Transcript:
Hi, guys! I hope you’re doing well. Um, I have had quite a few requests to show how I wrap plants to ship them and so, um, I am wrapping up some plants to ship them today, and it’s a beautiful day outside here on the porch and so. I thought you know what I’ll just take you guys along with me as I wrap these up and show you what I do. Um, now! I’m gonna move the camera and point it down, so you can see what? I’m doing first thing I want to say, though. Is that the way I do? It is not necessarily the best way. I’m not putting this up as the way to do it. This is just what works for me. What works really well. I tried multiple different things with the types of plants that I ship. But shipping methods really vary depending on what you’re shipping and how you would want to wrap it up. If you’re shipping bare root, you can do it totally differently. Most of what I ship is partial soil and a lot of them are the hardy. Er, cold, hardy. Wet, more wet, loving wet. Loving is an exaggeration, wet, tolerating there. We go wet, tolerating succulents, you know, like simper, vibes and seeds and things like that so and I and I do sip some others from time to time, but primarily I have experience with shipping the plants that are Hardy around my area here in northern Idaho and so the this is, this is what I’m showing today. These are these are all. Hardy plants. And this is what works best for me after trying many many versions of wrapping and taping and and whatnot, and it protects them really. Well, especially for simpler vitamin, which I’m not going to show right now. I’m not shipping any of those, but I might wrap one up just to show you guys. I might run. See if I can find one that I could just wrap up to show you guys because it really protects them. Well, alright. I am going to point the camera down and be right back. Alrighty, so, um, first off. I start with scissors, twine, tissue paper, and for certain plants in certain circumstances, some plastic wrap you can use any in the old leftover pieces of plastic. You have whatever whatever works rather than throwing something away. That’s great, and then I remove. Most of the soil. However, much really isn’t attached to a lot of roots, and this is what a few different clusters look like the amount of soil left on them as you can see and then. I allowed them to dry out for a day. It really depends on the weather. How long you want them to dry out the with these guys, they really? I’ve asked multiple people this year, and then I asked some people last year and they really have shipped very well. Even if they’re a little bit damp because these guys don’t mind being damp. I’m like a lot of the really desert succulents do, but there are a lot heavier when they’re wet. And so that’s one of the main advantages of drying out, and then if they get really hot and they’re wet, that can kind of be a recipe for a disaster. If you’re, you know, if you’re shipping first thing in the spring or late in the fall when it’s cold, if they’re a little bit damp, it’s not such a big deal with these guys because they’re starting to just kind of be dormant anyways, but if it’s possible that it’ll get really hot, then having them on the dry side is ideal. So with all of these guys. These are all on the very dry side. I have one other plant that. I’ll show in just a minute that I’m also shipping with these that I left a little bit more damp, just because it’s in bloom, and it’s it would like a little bit of moisture for the trip, so these guys are dry enough that I just start right with the paper and I buy tissue paper wholesale. I used to buy it from my store. All the time and you can get it really cheap online. I don’t even think you need to have a wholesale license to get it for really cheap. It’s just you can. You can buy it in bulk, basically, and if you get it from a supply store trying to think of the name of one if anyone wonders I can. I can leave it below, but you can you can. Google, like store supply is for bags and tissue. And you know things like that for stores and find it for quite quite reasonable prices, usually, and so I always do two to two layers. I’m gonna start with this one, and you’ll see when I wrap up the other one. It’s, um, the other one that’s. I’m keeping a little bit damp as a Lucia and they look more like a a simper Biomarin Echeverria shape and so you’ll see why I particularly like shipping this way with them a lot more than with the sedum, but I just go ahead and do them all the same way, so I’m just letting out any excess dirt so that it doesn’t blend on top, and then I’m just carefully making sure that no leaves are pinched below making sure all the leaves are on top and pain is just gathering it up around and making a little edge before I get completely all gathered up to where I can’t let go. I’m gonna go ahead and cut a piece of this twine. I usually use jute twine. This is from an old roll of baling twine. I think this might be him. It’s a little bit lighter colored than the jute that I’m used to, but anyway, some some kind of a natural cheap. You know, cord? You guys can see okay so again. I’m just gathering it up all around the outside, and then I’m going to take my twine and I’m gonna put it around up around the base here, just right at the base of where the plant starts in the top of the soil, and this is looking more awkward than it is. Because usually I would just have it kind of in my knees. Pinch it between my knees and tie it up and it’s super easy and quick to do this. But for purposes of showing on the video. I’m trying to leave it on the table, so I just tie it up. Alright, so it looks like this. And all of the dirt is kind of tied below basically and from the other side. It looks like this. You don’t have to tie it super super tight, just enough to kind of hold on, And then when I put it in a box which I’ll show in a minute, then you can just kind of fold this over the top, and it really had whatever needs to be. You know, you can kind of roll it to one side or the other. Something needs a little more protection or if not, it just protects the whole top, really well. And even if it’s upside-down it doesn’t really leak dirt or get really messy, very easily, and if this one has a little bit of moisture, and if it kind of soaks the tissue, it’s not really a big deal. Worst thing that will happen is it may fall apart when she gets it, but it’s not gonna hurt the plant and it doesn’t really matter what colored tissue you use. If the plant gets wet and your tissue bleeds, it can stain your leaves, and so if you’re shipping a really because it’s just, you know, kind of water-based colorant in the end, the colored, so if you’re shipping any like, say, a really beautiful, active area or something that you, you know, staining the leaves, we’ve kind of almost ruin it then should be white is really ideal. If you’re shipping something that’s bone dry, and that’s not, you know, gonna, it’s not really gonna bother, you know? If a tiny little bit of blue tissue wound up on the underside of a few of these, you know, it wouldn’t really matter and so, um, in fact, it might be kind of it might just kind of blend in with the plant, and you might not even hardly believe and notice it and so, but for the most part. I like to use white tissue, but sometimes it’s really fun. When you’re shipping someone plants to, you know, put the outside like the first one in white and then the outside in a in a different color just to make it fun and colorful and I love stuffing the colorful tissue at least at the top of the boxes, so I try and keep a little bit of colorful stuff around the base. Any excess dirt out. All right now, before you wrap it all the way up which I’ll just go ahead and show now instead of waiting until I box them up. You, of course, want to make sure that they have a label with them and not all sellers do this. You know, it kind of it kind of depends, but it’s really nice when everything is labeled and wrapped up with a label and so taken, you know, just you can get these kind of tags, just really flimsy little tags that are really inexpensive. You can use old mini blinds and cut them up when I had my first nursery business like 15 years ago and sold wholesale to nurseries. I that’s that’s what I used. As tags was old mini blind mini blinds that you just cut up and use. You know, the little plastic strips as tags before. I started ordering my tags and then I started ordering them all from this company here, and it’s an amazing company that has just beautifully printed tags and the and the names and everything and care and whatnot on them, which is awesome, but you have to order really large quantities of these tags. You know, each variety. I don’t remember if it’s you know, a thousand or five thousand tags of each kind, so I don’t. I didn’t always do that, and nor do I now, but eventually I may order some more of these, but for now, most of my guys, if I’m shipping. Have you know something like this or just a piece of paper? I’ve written with if I happen to run out of tags or something. I try and always include add their names, but occasionally I forget, especially if it’s a gift, so I just lay them in here. However, they’ll fit just kind of before. I wrap it up like this now. If you’re trying to ship in as small of a box as possible, this isn’t super efficient, but you can. You can crinkle this pretty pretty tightly and still hold it over the top. You can always cut excess off as well and use it for stuffing around in your in your box for packing, depending on what size of the box you’re shipping in, Alrighty? I think I’m gonna wrap this next one up Off-camera because it’s just the same as the others. And then I’ll show you wrapping up the Lysia because it’s gonna be just a little bit different, and I will be back in just a minute. Alrighty, so for this guy here, I am going to wrap it with plastic. Wrap first, so I’m just going to take a little a little square because this one, I want to stay slightly damp on the trip because you can see its bloomin right here. Isn’t that beautiful? And it’s got so many big, healthy roots here, and they’re all exposed and I just want it to be happy like I. Wrap the plastic very similar to the tissue. Just try and cover as many of the routes as possible, just bunching it up all around the outside, then after that’s done and when you’re shipping a single, you know, rosette type plant like this or a echeverria or some provide them. You know, in anything. That’s this shape. They’re much much easier because you can grab them a lot easy easier around the base because there’s a single plant and it’s easier to gather the tissue around the edges. It’s easier to tie it. The whole thing is just a bit easier, so the outside of this. Luis, yeah, I’m gonna use a colored piece of tissues and side with white so everything that’s directly next to the plant will be white, but this is a dirt code plant, even if it happens to Leach a little bit on the plant, the color. I don’t think you would know to set it. All on these guys. And it’s not moist enough to be to be leaking weakened colors. Anyways, when tied up like this. If it didn’t have the saran wrap, possibly all right and so with this guy since it’s blooming, we can use the tissue paper and kind of fold it over. The main leaves here, so that’s. The majority of the excess is by the balloon, and then we can wad these guys around the bloom and just insulate it in so that it’s much much less likely. And you can even tape this part right up here if you wanted to, or which? I think this is what I’ll do. I’m just gonna tie another piece of string. Just gently hold this up around the blossom stock so that it doesn’t get broken. Just really, really gently, all right and was this guy? I didn’t want to tuck a tag in here with him because it’s too big and bulky, and it would have dug into the plant, So I’m just going to tuck it into the back. String here, all right. I’m going to grab a box and we’re gonna box these guys up. Alrighty, so I got a box here. All ready to go and I’m going to put the whiskey in first. This is the only one that I’m not gonna put it straight up and down because the bloom is just too tall. Oops, not a lot of focus here. I’m gonna lean the camera. Well, actually, no. I’m gonna want it down. Are they all right, so then the other ones? You have quite a lot to give. As long as you know which direction you’re going, you know, as long as you’re squeezing against the soil, that’s on the bottom. You can weight them fairly tight, and as long as you know that your you know, your plants are fairly short, you can compress this top tissue, just fine without hurting them at all, and this will protect the bloom and just kind of pad the whole thing so that it doesn’t rattle around and just bang and bruise and stuff like that, cuz. We don’t want that so. I like my boxes packed quite tight, and I will touch some other stuff down in there before I wrap it up. So there you go, That’s how I wrap up a lot of plants. Even bare root plants. I end up wrapping very, very similar. I wrap the I don’t. I don’t tie them as much, but I wrap the root up in tissue and kind of just wrap it around and then have kind of the excess bunching around whatever the plant that I’m shipping is like this, and it works really well for me. The you know, a lot of people roll it, and for things like lips and stuff. This is, you know, this is way excess. Obviously you can just kind of almost throw those in an envelope and mail them. They’re so tough, but for plants like this and more leafy succulents and things like that, this is how. I ship a lot, so I hope that was helpful. I hope you’re all having a fantastic week. I will talk to you soon. I have to run. Get this box all ready to be mailed for the excited owner of these new plants. Talk to you soon and happy growing.