By: Deborah Johnson Wood
A west side entrepreneur has pioneered a method for shipping mature plants and flowers in decorative containers and hanging baskets across the country. His company, Bloomscape, is the first company to sell and ship fully grown plants online.
“People in the horticulture industry are asking why sales are going down,” said Justin Mast, owner of Bloomscape, a virtual greenhouse. “I like to buy things online—and that’s the missing piece of the puzzle.”
Young urbanites often don’t have space to re-pot plants into decorative pots. More often, they don’t have cars to transport plants home.
But how does one ship fully-grown plants undamaged?
Mast and his father, Rick, a greenhouse grower, decided to add fiber to the soil in the pot. Growers ship small “plugs” of seedlings this way, but it had never been tried for mature plants.
Justin grew the plants in the “Fiberhold” soil, sleeved them in plastic, and secured the bottom of the pots to the shipping boxes. Then he shipped them to friends all over the country. He also punted a plant-laden box off the top of a stairway and watched it bounce down the steps.
“I opened it up and had an intact plant in place and thought, ‘Yup, this is gonna work,’” Mast said.
The web site, www.bloomscape.com, launched on April 27.
“You order online, it comes in the mail, you open the box and set out a full plant,” said Mast. “If we can make it this easy for folks they’ll appreciate it.”
Source: Justin Mast, Bloomscape
Deborah Johnson Wood is Development News Editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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