Sending plant through post. My dad lives in Anglesey!

[newstart]

Hi I was on Ebay seeing how they send there plants through the post. My dad lives in Anglesey but I wanted to send alpine plants cheaply in the post to him. There was one chap right in north of scotland who has positive feed back from custumors on ebay. He sends his alpines through post by growing them in 9cm pot first,removing them from pot and half of the soil from roots,wrapping in polythene bag and wrapping in paper. This should allow more alpines to be sent in slightly smaller boxs(being cheaper) and saving money on pots.

Is this a widely accepted way of doing things? Can you send 2nd class as it normally takes 3 days as long as not sent near the weekend?-would foil in the box give plant some light?
How long can people keep the alpine in polythene bag if they cannot plant it straight away? Could you keep it in shade outside and make sure its moist in poly bag and plant in a few days time?

[Rodger Whitlock]

When shipping living plants, the #1 enemy is rot, not desiccation. I've seen far too many shipments where an excess of caution led to the plants being packed far too damp and arriving at the other end rotten messes.

Remember that in the late 1700's when William Bartram was shipping American plants by sea to Peter Collinson in the UK, the plants were packed in living moss and most arrived at their destination intact after a three-month journey. (I should add that Bartram's reference to sending "roots" suggests that he was shipping dormant plants.)

In these our modern times, another hazard is overheating in a delivery truck parked in bright sun but here too moss may insulate the plants from the worst effects.

Three days is not a lengthy journey, however, so your gifts to your father have an excellent chance of reaching him in good condition.

Remember when packing that parcels may be thrown, turned upside down, shaken, and otherwise mistreated while in transit.

[newstart]

thanks again Roger! Would any one like to add there thoughts also?

[Paul T]

Remember to pack solidly.... as Roger said they'll get thrown around.  A small amount of space will result in the plants compacting as the box it rattled around, which means more vacant space, which means more compacting etc.  In not time a loosely packed box has a lot of space in it and everything ends up dreadfully damaged.  Just plain packing the empty space with crumpled newspaper at the very least helps the plants from shifting around within the box.  No matter how well packed the individual plant is, if it is allowed to rattle around in empty space in a box it will be damaged. 

I have in the past when sending something I needed to keep extra safe put a skewer or something that stretches the length of the box in with the plant.  That way the plant is "pinned" at one end of the package and therefore it's root mass can't squish it's leaves up against the other end of the box..... the skewer doesn't allow it to move in that direction.  Does that make sense?  This is particularly useful when sending something in a small pot, as the skewer can be put down the side of the pot and it anchors into the base of that pot and can't push through.

I'm just trying to think of things that immediately come to mind as problems I have found in packages over the years.  Hopefully these comments make sense to you and are useful.

[David Nicholson]

To save on weight and postage I usuually shake off as much compost as possible and wrap the roots in damp kitchen towel. The rooted portion of the plant is then put into a small plastic bag loosely tied with a rubber band. The whole lot is then popped into a cardbord tube (toilet roll/kitchen roll inner cut to suit the size of the plant, works well) and the tube filled with paper bits from my shredder before being partially sealed, top and bottom with sellotape. The whole lot then put into a small cardboard box with added shredder material and into the post it goes. Seems to work OK as no-one has ever complained.