I might be moving quite a long distance (Los Angeles to Philadelphia) and I was wondering if you all had any tips for moving my succulents. I have about 15 plants of all sorts, most are pretty compact and "tough" but some are more delicate, like String of Pearls and Rainbow Bush. As I see it, I have three choices (but if you know of something else, please let me know): 1) Put them in a properly packed box in the moving van. That could mean up to a week without sun but I could make sure they are put in a safe place and not jostled around. 2) Ship them with Fed Ex or UPS. This would mean only a short time in a box, but who knows how nicely they would be treated during transit. 3) Take them with me on the plane. This would mean the shortest time without sunlight, but would also mean the least secure packing because they would have to be inspected by security personnel.
what time of year will you be moving? if it's during the summer up to early fall, i'd ship the succulents...post office has flat-rate boxes (weight of box doesn't apply) and it's priority mail so would arrive within a couple of days. you can purchase insurance for the plants and you can track the package too. fedex would be about the same on delivery...you can use their 'express saver' service for lower costs...delivery time is 3 days. for the more delicate plants, take them with you on the plane or overnight them. the succulents will certainly survive no watering and being in a box for a few days...the temps are the main issue - if it's going to be under 50 at night in any area the package will be in, then you shouldn't send them...or get a heat pack to include in the box.
Jocelyn--That makes sense (shipping), thanks! It would probably be in late summer or fall. Do you have any advice about packing materials? How do I keep the dirt from flying all over the place?
depending on size of the plants as well as who you'll use to ship, you might want to consider shipping them bare root. (for fedex and ups do bareroot since weight is part of the calculation for fees). if you leave them in the pots, use the large width packing tape to cover the potting medium. it'll take a few pieces, and won't keep all of it in (especially if you have sand in the mix). still it does pretty darn well! i bought plants from a particular seller on ebay...he shipped them potted and i wondered how he was going to do that without losing the medium (since most cacti are in sandy mix). voila! packing tape. i should have taken pics, too, because he did such a good job of it, barely any soil/sand was in the newspaper he wrapped around the plants to cushion any appendages. another ebay seller sent the plants almost bare root...just a little bit of soil/sand and he used a small plastic baggie and a rubberband to hold things together.
Since I just repotted some of the plants I would be shipping, I would hate to take them out of their pots again. I like the shipping tape idea, I think that would work for most of my plants. It sounds like loosely wrapping newspaper around the plants is a good way to protect them from banging into each other?
yes, the newspaper wrapped around the individual plants helps to keep various parts of the particular plant together and maybe a bit compacted to reduce bruising/outright breakage and you can use additional crumpled up pieces as cushioning. properly packaged, the plants will arrive with no damage. when you unpack them, keep them in darker than usual lighting for a week to let them get readjusted after the complete darkness. then gradually, over a couple of weeks, introduce them to more and more light (every four days or so) until they're back in their usual lighting situation. keep in mind, philly has much different lighting (different latitude) than where you are now. so, you'll probably end up keeping them in higher light situations than you had previously and you may not see as much blooming as you do in la...not as hot here either. are you moving to the city or one of the 'burbs? or to nj (right over the bridge from philly)?
