How long can orchids survive in transport?
 

I live in a building with an unlocked front gate. I try to leave it a bit ajar if i know a package is arriving but i can't help it if someone closes it. Of course this means that delivery people who aren't familiar with the house will think it's locked and just leave. This happened multiple times and unluckily it happened today with a delivery of orchids. I know they've been in transport for 2-3 days and as it's the weekend i'm not sure if i can get them until Monday which means 5-6 days in transport.

The plants are:

Monnierara Millennium Magic 'Witchcraft'- She has an pseudobulb so i'm not as worried although any plant is fragile.

Miltonidium Bartley Schwarz - Smaller pseudobulbs as well. Prefers to not dry out too much between watering.

Holcoglossum kimballianum - Bare root as far as i can tell and no pseudobulbs. This one i'm a little worried about since the root tips might dry out.

1 - 2 weeks tops, mostly due to problems with heat or the box being crushed by handlers who are reckless.

The root tips on Holcoglossum kimballianum will be fine unless they were broken off. Shriveling is not a concern at all.

If it has been exposed to a fair amount of heat over an extended period of time, the leaves are the ones that will die.

Thanks so much for that info. That's a relief. I will try to call the post office tomorrow to see where it is!

I have imported bare-root plants that were in transit for over two weeks. They were dehydrated, but an overnight soak in water containing KelpMax reversed that quickly.

I boxed up the potted plants I was moving to NC about December first and they remained that way until a week into January. Got them out, watered them well, and inside two weeks you'd never have known that had been done to them. The S/H plants were in particularly good shape.

So i guess 1-2 weeks isn't a big deal. I'm very new to orchids so to me they seem delicate. It's also gotten cold outside the last two days in NY.

My normal delivery guy who is familiar with me and the building came and delivered the package at 8:30 AM!!!! I know he doesn't usually show up until 10-11AM so i feel like he made a special trip because the package is labeled "LIVE ORCHIDS"

The plants seem fine. The Miltonidium has a wrinkled bulb and looks stressed with her roots completely dried out and...taped up with masking tape to keep the potting medium in the pot?! I was able to wet her roots and slowly pick the roots off the masking tape with only a lost of 4 small pieces of root.

My Monierara appears to be about to go into hibernation which is not unexpected. The bulb is super plump and healthy looking but the leaves are yellowy with a few black spots here and there. I have them isolated from my other orchids and i have to check if these spots are normal. The pot it came in was also soaked. It was soaking through the packaging as well so i'm just going to let him dry out.

The holcoglossum actually came through the best. His roots are healthy and all his leaves are intact and fine. His media was a little damp but not sopping like the Monierara.


THanks guys. I will try to post some photos in a new thread to show them off!

Your best move, especially at times when temperature are potentially too hot or too cold, is to plan delivery to an office, or some place like a UPS store where they can hold for pickup.

I strongly echo what Orchid Whisperer said. Can you receive deliveries at work? Carriers know which are business addresses, so they don't try to deliver to a business during off hours.

You can request to receive UPS delivery by picking it up at a UPS office. You can request to pick up US mail at the post office instead of having them deliver it at your home. If you do this, go to your post office and meet the staff so they know who you are. Explain what you want and ask them how to do it.

I had bare root orchids coming from China and Thailand that travelled 2 to 3 weeks and had my postman in Manhattan just place it in a corner of the apartment lobby and the super had to bring it up to my door after 3 days (this was winter) ….yet the orchid plants survived ....

I do this sometimes if i'm working for an extended period at one place but I freelance so it's not really the best idea. I also work from home and was working from home that day but did not see the delivery person. I had also just received a different package that day and checked to make sure the gate was ajar but someone closed it as it was closed when i left that evening.

Ahhh i ddin't know this. I will look into it.

Wow...that's amazing. I wonder if they go into short state of dormancy to survive such extremes. I've only ordered from U.S. sellers and they've all slapped a huge live orchids! FRAGILE label on the box. All the boxes were in good condition so I'm pretty grateful that ppl take the time to read the big red letters/label.