Buying plants online is like buying the perfect pants online. Unfortunately, you won’t always come across a great-looking piece with a good composition that will stay with you for years.
However, this does not change the fact that this way of acquiring plants has recently become extremely popular, especially if you want to buy unique and sometimes collectible potted plants. However, it is important to follow a few rules so that these purchases do not turn out to be a complete flop and a waste of money.
This is one of the more popular forms of shopping at the moment. In the past, it was possible to buy mainly clothes or industrial goods over the Internet. Nowadays, especially after the pandemic, it is one of the primary forms of purchasing items, groceries, as well as flowers. There is nothing surprising about this. It’s a simple, fast and convenient way, when with a few clicks we can choose and buy the products we are interested in without leaving home and standing in long lines.
The first and basic thing we need to pay attention to when looking online for our dream plants is the store where we intend to shop. This is where the opinions of previous customers, online forums or Facebook groups come to our aid. Often our satisfaction or disappointment depends on the choice of the store, as the ordered plants may be improperly prepared and packed for travel, arrive with a long delay (which can be murderous especially for species that like high levels of soil moisture), we may also receive sick seedlings with parasites or find in the shipment something completely different from the ordered plant.
The Internet provides us with many options when it comes to choosing species and types of plants. This is the best place to buy unique specimens with unique colors, for example. However, we must remember that not every species will stand up well to transportation. Those with delicate stems or leaves during the journey may become irreparably damaged, which will later lead to the death of the plant.
The timing of purchases is also important. In general, it is not advisable to buy plants online when there are bad weather conditions outside, and here we mean especially the issue of temperature. In winter or early spring, the flowers we buy (especially warm-loving ones) may not survive transport. The same will be true of transporting them in summer during hot weather.
According to consumer law, when buying online we are entitled to 14 days to return an unsatisfactory product, including plants. Unfortunately, in practice this is sometimes difficult. Refusal to return on the part of the store may arise in the case of perishable products or citing negligence on our part (here, for example, improper watering of plants). Again, it will be important to reconnoitre online and check reviews, especially negative ones. We will get an idea of how a particular store deals with the issue of possible returns and how the owner approaches them. Remember, however, to use common sense. Flattering comments may be sponsored posts, while negative ones may have been posted by competitors, for example.
main photo: pexels.com/RODNAE Productions
