First off, sorry for the extremely shitty picture. lol. I had opened the box quickly while my 1 year old was running around the den unattended. 🙃

So, this is my 9th order from MCG. I’ve seen a lot of shipping issues and poor plant health from them in a few reviews lately. I was honestly dreading what they’d look like when I opened the box, as I was worried something had begun to go downhill at MCG lately.

Plants are overall fine. And I was fairly impressed with the packaging this time. The Hoya was actually fully wrapped in shipping paper, which fully contained the soil.

Hoya: seems dehydrated but should bounce back.

Sedum red wriggle: saddest plant, hope it pulls through, I am considering asking for a replacement as I know their customer service is amazing and they’ll honor it without a second thought

Sedum spathifolium: best condition of the lot. Looks great.

Kalanchoe daigremontiana x2: first off, this was an amazing find. Ever since I started following and ordering from MCG, they’ve never had this species. And while likely a huge coincidence, I did request this species a while back on a survey they sent me. lol. Anyways. They do look sad, but being completely honest, they look just like the pictures on MCG’s site. I expect them to perk up and be fine before too long.

The jade was my bonus “mystery” plant. My jades all died last summer, so a happy surprise. :) it’s also in very good health.

Packaging: same as usual, shredded paper packing material to hold down the plants, and packing peanuts to fill the excess space. I’m not a huge fan of all this, but it generally does a fine job at keeping the plants secured. I did order a heating pack to be safe, and it was still warm when I opened the package. The 2 Kalanchoes were wrapped in packing paper, to help protect them. The 2 sedums and the jade were “loose” in the shredded paper. As I said above the Hoya’s pot was fully wrapped to contain the soil, and the foliage was very carefully wrapped for protection as well.

All in all, I’m pleased with this. I think sometimes they push out plants before they’re really in great condition to sell, and I wish they’d give an open to ship bare root, or cuttings for all of the plants. I will say, I’ve come to expect plants from them that may be low key sad. And, that may not be okay for some, but it’s fine with me. With grow lights or sun, they always bounce back.

My takeaway review, as a repeat customer:

Pros:
-Quick shipping. They pack and ship plants on Mondays Or Tuesdays. My plants shipped out Monday and came Wednesday. I did not order expedited shipping, just standard.
-Great customer service, if needed.
-Generally a pretty good selection of species.

Cons:
-They ship in soil.
-They sometimes water plants before shipping. Mine seemed dry, but I know others did not have the same experience.
-Plant health can be poor upon receiving.