An unfortunately timed order from an excellent company

I have been on the lookout for Amorphophallus bulbifer for a little while now. Last year I tried ordering seeds from a Canadian company and it was a failure, the seeds that needed to be sown fresh were dry an useless. Giving up any hope of finding it available in Canada I turned my search south, and found Gardino Nursery (aka Rare Flora). After emailing them back and forth with various questions (and here’s the unfortunate part) waiting until we were safely into warm weather for shipping, I placed my order. And not just the Amorphophallus species I had been looking for, others, Amorph and otherwise. Plants I’d never heard of but suddenly needed to have.

Well, it just so happens my order was shipped the day before (roughly) the Canadian mail strike started. Another day or two and the package would have been turned away by the USPS, a day or two earlier and I’d have had my box in about 5 days. But no, from June 13 to July 14th these plants sat in a box, somewhere between Florida and here, slowly going downhill.

Imagine my surprise then today when I opened a box I expected to hold a bunch of dead plants, maybe some rotted cuttings, I didn’t know what to expect but I was prepared for the worst. The first bag I opened and…

Huernia schneideriana

Wait. This doesn’t look like something that’s been in a box for a month. I decided to grab the other bags, I figured the Amorphophallus species would be fine too (Not all of these are mine, A. paeoniifolius, the duplicate A. bulbifer and H. schneideriana cuttings are for a friend with excellent taste in plants).

Amorphophallus paeoniifolius

Amorphophallus atroviridis

Amorphophallus bulbifer

Sinningia tubiflora (The tuber is a little soft but just might be fine anyway.)

Well, I was feeling pretty happy so far, things looked great. I didn’t expect much from the potted plants though.

Polianthes tuberosa ‘The Pearl’ – salvageable. Some new growth under that mess too. The white seems to be new growth that happened in the box.

Hoya nummularioides – Actually not bad. I have seen this described as drought tolerant. This is apparently very true. Better than I hoped it would look.

Hoya australis ssp. australis ‘Brookfield’ – I was more concerned with this one and even though there’s only one good leaf I’m hoping it’ll recover for me.

Kaempferia pigmea – This looked like an empty pot until I cleared away the packing material and found it trying to grow.

And that was it. Everything looked fairly alive after a month in a box. I also found the customer service from Gardino excellent, and they definitely did a good job packing everything and they certainly have a good selection of plants. If it weren’t for the phyto and high shipping costs I’d certainly order from them again, and would encourage anyone in the States to check them out if you’re looking for something interesting.