If I ship my sedum Autumn Joy cuttings and it takes 4 or 5 days to be delivered, do they need to be in soil or can they just be loose in the box without soil or water?

Hi Sue, to All Things Plants!

Autumn Joy Sedum - Sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile 'Herbstfreude') is a succulent like plant and I don't think the cuttings would need to be in soil for shipping but I wouldn't just place them loose in a box where they'd be moving around because of the probability of broken stems during transit. I'd gently wrap the cuttings in paper towels and then in newspaper, taping the paper towels and newspaper to enclose the cuttings.

Now, I have to admit that I've never shipped Autumn Joy cuttings but I have shipped other plants and cuttings in this manner and it's worked just fine.

Sue.

with Lin.

Thank you Lin and Chelle! I appreciate the great advice.

It should be fine, I would put those cuttings in toilet paper tubes or aluminum foil tubes, to further hold them down during shipping if possible, then cushion with crumpled paper/newspaper in the shipping box.

Thanks Tarev, what a terrific way to recycle toilet paper tubes!

Wow, that is a beautiful photo Sue!

Thanks Lin! That is one of my Autumn Joys from last September.

Well, it sure is a great photo and I hope you don't mind that I moved it to the database.

Oh fun! What is it listed under?

Stonecrop (Hylotelephium spectabile 'Herbstfreude')

Yes, it's in this group of photos in the database: Sedum (Hylotelephium spectabile 'Herbstfreude')

Edited to say: "Autumn Joy" is a common name for this plant.

I'm pretty sure that it's darn near impossible to kill 'Autumn Joy' -- I had some trimmings that I didn't want to throw in the compost (or anywhere else) because I knew they would just root, so I put them in a bucket and left them in the greenhouse over the course of the summer, figuring the heat would kill them... NOT! Finally just put them in a bag in the garbage... really don't need sedum (as much as I love them) spreading throughout the woods...