[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Best way package plants for shipping?
Robert wrote:
> I have found it somewhat amusing in converstions like these that people seem
> much more willing to cut corners in how they send plants by mail when doing
> it themselves, than when buying it from a mail order business. If I sent
> plants to my customers like what has been described, they would demand
their
> money back! Truth is that the plants just need to be kept from drying out.
> Wet newspaper is the easiest way and the most common way to do this.
Packing
> material is more important to keep the plants from moving around in the box
> while the USPS worker is throwing it around, causing breakage of leaves and
> stems, than it is as insulation. Water in a plastic bag is useless because
> most likely it will leak during transit.
My reply:
I haven't found this method to be cutting corners. In fact I used to
fastidiously wrap my plants in soaked paper towels (better than newspaper,
btw, but a tad more expensive, I guess) within a ziplock. But, I found when
receiving plants, that the stemmed plants that were placed alone in a bag, as
opposed to swaddled in wet something, looked like they were just removed from
the tank. And placed in plastic such as a heavy-duty ziplock or the like, the
moisture does not leak out, if you don't put lots of water in there--and the
the plants don't need it, anyway. Padding the bagged plants inside the box to
keep it from banging around and insulating it a bit from collisions is just
an extra measure of precaution. You can use your newspaper there. Wrapping
the whole order in a bunch of wet newspaper is probably cheaper and less time
consuming for you, but it's messy and a pain to separate the plants for the
customer. Especially when you're trying to peel the newspaper layers away
from limp, soggy leaves. It's just an unnecessary pain.
I don't think that folks (hobbyists) cut corners when they're sending plants
from their tank. They are not in the hobby to make money, and they put as
much care into packaging, to ensure that the plants survive, as they do
growing them. Otherwise, they'd save $3.20 in postage and wash 'em down the
garbage disposal.
Robert, I don't think your customers would complain if the plants arrived
unswaddled in soaked messy newspaper especially if they looked the plants did
that I've received from hobbyists.
Sylvia
p.s. I have never ordered from Robert H and this is not a complaint about the
quality of his plants.