When you buy hostas via mail order, they come with the dirt completely washed off the roots.
Wrap in a moist paper towel, then wet newspapers, then plastic wrap.
Then, wrap the entire plant in dry newspaper... kinda roll it up inside. This will help keep the foliage in tact.

plastic is the Antichrist of shipping live tissue.. IMHO ... when plants are wrapped too tightly in it.. it restricts air and traps heat ... be careful with it ...

the post office used to give away or sell boxes ...

the post office will not take a package that is dripping anything ...

shipping soil is simply weight you will have to pay for ...

august is not best.. shoot for a time when nights are back into the 50's or 60's .... its a much more forgiving time of year ...

priority mail.. which is 2 to 3 days is great... overnight is questionable as to price... unless it is worthwhile to insure success ...

ship on monday or tuesday ... so they will be rec'd that week.. rather than getting trapped in the PO over the weekend ...

if names are important.. take a ballpoint pen.. and write such on the topmost leave .... or a sharpee ....

if its a plant that is dividable ... then send a division or two.. no need to send a whole plant .... smaller is much easier to deal with all around ...

do you know how to wrap a burrito??? ... take two sheets of newsprint ... its basically sterile ... place the plant about 2/3 to one side ...roll once or twice ... then fold the bottom up to the roots .... continue rolling.. secure with masking tape ... water the paper completely dampening it ... and set it aside to dry enough that they are not dripping ... having the box available.. helps folding it into a size that will fit in the box ...

you know enough about plants to know what can be trimmed back ... this isnt pop from the box showtime.. this is shipping plants for fall planting.. so they will look good next year.. have no inkling of sending pretty plants ... all plants should be heavily watered the week before.. so they are full of water.. and ready for the insult ...

take the box .. and lay a household plastic bag into it.. insert all plants and secure it loosely .... enough to trap any moisture.. but not to hermetically seal them ......

do all the above on a sunday ... and put the box .. opened ... in the basement .. monday morning... seal it.. and take it to the post office ....

tape box ... securely ... and deliver to the PO ... on Monday morning ....

on the box.. ask for delivery to the front door.. and to place in shade.. should the recipient not answer the door... no leaving the box on the blacktop for the day ...

hey ... wait a minute.. you have NEVER rec'd a plant mail order???? if you have.. you should have some inkling ...

cant believe i dont have any pix ... go figure on that ...

make any sense???

ken

California still does not have a lot of pests, rampant in the other states, due to restrictions on the shipping of live plants and soil into the state. Mail order nurseries not willing to abide by the rules, decline to ship to California. When an outbreak of a new pest is detected the state agriculture people quarantine the area and launch a eradication program. It is thought many times the pest is brought in by amateur gardeners. Al

I'm not sure how to take your post, Al - ?

To see the Photobucket album on Shipping plants that I made for the Plant Exchange Click Here
The link below is to the actual thread with extra comments by other traders.
Remy

Here is a link that might be useful: Preparing Plants for Shipping Discussion

i think al means you should be concerned if you are mailing to certain west coast states ... IT AGAINST THE LAW ...

you did not mention where you are sending them.. and a quick google will probably allow you to discover if there are any shipping rules to a given state ... and dont even think of shipping to canada ... they are extremely anal about it all ..

not bad on the PB link above ... i would just skip the plastic on the plant itself ... IMHO.. putting the plastic outside the paper works better ...

ken

Shipping to Missouri.

Ken,
The plastic is NOT on the plant. It is around the paper towel on the ROOTS ONLY. You need tight plastic around the damp paper towel on the roots. I've shipped and received many many boxes, and I can tell you this does work best. I've had plants show up dead or almost dead since water was not making a direct contact with the roots.

Remy

your way.. my way.. 6 of this.. half dozen of the other ...

i am not arguing with you.. just pointing out MY preference ....

but i still wouldnt do it in july or august ... mostly because.. unlike a vendor.. i might not have 20 spares around.. should they fail and i want to resend ..

besides the fact.. that it is not the best time of year to be dealing with transplant shock [on top of shipping shock] .. for those peeps whose thumb is not already green ... though we do not know the experience level of mx's friends ...

ken

Ken - please note in my OP that I mentioned I will digging/sending in late August.

I also throw in a small handful (2 tablespoons maybe) of expanded polymeric water holding crystals around the roots before I roll up in wet newspaper. I use more of a diaper technique on the roots, but burrito-like on the last dry newspaper roll to help support the foliage and root package as one entity.

One time when shipping in the heat of summer I added a small blue icepack to keep the box a little cooler. Hard to know how long it lasted.

i would shoot for 2nd week of sept ...but that would just be my choice

the issue is simply whether the plants are stressed .. at digging ... so you dont multiply the stresses..

ken

Thanks for so much valuable information!

I'm still in "learning" mode, and today I'll be working on the list of plants to ship.

I was going to ship on Saturday, not thinking about the plants sitting at the PO office. I didn't consider that. Wow!

I almost made my first disaster.

This is an exciting new task to learn. Not only do we acquire lots of great new species of plants, we also learn more about gardening free! I love this website already. I am telling EVERYONE I know about it.

Thanks and wish me luck on my first trade. I want to make it perfect for the receiver. However, since it's my first trade I'm dividing extras for that just in case they all crock before they are received.

Happy Gardening!

Kat

Here is a link that might be useful: My Exchange List