That's a picture.. a packagege with an hourglass waist. LOL Nice butt.

I am planning on shipping a bunch of boxes of hostas from my garden via Greyhound Express Package shipping. Anyone familiar with that service and the shape the plants arrive in?

Yes, Paul, as wontonamara said, nice but...how’d the plant fair? Can we see it?

Paul, I guess you haven't received enough parcels! That is a specially designed container for small plants to prevent the USPS gorillas from damaging the contents. Note the restrictive nature of the middle of the container.

I received a mangled box in a trade not long ago. By far,,,,not the first one, and certainly not the last I am guessing, but it almost makes a person wonder if these things are done deliberately! Especially an "hour glass" figure???? That had to be a LOT of pressure to get that shape. I do hope your trade survived this with no ill effects! Rosie

Wish I had that figure ;-).

But in all fairness, boxes have to be stacked in transit, and an unreinforced, “empty” box is easily crushed if anything is put on top. I send plants in double sided boxes, empty food containers, or cookie tins etc, exactly for that reason.

Tolumnia?

Usually I see corners of boxes damaged. This is first for me and there has to be a lot of pressure to get it into that shape. The plant looks pretty healthy and great shape. Thanks for sharing your experience and the plant. What is it - I mean the specific variety of orchid? That should be a nano-orchid :))

Macroclinium manabinum :-)

Thanks. I will have to look it up.

I had never seen it either...interesting.

Just googled it. OMG!!!! I so am going to start working on getting one! I love tiny things and that is the nicest tiny Orchid I have seen!!!!! Rosie

I also got boxes squashed with tires tracks.... I do not think there is a box that can survive a forklift running over it... Happens very rarely - but happens. Last time I had it - all plants survived as well.

Crazy looking box. We have got some crazy boxes over the years. One time a UPS driver delivered an empty box with a slit in it. DH had ordered a lawn mower blade from Amazon and apparently the seller just threw it in a large box, no packing and it escaped. Sling Blade anyone? Lol! We were joking over just where that potential weapon ended up lol.

sorry, I chuckle every time I see this thread ...

That's the plan. Keep chuckling!

If the shipping is ruined... request a replacement. It is what sellers do - replace 3% of the parcels at least.. USPS is still the cheapest carrier around.

The talented people who send sharp or breakable objects without a secure packing... replace 50%... until they learn. (We can hope - but the scientists believe that idiots have a super high sperm count... otherwise they would die out before wooly mammoths...)

I.

One of my good friends had this saying, "If you're not ready to drop-kick your box across the street, then you're not ready to ship it!"

THAT IS SO TRUE!!! Include into a shipping Manual!

I just passed this info to our post office - they laughed and said it is so true.... They said the lady was going to send a plant to a friend and asked them how she can mark the box so it will be shipped in a vertical position with a pot down... and she threw a tremendous fit,,, when she was told it won't work.

You send something - make sure - nothing moves - even if you DROP-KICK IT! Fill every empty spot with something - peanuts, air pillows, balls of newspaper - glossy advertisement material in a Sunday paper is good... and gives you a pride of repurposing...

I saran wrap the pot well so that soil cannot spill out or move in the pot. I would over-fill the pot a bit before wrapping. Then tape the pot to the inside of the box very well so that it does not move inside the box. If possible, sometimes I will tape some extra cardboard around the plant. Then fill the empty space with whatever is handy. It still would not entirely prevent something like what happened to Paul.

toc,

Why do you send plants with soil? Is it one / some that absolutely cannot have their roots disturbed / non-soiled for a bit?

cactusmcharris: Mainly because the receiver wants the plants in pristine condition and start enjoying it immediately.

Success with bare-rooted plants depends on the type of the plant, time of the year (whether it is dormant or not) and skill/confidence of the receiver. I mostly ship (I only do a few every year) Tropicals in summer and usually via regular first class mail. If I have to ship them bare-root then I should also remove a good portion of the leaves to minimize moisture loss to ensure it will survive the trip. The receiver will then have to give the plant proper care to revive the plant. For dormant plants with no leaves, cacti and succulents moisture loss is not a problem. They can be sent pretty dry so possibility of a fungal attack during the trip is nearly zero.

I agree with bikerdoc. The tape around the middle does look tightly wrapped. What did the sender say about this?

I got some Corelle dishes shipped to our house for a Xmas gift for one of our daughters last year. The online store for Target Stores shipped two boxes of Corelle with two very large outer boxes (one was opened up to fit over the other). Very wasteful and I suspect the temp workers are not given good instructions on how to box items.

No dishes were broken!

Bubble wrap was removed to get to the dishes but you can see how much room there was after the removal.

The boxer could've easily done it with one box. Looks like Target needs some lessons from Amazon?

Packing lessons from Amazon? Oh, the horror!

Seems like Amazon often just throws something (that should be packed at least somewhat carefully) in an envelope and calls it good. Or throws it in a too large box with one small plastic air pillow.

HAHA! I've had very few problems with Amazon. Wished I could say the same about some other online stores.

toc,

Aha! I've sent only cactus and other succulents through the mail (usually cuttings, so they of course don't need soil), and they always went soil-less.

You are correct in a sense that some plants do just peachy without soil - and nobody needs to pay to move a pot with soil from A to B. Tropical high humidity plants deteriorate so fast without soil - it is not funny - plus if you wash the soil off - the roots get damaged too - and the plant while alive - will take long time to recuperate. So Tropicofcancer is right on the point when he describes how he does it. Sometimes if shipping abroad - you cannot send plants with soil.. and it makes a difference between alive or dead on arrival.

Many years ago I sent some bare root succulents to a woman in Turkey. Six weeks later they were returned to my front door and the box looked horrible. I put the surviving plants in a big pot on our deck - most rooted in like they didn't miss a beat. The woman in Turkey asked me to send them again but this time in a manilla bubble wrap envelope. So I pulled out the rooted plants and did as she asked. Two weeks later she had them delivered to her home still in great shape.