I am supposed to present a power point for our Bluegrass Iris Society on where to purchase irises, vendors and photos of their typical rhizome size and packaging this January. I am soliciting any and all of your best shipments pics with comments of extras, packaging and your recommendations yea or nay on your order. I know many have been posted and lots of comments made on other sites and this one as well but hard to find them throughout the threads.
Any help and photos would be appreciated. Personally, I have never taken pictures of my boxes upon arrival. Wish I had

Jane ~ Sorry I don't have any pictures. I can tell you though the best boxes that arrived to my place were:
Superstition
Sutton's
Stout
Winterberry
Shady Spot
Iris Sisters
Mid-America
Burgard
(Beaumont Ridge)
(Napa)

All of those were shipped in USPS Priority boxes with excelsior.

Only one vendor shipped irises in a Priority envelope, which was Ross Road.

I thought I had more of the boxes, but I guess I was so excited, I just whipped them out. I don't have any from this year.. but this was Keppel order... the cat is there for scale


This was from Napa Country


Superstition


Iris I've divided for sale and trade


HIPS order


Mid America

Over the years I've ordered from several vendors including Superstition, Mid-America, Schreiner and others. Mid-America & Superstition have always been good with their packaging, quality rhizomes and customer service. I would even say "above average". I was disappointed with my last order from Schreiner (2018) because of rhizome quality.

Sutton's quality and service is IMHO "excellent". The last order from them came with large healthy rhizomes, roomy packing and a couple of bonus irises. In all there were 12 large rhizomes nicely packed in an over-sized box; all correctly labeled. Below are some photos of this order. I do not usually photograph orders, but this one impressed me.

Box arrival; no damage

Well packed and clean

Contents

Close look

Queen's Circle was just under a half pound.

From October 2017, Mid America sale:

Great bonus iris from Superstition Iris Gardens July of 2018

Henhouse said: ...the cat is there for scale

Sherry ~ The cat appears to be saying, " These are MY irises!"

Love the picture of the cat in the box of irises.

Sherry, Barbara, and Leon: The rhizomes you received from Mid-America, Superstition, and Sutton are amazing. Would like to see the growth from that Queen's Circle rhizome next spring!

Thanks for the responses to this query. I will use some of the pictures but will not use your name. I hope to find some not so desired pictures of shipment from Iris Lovers or Iris Trader sites if I can. Anyone have any from smaller vendors like Crafton Hills, Stout, Blue J, Comanche or Eagle Ridge Iris they could share?

Craften hills is about an hour from my house. I haved talked with them anx seem pretty good but never ordered from them. Im sure they would send pictures of their boxes.

I see their photos online in FB of lots of irises but do not see those same ones for sale. I will check for some photos of boxes.
Thanks.

Wish you had started a month earlier with this thread. I could have helped you out for sure. But by the time the thread started most of my boxes had been recycled and iris planted or potted. Stout boxes have very little padding, but they do throw in coffee mugs and such. Oddly, this year also included an old copy of Tall Talk, but it had a great interview with Keith Keppel.