Plant Haul & Review: Planted Roots Co. on Etsy

Plant shopping online can be both exciting and stressful. The thrill of locating a Wishlist Plant can quickly turn to nervous anxiety, as I’m sure most plant parents can attest to after they click the “Purchase” button. Will my plants arrive alive and healthy? How much rehabbing will I need to do? Did I purchase from a reputable and honest vendor? What if it gets lost in the mail? Confiscated by Customs? Run over by a delivery truck?

Ok, ok, so the last one might be a bit overly dramatic (although…you’ll never know). While there’s not much that can be done once your plant purchase gets handed over to the courier service, you can at least ease some of your anxiety by ensuring you make your purchase from good vendors. Every so often in my “Plant Haul” posts, I will provide my opinion of the vendor that I make my purchases from.

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In this blog post, I begin my plant purchasing saga (not kidding about the “saga” part) on Etsy with a vendor called “Planted Roots Co.” in mid-January. They have a very nice rotating collection of uncommon to slightly-rare plants (but you’re probably not going to find a Monstera obliqua here, let’s just be realistic). The prices are decent and pretty affordable.

I found two of my Wishlist Plants here: Ludisia discolor (a jewel orchid that is frequently, but not commonly, found in cultivation) and Alocasia “Pink Dragon.” The prices for each of these were well under $20. The shop also appeared to have excellent reviews and ratings from their customers, so I needed no more encouragement. I had those plants in my cart before you could say “crazy plant lady” (or crazy Botanical Chick?) and smashed that “Purchase” button!

I was expecting the plant within the time frame specified, which was a couple of weeks.

Wellllll, it ended up taking a tad bit longer than that…

After waiting three weeks (now the beginning of February) I sent an email to the shop inquiring about my order. The email was answered promptly (which is usually a good sign with vendors) and I was told that shipping had been delayed for important family matters, which was fine. Sometimes life happens, and that’s entirely understandable. The shop told me that they would get my order out in another week.

“Sure, I’m fine with that,” I said.

Wellllll, it ended up taking a tad bit longer than that…

A month later (now the beginning of March), I send another email inquiry. Generally, I try to be patient and avoid inundating small business vendors with frequent inquiries, but I figured once a month was as long as I was able to tolerate.

My email was answered promptly once again, and I was told that my order would be shipped out later that week and they apologized for the delay.

“Ok, thanks!” I said.

Wellllll…

Yeah, I’m sure you know what comes next…

Finally, at the end of March, when I was just about to write off my order as a lost cause, I received a shipment in the mail! It had been so long that at the time, I was confused about what the package was and why it was addressed to me, as I had not placed an order online for at least two months. But once I saw the shipping label, I was ecstatic!

With all that was said and done, the plants I received were totally worth the wait!

The plants were nicely-wrapped and packaged safely so that nothing flopped around in the long, triangular shipping box. I was a little taken aback at the apparent size of each wrapped plant as I unboxed them.

I was super excited to find this poking out of the top of the wrapped Ludisia discolor! Why hello there!

Upon unwrapping the plants, I was stunned with the size, health and quality of them.

And then the Alocasia “Pink Dragon” was up next! Take a gander at this gorgeous specimen!

How stunning is this plant??? It’s so unique in so many ways: the dark green leaves with stark white veins on the top…the dark burgundy undersides with swirling veins in almost-neon green…the blush pink stems…Wow…Just…WOW.

What impressed me most was the complete lack of shipping damage to either plant. Nary a bent leaf nor a broken stem, no yellowing or wilting in sight, even after being in a box for three days. I unboxed these plants almost two months ago.

Even now, in late May, not a single leaf has dropped. The inflorescence of the Ludisia discolor has finished blooming and is about to senesce. But the leaves are fine and there has been no reaction at all to the shipping process and acclimatization to a new environment. The Alocasia “Pink Dragon” is similarly unfazed. In fact, with the warming temperatures, it has put out a brand new, glossy leaf. Some Alocasias can be very fussy about low humidity, especially indoors, but this particular Alocasia hasn’t given me any indication that it’s bothered by it at all. I would definitely say it’s my favorite houseplant so far. I look at it each day and am still amazed.

In conclusion, I would recommend Planted Roots Co. for their insanely-robust plants. I don’t believe that a two month wait is their standard operating procedure, but I would suggest exercising patience if this happens to be the case. The quality of the plants that they sell are some of the best I’ve ever seen from an online vendor. For me, the wait was worth it.

So what do you think? Would you wait two months to receive a plant? Let me know in the comments below!

Always Keep Growing,

Heather (a.k.a. The Botanical Chick)

THIS POST MAY INCLUDE AFFILIATE LINKS. THAT MEANS I MAY EARN A SMALL COMMISSION, AT NO COST TO YOU, IF YOU CLICK AND MAKE A PURCHASE.