The plants arrived alive and were well protected and packaged. The only thing I can say is the shipping was a little slow, but hey, who has control over that these days? They plants were green and looked healthy to me. Of course I did everything wrong and nearly killed all of them, even after I did all the research.They were almost totally black when my sister re-potted them, but they were not dried up crunchy and bulbs and roots looked good to me. So we cleaned them all up and gave it another shot. I'm not exactly a "plant guy" unless you include eating them. I wouldn't recommend eating these, though.This time we used a loose mixture of peat and sand and put them in six inch plastic pots with drain holes on the bottom. We poked holes in the bottom so the ionized water can drain out taking any impurities with it. Then we just poked a hole in the mixture with a pen right to the bottom so the roots can dangle as far as possible. This should avoid root rot. We put the plants in and just pinched the mixture around the bulb at the top to hold it in place and pored ionized water on top bring the loose mixture in around it. My sister put them out on the front steps to let the sun do its' work. I'm happy to say it did the trick. The little rascals are green, red, yellow and sprouting all over the place.
Some final thoughts: I wouldn't consider these fully formed plants, more like seedlings. I was surprised to find they they were not one plant, but several put together to look like one plant. Like a bouquet of flowers to make the impression of a full plant. However, I don't think I would judge them too harshly. This is firstly a "business" and like any other they have to move product out the door or they won't be for long. If this is the case I would say it's pretty damn effective. They looked really good when I got them, and if most of them survive they gave me more than the one plant I paid for. Secondly, maybe this is the way they're supposed to be grown in the wild to protect the survival of species. I'm not the plant guy.
