planting, go on, be brave, just do a small order to test the condition of the plants, because of the geography of UK, it is not always convenient to travel hundreds of miles for a supplier, word of warning, it can become addictive HA HA HA. happy searching.
WeeNel.

I just got some plants in the mail. They ship fine for 2-3 days in nonsummer weather. Hotter and longer and they take a bit to recover from. The soil is covered with paper and rubber banded on - I have yet have a plant spill out of it's container.

Here is something really amazing: day old chicks, and also honey bees, can be mail ordered. I don't know how they survive (I'm sure they all don't) but it's done on a regular basis. These are only 2 breathing creatures that I'm aware of that can be mail ordered, I suppose there are many more.

Hi Triss,

I've ordered a few times via mail. Sometimes the plants are just bare roots; those are packed in plastic bags.

But in the case of plants in pots, my experience with Bluestone Perennials http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/index.html, is that they use styrofoam peanuts. The pots are placed in the bottom of the box and peanuts are carefully placed all around the plants all the way to the top. That seems to hold the plants in place, even if the box is tipped or tossed. The soil is pretty compact and moist, so it stays in the pots. Since the plants are in a dark enclosure, the soil stays fairly moist or only slightly drys out.

Shipping should take no more than a few days, so lack of sun and a little dryness is usually not a problem for a short period of time.

Sometimes some plants do look a little beat up, but usually come around in a couple of days. I usually wait a few days before sticking them in the ground. Only one time did I have a couple of plants that didn't make it, and Bluestone immediately gave me a refund, since they didn't have any replacements.

I wouldn't hesitate ordering from a reputable company. There is so much more available on line or in catalogs than there is in stores and garden centers.

Shebs

triss 96 I also have ordered thru the mail may time and as shebs45 says there is so much available thru catalog, but dont order thru michigan bulb I have had some disappointments thru them. I recently had to get a refund on 8 items. Many bad remarks on the site here also. But have ordered many thing from wayside, jackson perkins, and so on. They have all been fine. So enjoy my rule of thumb is.. first I look at local nurseries ans if I cant find it at a fair price or at all. I can search the internet if you want it bad enough. So have fun and plant your whole yard up. Ronna.

The good mail order places all have different ways of shipping things so they arrive safely. And a few days in a box won't kill a plant, just make sure to readjust it to light gradually when it arrives rather than plopping it straight into a sunny garden bed. I highly recommend checking out the Garden Watchdog, it'll tell you which places are reliable and which aren't
http://davesgarden.com/gwd/

The 2 best packers I've seen recently are Greenwood Nurseries and Pickering Nurseries (see Garden Watchdog for both). Greenwood sells trees, shrubs, and perennials; Pickering sells roses only. The shrubs I got from Greenwood were in plastic pots and they wrapped several yards of narrow plastic wrap around each pot. The soil stayed moist and in its pot. They arranged 2 pots at each end of a long narrow box, 4 pots total, and kept the plants from sliding into each other by putting each end of a bamboo stake in one of the pots. They filled up the rest of the box with those air-bags that Amazon is using these days.

Pickering dampens their bareroot roses and pack and tie them together so tightly they can't shift. The bundle then goes into one plastic bag which is twist-tied shut, and then it goes into another plastic bag, also twist-tied shut. The whole caboodle then goes into a cardboard box to be shipped. I've bought from Pickering off & on for over 20 years and they've always done it that way and I've never lost a rose. In fact, the roses I received this spring, 17 days after I put them in the ground one produced a flower bud. All three are full of new canes and leaves.

I too can attest to the excellent packing, shipping, and quality of product from Pickering Nurseries. If you're in the market for roses, you can't go too far wrong by ordering from them.

--Ginny

My favorite is lots of plants in plastic containers, and wrapperd in paper. The soil is covered around the with straw or sisle, or some such thing. The box is deeper than the height of the plants.

There are cardboard dividers-- kind of like the one that Christmas bulbs are stored in, but standard weight cardboard.

The plastic pots are stabled to the cardboard. That box can get flippped and flopped, but the plants don't move anywhere. They arrive perfect.

Very cool.

Thanx guys!I was about to order one through mail but everyone at the shop said that they would die before they reached my house.Thanks for the help!I didn't want to pay for a dead plant!

triss96 If your plants are dead when they arrive you can call for a refund. Most places like audobon workshop has a life time warranty on the plants. When you put the tag by the plants mark where you got them from and you will remember. Keep the reciept you print off line when you order. That always helps me.

I think as long as you order from somewhere that has a good rating in the Garden Watchdog, your plants will arrive in great condition. But make sure you understand return policies from the place you're ordering from--many mail order places especially the smaller ones don't have a lifetime guarantee on their plants, but all the good ones will replace ones that arrive in poor condition. Bigger places can afford to provide lifetime guarantees, but smaller places may not be able to afford to do that, it's harder to stay in business if you're always having to replace things that died because people didn't take proper care of them so all they'll replace is things where it was their fault the plant died.