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Shipping Helis in the Winter?

CorneliusSchrute

A leuco by any other name would still be as glutto
I am thinking about trying some Heliamphora, but wonder if I should wait until spring to have some shipped to me. Do they do alright being shipped with the threat of cold?
 
I just received a helis and highland plants order(8 plants) from wistuba, all the plants are healthy, with no thermal box. The average temps was -5C. So for me, yes you can. Just ask for a isolated thermal box, it will help.
 
Good to hear from you on this, Maiden! Congrats on the new plants, too.
 
Corey,

Just a heads up, if you are looking for helis this winter I have to recommend mikewilder on here. He ships them in a small cooler, and they are beautiful. I recently received some up in here in snowy cold Buffalo NY and they survived the trip stunningly, in fact it was about a month ago, and I already have new pitchers growing. He has a website, but I forgot the link, you can probably Google it, but its just pictures, I'd contact him through here. But he is a rock star when it comes to shipping helis.

Anyways, just my two cents.

--Paul
 
The USPS usually keeps the packages inside & warm, but last year I lost a few X-mas arrivals due to a large winter storm that swept across the midwest. You should be in the clear, but IMO it doesn't hurt to add in a 72 hour heat pack for $1 just incase.
 
The USPS usually keeps the packages inside & warm,

I did an experiment that proved that is not true..
about 4 or 5 years ago I did a survey on shipments of photo paper for Kodak, my employer at the time.
The goal was to test the temperature inside trucks going across the country, in the winter, but USPS was also part of the chain.

I put a temperature sensor on a pallett of rolls of photo paper, to record the temp on the whole trip..
(the trucks going out were *not* USPS.they were a private trucking line..we wanted to test the temps inside those trucks,
they were supposed to be heated to a certain minimum temp..if they werent, it could effect the paper emulsion)

The temp sensor recorded the temp every minute, and had the capability to record for a week.
The pallett was loaded into a truck in Rochester, NY, and headed out to Colorado.
When the truck arrived in Colorado, the temp sensor was removed, still operating, and put in the US mail, to ship back to me in Rochester.
I knew the time the sensor was placed in the mail..all dates and times were recorded as part of this test.
This was done multiple times, probably 20 to 30 times, over the course of several months..

because I knew the time the sensor was dropped in a mailbox, to travel via USPS back to me, I could track the temps
while it was in the care of USPS..result? really really cold! most of the time, USPS packages are exposed to the cold in the winter.
they do *not* keep packages inside and warm, for the most part..I dont think their larger trucks are heated at all.

Scot
 
Priority mail can get loaded into aircraft and not all the cargo pits are heated. Only the ones for live animals are heated. There is some heating from the air pressure system and waste heat from the avionics as the cabin air is shared but normally there is no additional heating.
 
The 18 wheeler semi trucks which take mail from the airport / sorting annex to your local post office do not have heated trailers (I used to load and unload them at my old job) and the rear of local post-office mail-carrier trucks are also not heated. My mail man knew I was a CP and orchid collector so he didn't put my live plant boxes on his delivery truck in winter because the trucks were too cold, he would just bring me a note saying to pick up my package at the post office. They were still exposed to cold the whole time until they reached my PO but at least he made the effort. Of course, he could only do that with boxes that had "Live Plants" declared on them. Despite this I still had some losses in winter so now I don't order or ship plants from November through April.

On a side note: Bachmanns Floral / office plant delivery trucks are also not heated or air conditioned, you'd think a plant leasing company would know better... LOL
 
  • #10
An illuminating conversation has developed here. I have wondered just what conditions were in transit: thanks for the heads up, gang!
 
  • #11
Personally, I don't ship Heliamphora unless I know I have 5 continuous days of above freezing temps.., I know what loading docks are like, stuff can be left sitting anywhere, especially around the holidays.

FWIW, Wistuba shipments are probably over till April
(of course depending on what you're wanting, domestically there is Mike, David, et. al.,)
 
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