Hello,
I recently bought alot of succulents from an online seller, and it's been more than 20 days now, will the succulents be okay?
How long would they survive without light and water? (The seller unrooted the plants before shipping)
The succulents I bought are echeverias, pachyverias, graptopetalum, Fenestraria, graptoverias, sedums, haworthias, kalanchoes and senicios (maybe I forgot few more).
Anyone experienced something like this before?
Thanks
Regards

Online seller? If its abroad its probably giromagi...and dont count on them being too healthy. Also unless you got a phytosanitary certificate dont count on them arriving at all...

skopjecollection said:Online seller? If its abroad its probably giromagi...and dont count on them being too healthy. Also unless you got a phytosanitary certificate dont count on them arriving at all...

Yes from giromagi actually, They're in Italy and I'm in Tunisia, it's very close so it should've arrived much quicker.
Yes I did get a phytosanitary certificate.

Would they be dead unhealthy or can be saved unhealthy?

I have left starts from various succulents on my counter for weeks, and they survived, so I expect you have a good chance of saving them. They will probably be very pale though, from lack of light. I would open them right away when you get them - put them in brighter light, but not direct sun. I would not think lack of water will be an issue- more a matter of lack of light.

I ordered 6 plants from giromagi
-graptopetallum bellum
-2 x pachycereus marginatus
-echinocactus texensis
- 2 x orostachys spionosa
-i also got some kind of mammillaria as a gift
The outcome was:
Echinocactus failed to root, died after a while(roots were likely dry)
Orostachys rooted a bit, but then died suddenly
Graptopetalums roots were too dry(didnt root). Survived the longest but died eventually
Mammillaria was rootless and rotted
Only plants that survived long term were the pachycereus marginatus.
They caught scale, and it was very difficult to cure them of it properly. One eventually succumbed. The other is still alive, i gave it away to a botanical garden.
Basically your plants are bare root, and often drought damaged. Theyll be difficult to re-root again. Also, you might want to check the customs price and everything. Here its about 45 euro so they ripped me off 20 more euros to the price of 70 something.

skopjecollection said:I ordered 6 plants from giromagi
-graptopetallum bellum
-2 x pachycereus marginatus
-echinocactus texensis
- 2 x orostachys spionosa
-i also got some kind of mammillaria as a gift
The outcome was:
Echinocactus failed to root, died after a while(roots were likely dry)
Orostachys rooted a bit, but then died suddenly
Graptopetalums roots were too dry(didnt root). Survived the longest but died eventually
Mammillaria was rootless and rotted
Only plants that survived long term were the pachycereus marginatus.
They caught scale, and it was very difficult to cure them of it properly. One eventually succumbed. The other is still alive, i gave it away to a botanical garden.
Basically your plants are bare root, and often drought damaged.

I guess I'll have to wait for myne and see, I'll let you know when I do.
How many days did it take them to arrive to you?

I should've only bought a few to test with then, lol
I got around 30 plants!

cwhitt said:I have left starts from various succulents on my counter for weeks, and they survived, so I expect you have a good chance of saving them. They will probably be very pale though, from lack of light. I would open them right away when you get them - put them in brighter light, but not direct sun. I would not think lack of water will be an issue- more a matter of lack of light.

I hope so, I'll have to wait and see
Maybe if they take another week in shipping it could be a problem

Potato01 said:


I guess I'll have to wait for myne and see, I'll let you know when I do.
How many days did it take them to arrive to you?

I should've only bought a few to test with then, lol
I got around 30 plants!

My condolences. Best bet is to do that weird water therapy thing on youtube, because i dont know if anything else will work. Some crassulaceae are easy to start from a cutting, but not if they are severely stressed. Some haworthias with offshoots as well. But dont expect too much and be prepared to deal with any pests...
Time wise it took them about a month , maybe slightly more or less. You can see where i am and how far it is (and not very), so...

skopjecollection said:

My condolences. Best bet is to do that weird water therapy thing on youtube, because i dont know if anything else will work. Some crassulaceae are easy to start from a cutting, but not if they are severely stressed. Some haworthias with offshoots as well. But dont expect to much and be prepared to deal with any pests...

I hope you're wrong
I made the payment with PayPal I'm sure I can get a refund if the plants arrive dead and if they refuse to resend me the dead ones.

skopjecollection said:

My condolences. Best bet is to do that weird water therapy thing on youtube, because i dont know if anything else will work. Some crassulaceae are easy to start from a cutting, but not if they are severely stressed. Some haworthias with offshoots as well. But dont expect to much and be prepared to deal with any pests...
Time wise it took them about a month , maybe slightly more or less. You can see where i am and how far it is (and not very), so...

So on a side note, do you have a good experience with other online sellers of succulents?

Potato01 said:

So on a side note, do you have a good experience with other online sellers of succulents?

I bought seeds mostly. A lot of sellers dont deal with plants because of that phyto certificate. Only one with live plants .
Seeds i bought mostly from koehres and e-bay. Ebay was more successful with germination, though more expensive. Koehres was so-so. I stopped because they changed the regulations...
Its just not worth paying 25-40 euros for a piece of paper more expensive than a handful of half dead plants. I might need to do that with the seeds as well, so its just not cost effective. I basically play a waiting game with imported plants to find any good stuff.
If you can, buy or order locally.

Basically, moral of the story is the age old thesis: buy what you can touch and feel with your own eyes and hands. Not only is it cheaper, safer(well, safe-ish, beacuse some succulents are quite toxic or spiny), but also a lot more effective and satisfying.

skopjecollection said:

I bought seeds mostly. A lot of sellers dont deal with plants because of that phyto certificate. Only one with live plants .
Seeds i bought mostly from koehres and e-bay. Ebay was more successful with germination, though more expensive. Koehres was so-so. I stopped because they changed the regulations...
Its just not worth paying 25-40 euros for a piece of paper more expensive than a handful of half dead plants. I might need to do that with the seeds as well, so its just not cost effective. I basically play a waiting game with imported plants to find any good stuff.
If you can, buy or order locally.

I don't have the patience for seeds, lol
And I'm not very good with seeds that take alot of time to grow, I either forget to water them or over water them.
At first I was only planning to buy few succulents but I couldn't hold myself lol
I'd most definatly buy them locally if I found them but most of them don't exist on the market (you can only find the normal green looking succulents), probably in some people's garden who also might have gotten them from abroad, and if you do find some plants sellers you won't find many succulent choices, when I want to buy things I like to buy them all from the same seller insted of picking them from here and there, same thing online too.

If you buy few plants they won't bother you at the post office even without a phytosanitary, but when you get a big order (like 30 plants!) a phyto is a must.
Maybe next time I decide to buy I'll buy from someone from this forum who live in countries not very far away from myne, probably much more trustworthy.

skopjecollection said:Basically, moral of the story is the age old thesis: buy what you can touch and feel with your own eyes and hands. Not only is it cheaper, safer(well, safe-ish, beacuse some succulents are quite toxic or spiny), but also a lot more effective and satisfying.

I agree, especially for plants.
But one can't help himself, I'm a simple man, I see coloful/weird succulents/plants, I buy.
The last time I went crazy and bought 200 EUR worth of bulbs online, so now I'm over it and I'm no longer interrested in buying them, now it's the succulents' turn
I like plants that last, much better than perrenials that you have to keep replanting/caring for every year, also I like unusual looking ones, especially plants that don't have green at all, looks a bit alien

They did here. Yes, you cant find some stuff wholesale, or its just rare(pachycereus marginatus and e.texensis). G.bellum and orostachys are simply not present in dutch wholesale(where more than likely most of your plants come from). But, sometimes you can get lucky like I did:

































You can find gems even in wholesale. All you gotta do is make them dance. Considering your climate it shouldnt be so hard...
But yes, you need to familiarize yourself and look for what you want.
As they say in my country: It just doesnt simply fall from sky.

Don't count your new plants out just yet. You haven't even seen them. Do you know when they shipped? If they haven't shipped at all, then 20 days in the dark hasn't happened yet.

Have you attempted to contact the seller and ask what gives? Contact them through PayPal, that way, PayPal has a record of your attempts.

When (if) you get your new plants, pot them up in barely damp soil and put them someplace bright but not sunny. If they arrive in really bad shape (or don't arrive at all), that's why you used PayPal.

DaisyI said:Don't count your new plants out just yet. You haven't even seen them. Do you know when they shipped? If they haven't shipped at all, then 20 days in the dark hasn't happened yet.

Have you attempted to contact the seller and ask what gives? Contact them through PayPal, that way, PayPal has a record of your attempts.

When (if) you get your new plants, pot them up in barely damp soil and put them someplace bright but not sunny. If they arrive in really bad shape (or don't arrive at all), that's why you used PayPal.

Yes I contacted them today and they said that they will contact the post tomorrow and let me know.
They said at the beginning that it would it take around 15 days and up to 20 days, but since Italy is very close to Tunisia I thought it will be here in days not weeks, anyways I think it should be here in 2 or 3 days tops, at least I hope so..

If there's a problem I can always send screenshots to PayPal, and I have the tracking number too, according to it they were given to the post 20 days ago and shipped around 15 days ago.

Thanks for the advice, lets see how they turn out first, if they even do arrive

skopjecollection said:They did here. Yes, you cant find some stuff wholesale, or its just rare(pachycereus marginatus and e.texensis). G.bellum and orostachys are simply not present in dutch wholesale(where more than likely most of your plants come from). But, sometimes you can get lucky like I did:

You can find gems even in wholesale. All you gotta do is make them dance. Considering your climate it shouldnt be so hard...
But yes, you need to familiarize yourself and look for what you want.
As they say in my country: It just doesnt simply fall from sky.

I want everything!!

That's a very nice collection! Congrats, it must've been alot of work
Have you considered making arrangements with those instead of a plant in each pot?

Cactus are a complete no care in my climate, maybe a little watering from time to time but that's it
Same thing with the succulents I already have, hopefully the same with the new ones I bought.
Sadly there isn't many decorational plant sellers in my city, would have to go to other bigger cities to find more markets and rare finds, but it feels like a lot of hassle.

I've seen these in the homepage:
And I love them, I bought ones like these, I hope I get them alive

"Have considered making arrangements with those instead of a plant in each pot?"
That usually is a bad idea, out of experience. Dont go for arrangements, especially if you are new to the hobby or have climate issues.
And trust me, youd spend a lot less money going to big cities than risking mail...
Chances are, whatever you have is still better than what is available here. And mind you, there is no stock for most places here for the winter. Look up garden centers or stuff. Euphorbia trigona, ingens , adenium and the like would suit you really well if i had to guess. Maybe cereus and barrel cacti as well.

Lemme show you stuff i saw in spain















These are from france




Pretty common plants. The difference is if you grow them just right, you get to see the perks.