Trying to Move Cactus from Los Angeles to San Jose

[pone]

I am trying to find a way to move a six-foot high cactus in a pot from Los Angeles to the San Jose area of California. Does anyone know of a California nursery that is making regular runs from Southern to Northern California, who I could pay to haul some extra cargo up north?

[DaveW]

If you take it out of the pot and wash the roots off, wrap it in bubble wrap and tie a couple of timber stakes to it to prevent it breaking you can lay them down and sometimes get them in your car laying from back to front and projecting over the front passenger seat with the seat belt round it to stop it sliding towards the driver.

We even get them into the average UK hatchback cars with the fold down rear seats, let alone your bigger US ones or pickups? I gave a friend a six foot high Pilosocereus which she took all the way from Nottingham UK over the Channel on the ferry and drove across Spain to her place on the Costa Del Sol in her Toyota Land Cruiser. I think I also strapped a length of plastic guttering to it for support on the journey.

Here it is the next year planted in and flowering in Malaga after its journey

Pilosocereus.jpg (56.23 KiB) Viewed 1367 times

[pone]

If you take it out of the pot and wash the roots off, wrap it in bubble wrap and tie a couple of timber stakes to it to prevent it breaking you can lay them down and sometimes get them in your car laying from back to front and projecting over the front passenger seat with the seat belt round it to stop it sliding towards the driver.

The seller in this case has no interest in packing anything. A six-foot Euphorbia with an expansive number of arms is going to weigh easily 250 pounds or more.

Even if we follow your advice, who is driving that car? I am not going to drive 600 miles to pick up one plant. My post was about trying to find the transportation.

[DaveW]

I presumed you were simply moving home yourself and at 6ft high it was single stemmed since you said it was a cactus (a Euphorbia is not a cactus). I don't know about the USA, but if it was packed properly by the sender any transport firm could deliver it here. If the seller will not pack it (obviously doesn't want to be responsible) you have a problem unless you can find somebody who will pack as well as transport it. In the end it could prove a very expensive plant to transport without the risk of damage.

Euphorbia's are the worst, somebody dropped a large multi-stemmed one at one of our shows and it looked as if a milk truck had overturned from all the toxic white latex on the floor, therefore they only have to tip over in transport.

Anyway good luck finding somebody. Euphorbias are not the nicest plants to handle, particularly if they get damaged in transit and the sap gets into a cut or eyes of the people transporting it, particularly in your litigation culture.

My friends journey taking the Cereus (and her dog) from Sheffield to her place in Spain by car is at least 1,500 miles which she does twice a year to take her car over from the UK to the Costa Del Sol and then back here in November and is at least a 22 hour journey both ways. However she stops overnight on the way so it takes longer. But she was going there anyway, so not a special journey.

[mikethecactusguy]

Hey Pone.
The plant will probably weigh around 60lbs. No nursery will take reasonability of a plant that is not theirs. The seller will need to pack it up and send UPS or Fedex. I've shipped a few "large" plants that way. Costs about $60.. You can take it to a UPS store and they will pack it for you. Unpot it as Dave suggests and take it in. That should be easy for the seller. .Or, do a google search for a plant mover.

[pone]

Hey Pone.
The plant will probably weigh around 60lbs. No nursery will take reasonability of a plant that is not theirs. The seller will need to pack it up and send UPS or Fedex. I've shipped a few "large" plants that way. Costs about $60.. You can take it to a UPS store and they will pack it for you. Unpot it as Dave suggests and take it in. That should be easy for the seller. .Or, do a google search for a plant mover.

I am not asking a nursery to do anything. I am trying to find the truckers that the nurseries are using to do transportation between north and south california.

[mikethecactusguy]

whole sale growers transport their own plants. Small orders go FedEx or UPS. Your plant fits into the UPS, Fedex size.