Leaving Los Angeles for Chicago (!!!) and am driving my jungle of houseplants across the country with me. Naturally, some I have given away (particularly some catci and succulents I am not sure would like the new climate) but most of them are making the journey with me.

Now on to my question. I want to know the ideal way to transport them. My plan is to stuff the top of their pots with spaghum moss tightly so that the soil is pretty packed down, and then wrap with butcher/packing paper and then a layer of plastic wrap over that. Ideally this will give me enough flexibility to lay many of the plants on their sides.

What do you guys think? Bad plan? Anyone have better suggestions?

Thanks!

The drive will be done over 5 days starting 11/26.

OK, so I did this trip from AZ to OH at almost this exact time of year a few years back! The hard part is when your stop at a hotel overnight and it's cold. You can leave the plants if it's not below 55 you are ok, but most of your drive will be in colder weather. It got below that temp in our car for two of the nights and I just couldn't manage everything we had with us, our dog, our suitcases, so I let the plants stay in the car. Oh, and we got into a very bad snow storm coming out of AZ, with low profile summer tires, and that was so harrowing I really lost track of the plants' needs.

Then, it was a huge adjustment for those plants, and took at least 6 month for them to acclimate, the following spring. The jade adjusted (had a bout of mealy bugs that winter but got past it), the money tree adjusted over a year, the staghorn never really did so that is gone. I can't remember the other two I brought but they didn't make it either. The bulk of the plants (about 50) I have now, I've purchased at my new place.

Looking back now, even though that happened, I'm glad I brought the jade and the money tree because that was a big challenge and it always reminds me of AZ! So it's doable! I just wanted to let you know about the cold weather issue.

How many are you planning to take? It seems to me you have a monstera? Pretty hearty. What are the other plants?

P.S. I pretty much guarantee it won't take you long to find a new plant shop in Chicago, lol.

Your packing sounds pretty good to me though I've never tackled that; I have taken many plants on a 1-2 hr drive for swapping.
Biggest thing is the cold- if they are boxed and wrapped that will delay the chill for some time...
I would make the plastic too tight- the paper alone keeps a lot of moisture in, I think.
But I'm mostly guessing

Hehe thanks for your reply! I figured some might die en route, but figured I might as well try. I will blanket them all to hopefully keep them warmer (lol). I am bringing:

- 2 monstera deliciosas (one small, one medium)
- 1 small umbrella plant
- 2 very small draecenas
- 2 medium sized fiddle lead figs
- 1 medium calathea roseopicta
- 1 medium Janet Craig draecena
- 1 medium snake plant
- 1 medium spider plant
- 1 large air plant (can be brought inside hotels)
- 2 tiny jades in open terrariums (can be brought inside hotels)
- 1 tiny jade (can be brought inside hotels)
- 1 tiny cactus (can be brought inside hotels)
- 1 tiny succulent assortment including a burros tail (can be brought inside hotels)
- 4 medium rubber plants
- 2 medium to large jade in heavy pots
- 1 medium firesticks plant
- 1 medium baby rubber plant
- 1 medium to large assorted succulent/cacti including a bunny ears catcus, miniature pine tree succulent and spekboom succulent in heavy pot
- 10 tiny succulents (can be brought inside hotels)
- 4 medium assorted succulents in medium pots
- 1 small to medium jade
- 1 small to medium chicks and hens
- 1 small to medium silver dollar jade
- 1 medium terra cotta pot with succulent seedling props
- 2 small assored succulent pots


I have an entire van basically dedicated just to bringing the plants and nothing else aside from my friend and I and our backpacks, so I can take precautions to try to keep the car warmer for the plants but not sure how exactly. I aim to put smaller things into a tub I can carry in/out of hotel each night.

I will likely end up giving more of the succs away when the time comes, I just haven't made the decision on which ones yet

What about wrapping big bubble wrap as the final outer cover? Maybe it would give the plants more insulation.

Wow! That's quite the list! And you are traveling a lot lighter for personal items than we did. I don't know why we end up filling the car on trips but we always do, lol.

Regarding succulents, yeah, I'm thinking jade will not like the change between LA sun and Chicago (where is the sun?) either, so make sure you keep them in a south window in your new place. Your fiddle leaf figs will need south light I believe, and I love fire sticks but I bet they'll turn green in Chicago.

Now if you get plant lights at your new place, that's a different story. Gene has a good string on here about plant light stands. Food for thought.

You're way more ambitious and dedicated than I would be. I wish you luck and I think we'd all like to hear about how you do

Will you have to go through any state Inspection Stations? They can be really picky about plants entering their state. They can require you to bare root them for inspection. Hopefully that won't happen!

I will likely have to pass through one, I think. I did a drive from Montréal to Los Angeles once and remember going through one for California (not including the search at the US border) but I'm not sure if there is one when leaving California. I read online they only care if you're bringing plants that were outdoors, and are not bothered by houseplants.

I doubt you'll have any problems leaving the state. Good luck with your move!

California's the only state that does that.

I recently moved from one city to another in my state with a substantial quantity of plants. I bought tall narrow boxes (note on boxes: the Amazon Warehouse sells box sets at a discount, the two sets of tall narrow boxes each had a scratch on one box, so instead of paying $134 per set, I paid around $31 set for heavy duty boxes which were 4 feet wide and 24some inches tall but only 8 inches wide, my newly planted sanseverria in their matching ceramic pots came through perfectly), and for the rest bought boxes (from the Warehouse) that fit snugly inside Ikea very cheap plastic shopping bags which I bought 20 of from Ikea. (Note: Ikea is very slow on shipping compared to Amazon, I think the shopping bags took around 10 days to get to me). The shopping bags provided handles and made transport easy, the boxes provided enough structure so that they could be packed with plants and stacked two or three deep. I kept all the cacti/succulents as I use supplemental lighting and other that a few succulents which appear to have etiolated they all seem fine.
The plants actually ended up being boxed up for several weeks, which was not ideal. I lost some African violets and a few misc baby orchids, the rest got through the ordeal probably better than me, the move was a frazzling experience.
Good luck!

Hope you have a good battery and good tires, looking forward for you to the cold climes.

I rented a minivan for the drive. I do have snow/ice driving experience in the mountains (Lake Tahoe area) but not in a minivan, always an SUV. Hope it works out okay!!

You are very ambitious!

You can use crumpled newspaper over the soil and then tape that newspaper in place to the pot. That will keep the soil from spilling out. Try to double-layer the plants with kraft paper inside of the plastic. That will help insulate them. Water them well before you leave.

Good luck with the weather! Let us know how you make out.