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RE: Plants by Mail
A comment was recently made about the condition of newly shipped plants:
> For those folks complaining about the condition of plants they
> got in the mail...
> Realize there is a trade off here! I have never yet received
> plants in the mail
> that weren't "half dead". What did I do with them? I PLANTED
> them. Within a
> week they were showing an awesome turn around and looking good.
A few weeks ago, I "discovered" that Belyjo plants were in Montreal (hey, it
was news to me). I visited their web site and liked what I saw but there
wasn't much information regarding which specific plants that they produce.
They also don't do "retail" mail order - they sell to stores and they
currently don't have retail accounts here in Toronto. Several of the other
members of my local plant group who were familiar with Belyjo plants told me
that they were of generally good quality but that they don't have anything
really rare or unusual. Toronto is pretty well served, plant wise, by
several good retail stores - we can get a very wide variety of quality
plants on a regular basis (luck us, I guess).
But my curiosity got the better of me and I contacted Belyjo via e-mail,
telling them about our local plant group and asking for further information
about their company and their plants. Within a week of my initial contact, a
UPS delivery guy was at my door with a VERY professionally packaged box,
full of Belyjo's plants (FREE OF CHARGE!). When I picked myself up off of
the floor, and opened the box, I found a group of very clean, very well
grown bunch plants and several potted plants (in rockwool). There was also a
plant on a rock and another one attached to a piece of driftwood. Nothing
rare or unusual, but not a snail in sight (and I LOOKED. Closely.) The
plants were packaged in wet newspaper and then double bagged in plastic bags
with bubble wrap around everything and then encased in a strong styrofoam
shipping container. When first placed in an aquarium, they looked a little
"limp". Within 24 hours, they were the nicest, freshest, most attractive
plants in the tank (maybe that says something about my abilities.....) - but
the point is that they REALY rebounded nicely, so I don't think you can
judge the quality of a company's plants by how they look when you open the
box - put them back in water and let them recover before you pass judgement.
James Purchase
Toronto