"Courageous" wrote in message
...

I've ordered from 2 online plant stores, and in both cases, over 75% of
the
plants they sent died, and need to be replaced.

I'm curious. How do they ship them?

In most cases, what they call "bare root". In a nutshell, the plant is
shipped with plastic wrapped around it's wet bare roots, and sometimes paper
towel like stuff that's wet around them.

Muffin's water lettuce literally was shipped the same way.. there was leaf
loss, and many leaves were separated from the main plants, but most of them
seem to be rooting themselves now, and plenty survived the trip.

Anyway, I appreciate that it's difficult.

If it were me, I'd order based on survival odds. At your odds
the price of four equals the price you are paying to get one.
If the price doesn't justify that, then it doesn't.

Yep.. and then you also have to figure how long it'll take for enough plants
to grow to make a difference. Last year, I was shipped WH from someone in
the group.. it grew, but never really took off enough to make a dent in the
green water at all.

(It was growing like gangbuster in her pond.)
That's why I'm amazed that the Water lettuce is doing the job it is doing.

You might Google for your State's invasive species list. Once
you've found it, you may find a plant that will thrive in your
area. Toss up to it being pretty, of course.

Well, the lettuce is taking care of my needs for now. I plan to move some
indoors and attempt to overwinter it, alond with a decent sized elephant
ear. Hopefully, between the both of them, the lillies and the iris in the
pond, next year will go better.

--
Gareee's Homepage:
http://www.fortunecity.com/tattooine.../mainframe.htm

Remove Delicious spam to reply