Plant Queen

Buying Online

Pearls and Jade Pothos. Left day received. Right 3 weeks later.

During this “stay at home” period I have recently entered the world of purchasing plants online. It’s been about a month since my first online purchases and I’d like to share what I have learned so far.

Where to buy:

So I have now bought plants online in a couple different ways. Sellers from Facebook groups and online plant nursery’s are the most common so I will share my experience from both.

I joined several plant purge groups on Facebook and quickly got sucked into the decent prices and such. Plant Purge USA seems to have the most reputable sellers. Purges themselves can move really quick and I personally can’t keep up, so I usually go behind and see what is left over. You can also make a post saying that you are in search of a particular plant or plant type or just anything and seller can comment their available plants on your post. I have purchased four plants now using these groups and have been pretty pleased so far.

Keep in mind with these groups that although the prices are smaller, their are some disadvantages. The most obvious one is shipping. I will get more into the logistics of shipping later, but you do have to account for shipping in the price. Which in some cases makes a purchase like cuttings not worth the $10 shipping fee because it takes a $3 purchase to $13 for something that may not even root. I personally am not big on buying cuttings anyways, but that’s my opinion. Many of these sellers also ship bare root or partial bare root to try to save you on shipping, but it comes with its own issues.

There are some websites that have very good reputations for plant selling. I personally have used gabriellaplants.com and was super pleased with not only the plant I got but the customer service as well. It is a family owned nursery in Florida and from what I have heard and seen they pride themselves on providing good customer service and the best products they can. I will most definitely be purchasing from them again.

Another site that has a good reputation is planterina.com. Amanda from Planterina is one of my favorite YouTubers to watch and learn from, so definitely check her out. I have yet to purchase from Planterina. Their plants tend to be on the pricier side, however, they include shipping in the price and there is typically multiple options and pots for each plant. I believe you pay for quality and from the reviews I’ve seen, the price point reflects the quality of the product.

I am currently waiting on two plants from Pigment. So I will likely edit this post after I receive the package. From the reviews I’ve seen customers are happy with the plants they receive. Right now Pigment is a bit behind on shipments, so if you do order from them be aware that you may have to wait a couple weeks before your plant ships. They won’t charge you until the day your plant ships and they have been responsive to my questions on Instagram.

My biggest piece of advice is read reviews, look for comments about people who have purchased from a seller before, and be cared of super low prices. You’re paying for the quality of product and most of these are smaller businesses that don’t mass produce plants.

Plant Mail!

There are two main ways to ship plants and as a buyer I want to break them down for you. The first is in pot which is pretty straightforward and the second is bare root/partial bare root.

In pot shipping is, in my opinion, the easiest on the plant to ship. Shipping a plant in general is not easy on the plant. At least with in pot shipping, the plant is in the pot and had a bit more stability to help it through the shipping process.

Bare root or partial bare root can be a bit more of a shock to a plant. Shipping bare root means that the seller removes the plant from its soil and packages it without pot or soil so the plant can go into a smaller package making your shipping charge smaller. Most sellers will wrap the roots in a damn paper towel and then another layer of protection. Often they will protect the foliage as well if possible. Partial bare root is similar but you may have some soil on the roots as well. You will also have to have soil and a pot ready for the plant when it arrives so make sure you have the proper materials for this.

I want to be clear, any kind of shipping is very stressful for a plant. It’s going from a life in fresh air and light to in a dark box getting bounced around for several days, and sometimes without soil or a pot. Expect that when you receive your plant that it likely may not look perfect. It may look a little limp or shriveled and some foliage may be torn or broken off. Don’t panic. Unless the plant went through a wood chipper you can likely save it.

Any damage to the plant should be reported to the seller, not necessarily for a refund unless it’s blatantly packaged poorly. Keep in mind that in many cases, this is that sellers business and reputation and they likely didn’t send you a plant in poor health. Inform the seller what happened and ask them if they’d be willing to help you get the USPS Priority Insurance refund that is included in your shipping fee. I’ve seen differing opinions on the best way to handle this just don’t go into it angry. We all want to receive the perfect plant, but with shipping things can happen.

Lastly, if you plant looks sad and stressed when you receive it you need to give it time to adjust. Like I mentioned above, it is very stressful on a plant to ship for a variety of reasons. It depends on the plant, but I have found that they take about 2-4 weeks to really get adjusted and you can truly see the plant you purchased. Any plant you purchase, even in store, takes time to adjust, but shipped plants in particular need longer.

Pictured at the top in my Pearls and Jade Pothos. The left photo is when she arrived about 3.5 weeks ago and the right photo is her now. You can see on the left that she is very smushed and gathered in on herself from being shipped (she was shipped bare root). In the three weeks she took to adjust she dropped a couple of leaves and experienced a little discoloration on a leaf or two. Now she has spread out and her new foliage is beginning to unfurl. She just needed time.

Stromanthe Triostar 4 weeks post shipping.

My Triostar Eeep is 4 weeks post shipping and was shipped bare root as well. She didn’t drop leaves but did get some discoloring. She is a prayer plant, so it’s taken some time to see her get into the pattern of her leaves moving when they are supposed to.

Buying plants online has its pros and cons. In the current climate it may be safer to buy online than to risk going out and getting plants from stores. Just do your research and be prepared for the risks of shipping plants.

Happy plant buying!!!

Plant tour!

Here is a short tour of the plants I have in my house. I’ve been spoiling them during this quarantine! Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I tried to give a little information about each of them.

All the Plants

Introducing: Monica the Red Prayer Plant

At first glance this plant may not seem super thrilling. I know she didn’t when I first saw her. Her foliage has kind of a peach fuzz on them that almost makes them look dull. However, hanging in Lowe’s, her tag read “Red Prayer Plant”, which I hadn’t come across in my research, and it said my favorite words “low light” and “water when soil is dry to touch,” so I picked her up.

What I didn’t know when I picked her was how enthralled I would become with this plant. A friend told me when I told her that I had picked a Prayer plant that their leaves folded up at night. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant at the time but I figured it out quickly. The first day I genuinely thought I was crazy. The movements of the plant were subtle at first as she adapted to her new environment on top of me mantle. As the days past the movements became more significant and I was amazed. During the day her foliage would fold down, almost to the point that if you didn’t know better you’d think something was wrong with it. At night, however, her leaves will rise and point to the sky (ceiling) like “hands in prayer.” This is called Nyctinastic movement, which I will explore further in a later post.

Because I was unsure of how I felt about her at first, I wasn’t sure what to name her. I had already named a couple of my plants before I named her. I finally decided on the name Monica. I’m sure it has something to do with my love of the show “Friends,” but she just looks like a Monica.

I am pleased to introduce you all to MONICA!

Gettin’ Some Plants

I recently decided that I wanted plants. It was a random thought really, like one decides they want ice cream. It was a craving almost. I didn’t buy them right away, I waited about a week and did some research. I was very aware of the fact that I have not had plants in the past and I wanted very low maintenance plants to take care of.

I talked to a friend that has a lot of plants and she gave me some good recommendations. I just had to wait until I got paid. So I decided that I definitely wanted four plants max. I was leaning towards at least one snake plant and others that didn’t need frequent watering or sunlight (the lighting in my house is odd).

After I got paid I made a plan to go to Lowe’s Home Improvement and get my plants.

Lowe’s had a pretty decent selection of plants in the store. I won’t lie, it was a lengthy process picking these plants. I really second guessed myself and got really picky. Just imagine seeing a 23 year old woman walking around this block of plants picking up plants and sitting them back down for 30 minutes.

The first plant I picked was a large snake plant. They had several different types of snake plant but I knew I wanted at least one large one so I waded through and found a really healthy one that I liked.

After I got the large snake plant I decided that I wanted a smaller snake plant in my room. So I picked out a smaller sized snake plant that had some cool twisty leaves.

The next 2 were much harder to pick. I wanted to stick to my budget and I also didn’t want to get another big plant. So factoring in all my plant requirements, it limited my options. I ended up finding two plants that were hanging that were really cool. A Golden Pothos and a Red Prayer plant. They both require little sun and don’t need to be watered frequently. I loaded them in the cart and then headed to find what else I needed including some potting soil and plant food.

So that is how I got my plants. I am really excited to begin my plant journey and hope you enjoy reading about my slight obsession with them. Hope I can keep them alive.