Shipping & Freight
We do our best to ship orders within 1-5 business days from when you place your order if your zone is ready for the plants ordered (in April and May, we could be up to a week behind!). We may delay shipment to accommodate extreme temperatures or Holidays, and will also delay the timing of a shipment if requested to. Live plant and snail orders are shipped Monday through Wednesday for arrival by Friday to ensure that products arrive in good condition and are usually shipped FedEx express. Hardgoods orders can ship Monday through Friday regardless of transit and zone. We ship to the 48 contiguous states via FedEx (not to Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico). FedEx requires a physical address, and will not ship to a PO Box.
Bog and shallow water plants may be shipped either bare root or in small pots, depending on the variety, time of year, and current inventory.
Hardy waterlilies are shipped as rhizomes (tubers); in Spring and Summer they are shipped with several of the newest leaves and often buds, while in late Fall and Winter will usually have a small reosette of submerged leaves. Tropical waterlilies may be preordered, and start becoming available to ship in mid-April through Summer; different varieties become available at different times, depending on the cultivar.
Lotus are shipped as dormant tubers or as healthy runners in Spring and Summer only; preorders may be placed in Fall and Winter. Preordered lotus tubers are normally shipped around the time of the customer's last average frost date.
Plants that tolerate cold better can be shipped earlier, while heat loving plants that don't tolerate cold may be held until a couple weeks after the customer's last frost date. The order will generally be held until all plants can be shipped together.
Plants may have foliage removed for economy of shipping, and also because a bare root plant cannot support much foliage and must be cut back to remain healthy. Plants that go winter dormant may often still be purchased; please understand that these are small but established plants, and dormant plants will probably not have any foliage.
We do our best to get your order to you as quickly and as healthy as possible!
Please note that we are not responsible for your plant selection, or determining when they should be shipped. Customers should familiarize themselves with the requirements of the plants and animals they are ordering, so they know their needs and are prepared to accommodate them. We try to give a lot of information about what plants need in their descriptions, but there are vastly different growing conditions in different parts of the country, as well as microclimates even within a single back yard. Some customers have heated greenhouses, some plants will be grown inside, etc. If you want your order shipped early please make a note on your order; you will be responsible for their safety against cold while in transit and after they arrive. (Tropical waterlilies can't be shiiped early because they need time to grow for us!)
Plant Guarantee:
Our plants are guaranteed to be healthy when shipped. We are not responsible for delays in shipping, plants left in the sun on the front porch, damage from fish, mishandling after delivery, etc. If you have an issue, please contact us within 48 hours and include photos; we will work with you to resolve the issue.
Note: We usually wait until all plants are available until shipping. If you would like us to break your order into more than one shipment, let us know; there will be a shipping charge for each shipment.