‘Live Plants’ – everything you need to know
Why buy Live Plants?
There are times when you just can’t beat buying a plant that you can pop in the ground and off it grows. Not everybody has the time or the space to grow herbs from seed. And even if you do want to start from seed, there is no guarantee that you will be successful. Seeds require a lot of care and specific conditions to germinate, and even when you’re successful, the slugs or the weather may still have a say in the end results.
Or maybe you just want to get off to a head start while you wait for your seeds to germinate, or you’ve left it too late in the season for sowing seeds. Or perhaps you want to give someone a herbal gift knowing that seeds, whilst appreciated, may never be sown!
What size are your Live Plants?
For now, all of our live plants are available in 9 x 5cm pots as in the photo below. We decided to use this size for a number of reasons; the relatively small diameter makes it easier to send in the post than regular sized plant pots, and we can fit lots more into the limited space in our nursery and polytunnel, yet they are large enough to support a healthy and robust root system to give you a good head start.

Which herbs are available as Live Plants?
We have chosen some of your favourite herbs to include in our range of Live Plants, including echinacea, skullcap, tulsi, mugwort and many more. However, as they are all being sown at different times, with some taking longer than others to grow, the plants listed on the website will vary from week to week, so do keep coming back to check availability on the Live Plants page.
Once the Live Plants outgrow their pots we plant them into our bare-root beds where they continue growing before being offered as bare-roots in the winter.
Do you use biodegradable packaging?
Yes, all our packaging is made from biodegradable materials. The plant pots are made from wood pulp, and the only packaging we use during delivery is cardboard and hemp fibre.

How long will it take for the plants to arrive?
We are usually able to send out your plants within 2 working days of receiving your order. All live plant orders are sent by Royal Mail 24 hour tracked; this is to ensure that the plants spend as little time as possible in transit but does not guarantee next-day delivery.
What to do with the plants when they arrive?
The easiest way to plant out your live plants is to put them straight in the ground in its biodegradable pot. So long as the soil is moist, the roots will grow through the wood pulp within a couple of weeks. If the ground is dry, we recommend soaking the pot in water for at least half an hour before planting.
However, as you can see in the images below, planting with the pot does initially impede growth as it takes time and energy for the roots to start growing through the wood pulp. So, if you want to give the plants an easier start, you can remove them from their pots, encouraging the roots to grow into the surrounding soil more quickly. If you do this, you’ll find that some plants pop out of the pots very easily, and others are more firmly stuck. If they don’t come out easily, use a knife to carefully slit the pot open before planting, taking care to minimise disturbance to the roots.
Whichever method you use, you will find that the plants will eventually all reach the same size and if you do plant out with the pot, it will eventually decompose into the soil.

If, for any reason, you are not satisfied with the quality of the plant(s) when they arrive please let us know asap by sending an e-mail to info[@]earthsongseeds.com with photos of the plants and we will either refund you or send our more plants.
