@esperanza, I hate telling stories again or re-posting the same thing twice. I never mean to bore people with my stories. But since you asked, here you go................
I sent a fiddle leaf ficus to a lady in New York City several years ago. Back then, I included a lot of the potting soil with the plant so that the stress on the plant would be minimized. I got an email from the lady shortly after she received the plant and said that there were two terrible "creatures" in the soil. She said she put on gloves, grasped the creatures, and flushed them down the toilet. I emailed her back and asked her to describe those "creatures". She described earthworms to the T. I explained to her that earthworms were pretty particularly about the soil they inhabited and if nothing else, they were a sign that the soil was healthy and nutritious for the fiddle leaf. She would have none of that. She said she had never seen an earthworm and that they were gross. SHE HAD NEVER SEEN AN EARTHWORM. I told her that if she ever got another earthworm in one of my plants, please ship the earthworm back to me at my expense because I valued earth worms. I have shipped several plants to this lady since and I have been very sure to see that there were no earth worms in that root-ball.
I just love dealing with the public! I need to get this lady to move out of the city and into "real" America. She needs to learn to celebrate earthworms, not loath them.
I now put all my potted plants on wooden platforms so that earthworms won't "invade" the pots.
I apologize to y'all who have seen this "ancient" post. I hope Dave/Trisha won't ban me from future posts.
