The problem with the planting mix falling out seems universal, judging from comments on the perennials forum. I let them know that it had happened with the one clematis I received and got a nice note in return saying that they were changing the pre-mailing watering regime and looking into other fixes. Hopefully this will get straightened out. I too am grateful for the lack of packing peanuts, but most nurseries that I have used fasten either cardboard or plastic across the top of the soil to help it stay in place.

I will contact them to let them know how the packaging worked out. My mix was wet but still fell out. I know delivery people never pay attention to keeping a box right side up and that may be contributing to the problem.

Maybe it is too soon to get feedback on the coir pots over the long period.

As a side note, Bluestone has been very customer oriented so definitely a place I would order from again.

Julia

I have a question regarding coir being used to propogate plants. This is the most recent forum on coir.
Azaleas I bought this spring died back because the roots were so tightly bound they would not spread into surrounding soil, despite cutting into the root ball when planted.
The original root ball stayed intact and whatever medium was used, it contributed to the roots being bound and soaking the roots to loosen any medium was useless. I used a knife to cut all the way through and found no roots other than these fine ones that were matted and grew no larger.
Is this a result of using coir as the starter medium?
Or could they possibly have grafted some other root to the azalea?
Anybody have any theories?

I did contact Bluestone and got some additional information regarding Coir pots. They did send me a link to an article but until there is some real life experience from others who have used it and what results they got after 1 year, I guess it will be a wait and see.

maxygolf: Hope you find an answer to your azalea issue. Have you tried posting on the Azalea and Rhododendron forum to see if anyone can help?

Julia

Here is a link that might be useful: Azalea and Rhodondendron Forum

As far as I can tell, Bluestone isn't using coir as the starter medium, they are using it as pots. I found that the roots on my clematis had grown through the coir pot and were long enough to have good soil contact when I planted it.

As a side note, they seem to have modified their shipping some since folks are now reporting plants arriving in good condition with the soil staying in the pots.

I did get a response from Bluestone and they said they were working on improving the packaging so the medium wasn't spilling over into the shipping carton.

Julia