planted mail order plants - now brown and dried

17 years ago

I recently recieved my order from McFaydens of some daylilies, astilbes and one hosta. The dayliles had sprouted and still look fine a couple days after being planted in the ground. The hosta had sprouted just a little so I planted the whole thing underground. The astilbes however had quite a bit of pale growth from the root and I planted them with this pale growth above the soil line. By the next evening all the astilbes were brown and dried. I know that they did not dry out, and I am hoping that the roots will send up new growth - am I right? Incidently I have a similar problem with some daylilies that I originally planted in fall then I moved them this spring after they had sent up a new green shoot. Now the daylilies look dormant again. Does transplanting them just set them back a bit and I shouldn't worry about killing them quite yet?

Janet

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Comments (6)

Crazy_Gardener
17 years ago
Did you get any frost?

What I usually do with mail order plants that are sprouting is pot them up and plant in the garden later on. This will give them time to get established, adjust to light and temps.

If the roots are heathy, I'm sure they will be ok and send up new growth.

Just in case keep your receipt, McFaydens has a good guarantee policy.

Sharon
sazzyrose
17 years ago
I do the same as Sharon, pot them up. Then I leave them sit in the house in indirect light for a few days before setting outside. If they do not have any leaves yet, I just set the pots outside in the sun.
As far as your daylilies that you moved, they probably are sending all their energy to the roots. In a couple weeks you should see new growth. Keep everything well watered until new growth appears.

Shelley
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Did you plant them as soon as they arrived? I like to give my mail order plants a week in the shade to recover from shipping. If you plant them right away then they are already stressed from shipping, so they have a harder time adapting to a new location. I find it normal to lose flower buds during this and even a few leaves if it was a long trip. Hopefully your plants will recover. But yes, it is easier on the plant earlier in the season during cooler and wetter weather. The cooler temps give the plant more time to grow roots without stressing the leaves as much. I don't find the size of the plant to matter much. The violas that I ordered from Sequim Rare Plants were larger and are doing better than the smaller violas from Bluestone, although I know from experience that the Bluestone plants will catch up if I give them time. Both were shipped within a week or two of each other.
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Jay...more details please? I don't know what nursery you used & have no personal stake in this issue, but would like to know more of the facts. You said: "I used a nursery with a good reputation here and on Gardenwatchdog and received my bareroot plant via USPS in pretty poor condition, wilted with all the leaves falling off. I followed instructions to soak the plant and placed it in a shaded location for recovery. It never did..." How was the plant packaged (was there anything around the roots to keep them from drying out?), how long was the plant enroute to you, other than the leaf conditions (I think dying leaves might be expected on a shipped plant) what was "wrong" with the plant when you received it, you're in zone 6/7 - did you put this plant outdoors & what temps were you having at the time (did you have other brugs outdoors at that time)? In my area, zone 6/7 this early in the year has cold nights and cool days..this would a shock for a plant coming out of zone 9/10 or more than likely, out of a warm greenhouse. All I can tell from the photo is that it appeared to be a well-rooted plant. What condition were the roots in when you received the plant? Bottom line...were you given an inferior plant? Or was there a problem in either the delivery of the plant or the environment you placed it in after receiving it? If a vendor has an established good reputation, they're not likely to be sending out bad plants. Their explanation on the UPS situation seems very logical, not only from the point of the cost of using UPS, but also the impracticality and lack of cost effectiveness in the 50-mile trip required to use UPS. Any time a living organism, whether baby chicks, plants, etc., is shipped there is a risk involved that is beyond the control of the shipper. If they've done everything right up to the point of shipping, they can't be responsible for events that happen after that. What does the vendor's web site say their policy is on plant replacement? Is their response to you in compliance with that policy? While I know I'd be disappointed, I'd have to ask myself "was the vendor truly at fault (sending a 'bad' plant in the first place) or did the problem arise after the plant left their hands?. Also, I think the time to speak up to a vendor on an issue like this is immediately upon receipt of the plant. If it looks bad upon arrival, I'd notify them immediately & advise them on what efforts I was about to make in an attempt to revive the plant. If they know there's a problem at that point, they might weigh a little more in your favor than after you've had it for awhile. I don't mean to sound like I'm taking the nursery's "side" on this issue, but am trying to make observations from a neutral viewpoint. Patrick
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At the risk of sounding like a big idiot, I think that while the many people who advocate potting up baby clems are speaking from a lot of experience, I have to say, there are undoubtedly also those out there who have a lot of experience and say the opposite. I have grown (and killed) my fair share of clems, and I've concluded that in my garden you almost have to really try to kill them if they're planted in the ground, whereas killing them in a pot is way easier. It might depend on your soil, your zone, your latitude, your average rainfall, and most definitely on your style of gardening. If you're the tough love kind of gardener then you might want to put them in a well-tended bed, but if you're a meticulous sort they may do better for you in pots. Under our hot Ozark sun, nothing is really ever safe in pots unless you're there monitoring it all the time. If you put them directly in the ground, they will take a break for awhile (to put down awesome roots), and you may think they are not thriving. It may be next year before you see any real growth, but when they get going, look out. They will not suffer performance-wise from spending their baby days in the ground. It always seems to me that wilt affects the bigger plants that are growing a bit too fast, and don't have the root system necessary to support all that top growth. I have never personally seen a baby clem with wilt. But I have not seen it all, I realize. So, FWIW... When you're just starting out, it never hurts to try it both ways (like all of us seem to have done), and then you'll learn what works best for you in your garden.
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northspruce
17 years ago
This is just my opinion that I keep to myself unless someone asks - but I don't mail order perennials anymore, besides woody ones or those with fleshy/bulbous roots. I have received little peat bags of half-dead roots from McFaydens & other places before, potted them up and they didn't grow. Now I get herbaceous perennials from only nurseries, seed orders and trades. Besides woody/bulbous types already mentioned, that is.

And due to past experience, I don't mail order anything but seeds from McFaydens. Sorry. I hope your plants come through.
Crazy_Gardener
17 years ago
I respect your opinion Gil, but you see, alot of us live in rural areas that don't have access to speciality nurseries like you folks living in the big cities.

I will order live perennial plants, roses, daylilies, Irises from reputable growers that have a good reputation and customer service, I too have had too many bad experiences with shipping live plants from some of the popular mail order businesses on the Internet. I only order rare or unusual that I know I would not be able find locally around here and I will only order from those that have a guarantee policy.

For McFaydens, Veseys, Botanus, companies like that, I've been only ordering bulbs, tubers and rhizome plants too.

Sorry to highjack your thread Janet, hope your plants make it as well.

Sharon
northspruce
17 years ago
Sharon - I agree with you and you know I respect your opinion too :0) I just haven't had any good luck with non-fleshy rooted perennials by mail. I like to order things by seed if I can. BTW I don't get to Winnipeg much anymore and I haven't been to a nursery since last spring. I think the nurseries around here are pretty lame. I actually argued in favour of mail orders in a recent thread, but only for bulbs and woodies in my experience.
plantcompost
17 years ago
There are big 2 gallon pots of astilbes of various sorts on sale at Canadian tire for 5.99. I've put them in our sun room and will keep them there except on warm days and relatively warm evenings until the end of May. Astilbes are one of the few perennials I find fussy and I won't plant from the end of April onwards (as I will with most perennials). I've started to treat astilbes almost as annuals and 'if' they come back , fine. They tend to do better in nothern gardens with warmer nights (as do hostas).

Your daylilies will be fine. The hosta...??...probably fine but I'd keep an eye on it and cover it for the next couple weeks on cold nights if it pops above ground level.

planted mail order plants - now brown and dried

Comments (6)

Crazy_Gardener

sazzyrose

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