Shipping costs
We no longer offer “add to an order” postal rates.
UK
we now charge a % of order cost with a minimum of £4.65. Smaller orders for one or two bulbs, such as Crocus, benefit from these lower postal costs. The postal cost also covers all shipping charges when we have to split an order which includes both early- and late-ripening items. We only use signed-for post, a tracking option is also available and offered at the time of checkout. Royal mail send tracking advice to your email address and, if you enter it, to your mobile number. We do not use mobile numbers for any other purposes.
We send signed-for but tracking is NOT included unless you request and pay for this at the time of ordering.
EU
Plants entering the EU now require a health certificate which has added considerable costs, not only for the issue of the certificate, but for the inspection visits, crop examinations and pre-export checks. Export charges are 30% of order value, with a minimum charge of £65.00 and a maximum cap of £295. We now send to you from within the EU so that there are no extra import or tax costs.
Signed-for delivery and tracking is included within our despatch charge. There is no untracked option available.
Rest of World
(Japan, U.S.A. Switzerland etc.) Our despatch charge is based on an order % with a minimum charge of £70.00 and a maximum cap.
The charge includes packing materials, export packing, meticulous export cleaning (which takes a considerable time), packer’s time and includes air-postage. It also includes the (high) cost of health (phytosanitary) certificates. Please also be aware that import costs may be imposed by your own customs
Signed-for delivery and tracking is included within our despatch charge. There is no untracked option available.
The health certificate comprises not just the physical piece of paper but also extra paperwork and form-filling. Qualification for us to obtain these is a year-round process of soil inspections, plant-health checks, growing-season inspections and export certification. The two main annual inspections cost us close on £360 per hour (2022). Actual pre-export inspections by our health inspector to issue the phytosanitary certificate also costs us £360 per hour plus £360 per hour for the inspector’s travelling time. In addition to the costs of the checks, inspections and visits to issue certificates we pay £27 for each certificate itself (2022).
As you can see, getting your certificate isn’t cheap. We have to cost-in three, annual inspections of soil and growing plants, our pre-export cleaning, packing, packing time, tracked and signed-for air-postage and pre-export examination plus issuing the actual certificate. We have looked at our 2022 costs and to be economical and continue exporting our minimum despatch charge is now £65 per order.
To keep our costs down and keep our charges to you to the lowest level possible, we pool export inspections and get as many as possible certified within one visit. This in turn means that inspections are no more frequent than once a month and so there may be a delay in getting export orders off to you, depending on when we have an inspection scheduled and when your order arrives. We ask for your understanding on this.
Time in transit
Time in transit is beyond our control. It depends on the speed of the postal service. For overseas customers the degree of intervention by the customs authorities in your country needs to be allowed for also. As a rough guide the plants usually reach USA and Japan within 5-8 days. We forward packets to the EU. (3-5 days) thereafter transit time is longer for France, Italy, Poland and Sweden, less for Germany. Further destinations usually reach you 8-12 days after they arrive in the EU. Exceptionally it may be less or longer than this. Some countries are better than others but it is beyond our control. The USA is currently much slower than anywhere and two weeks seems to be the best you can expect due mostly to customs intervention.
Despatch time
Initially PLEASE check the information displayed with every species in your order. This indicates when plants are dormant and when you might expect the despatch period to be. The plants for an order placed in June may not be dormant until October. This is not us being slow or forgetting you, it depends on the dormancy of the plants!
Autumn despatch does not usually begin until September when most of our bulbs are dormant. Some items such as Lilium, Paeonia and some Paris and Trillium are not ready until late-October. They just do not die down before that.
Spring despatch lasts from (January) February to March (perhaps April for some things). We only send when the weather seems unlikely to freeze. Tender items such as Pleione are not sent until we can be sure that they will not be frozen in transit. Sorting offices may be warm and heated but delivery vans, postal sacks and mail-boxes are not!
Postal carrier
Shipping is by letter post. We use air-mail letter post for overseas customers. Packages pass to your own postal service once they enter your country. In all cases, delivery is to your door. We do not, at present, use courier services.
Tracking
We have made signed-for, tracked post our only option.
Signed-for is meant as an assurance that your parcel isn’t left on a doorstep and is actually delivered, even though the postman can sign for it and leave it! ( did we miss something here)? Please note that “signed for” delivery is NOT insurance.
Packing materials
We ship in small strong cardboard boxes.
* “Damp” packing is in moistened coco-peat and polythene.
* “Dry” packing is in paper bags with, or without, wood shavings.
Orders for multiple bulbs will be packed together in the same bag, please open and count these before complaining of a shortage!
Plants are packed to survive a journey of at least 4 weeks without damage.
For export to some countries (such as Australia) it is not possible to use some of these materials, in which case we will send washed-root plants in polythene bags or we will wrap the plants in damp paper, if this is permissible. We are aware of the limitations on some materials to some countries and all such packing materials and regulations for your country are checked by our plant health inspector before despatch.