I know the mail does but not UPS or FedX. They do not even deliver on saturday here. That is how my plants died. USPS is great but not all use that. How can we know the shipping carrier ahead of time?

Ask the vender.

I wish they would post it but if not I will have to remember!

Let me ask you this. If your LA requested shipping date has come and gone, how long do you wait before emailing the seller to inquire about when your daylilies will be shipped?

I don't know about others, but that has not happened to me through the Lily Auction; but I if I have purchased more than one plant from a seller over a period of time I do sometimes send the seller an email shortly before the ship date just to confirm all the plants in my order and verify the shipping date. The sellers I have dealt with are all very responsive to my requests and notify me if their shipping date will be delayed. There was only one seller who went ahead and sent my plant right away even though I had told him I would be out of town, and I do not purchase from him anymore.

I don't think it's unreasonable at all to send an email and find out if there's a problem about a week after your shipment becomes overdue.

Betty,

I am just new to the whole daylily seen and to the LA so I don't want to be pestering anyone because I know I am really excited to get my orders!! I would think if you send payment with your requested shipping date and that day has come and gone you should expect to receive an email saying when your order will be shipped.

I was quite surprise with one lot I won on ebay a couple of months ago where the seller said in her postage blurb to me that if one had any complaints about her lilies and went to ebay first and not her first, one would be immediately struck of her buyer's list!

Glen, it is your right to go to eBay but they will and do insisted that you try to work things out with the buyer first and I am sure LA does the same.
Personally, I do not buy plants or seeds anymore on eBay because the buyer protection is only good for 90 days and most things do not bloom in that amount of time.

@Cat I would contact the seller and find out what happened to the plants. Did they send you a confirmation or acknowledgement that they did plan to ship on that date? Some of the sellers choose their own shipping dates because they have to hire extra people to help with that. Also the winter was so harsh that most are running a month behind, which means the plants are not ready, also they might have crop failure.

Cat said:Betty,

I am just new to the whole daylily seen and to the LA so I don't want to be pestering anyone because I know I am really excited to get my orders!! I would think if you send payment with your requested shipping date and that day has come and gone you should expect to receive an email saying when your order will be shipped.

I would email the seller and ask about shipping. Keep in mind that a requested ship date is just that a request. I can usually start shipping in March but with the way winter was I needed to wait until April to ship and some of my plants still aren't ready. Also, some sellers ship by zones so they start with the warmer (southern) states first and depending on where you bought them they may have just started shipping. Maybe the seller didn't see your requested date or forgot to write it down. It is not pestering to the seller for you to email and ask about shipping UNLESS you are one of those that email 25 times in less than an hour expecting the seller to be glued to the computer just waiting for your email and to reply to you This has happened and I have had a buyer contact Mike Longo (auction owner) because I didn't reply to their emails and I hadn't even gotten out of bed yet at 5 am my time to even read the emails.

Not that you are doing this so don't think it is directed at you but some buyers need to put themselves in the sellers place. Some buyers seem to think they are the only buyer and the seller has only them to think about. It takes a lot of time as a seller with listing auctions, keeping up with invoices and shipping dates, answering emails, and especially getting orders ready to ship.

Let me give you an example of a typical shipping day for me. My best friend helps me with this but she is not always able to help or has to leave at a certain time because we are raising my granddaughter (she's 6) so someone has to be with her after school and such. I can't afford to hire anyone (especially this year) so it's just us doing it.

This is for the time I did 30 orders. I try and email each person to make sure they are ready for their plants even if I was given a date because some areas are still cold this year and the dates may need to change. I also don't like to ship unless I know the person is actually going to be there to get them. Some people forget to tell the seller they are going out of town and won't be home and then the plants just sit there in the hot sun for a week or two before the buyer gets home. I have to go back through the invoices and resort according to if shipping or not once I get replies. Then we write out the tags for the plants the night before with the buyer and plant names and this can take a couple of hours. We get to the garden around 7:30 am and start getting the plants picked out for the orders. This may take us 4-6 hours to do depending on the size of each order (it's a large area to walk around getting plants and some orders can have 30-75 plants in them). If there is time Kim will start unpotting the orders before she has to leave at 2:00 to get the granddaughter from school and I start washing them. We double check the shipping tags with the pot tag to make sure we didn't grab the wrong plant (has happened) and then cut the foliage and shake as much soil off the plants as possible and them put in large containers for the washer (that's me) and I start washing the plants and putting them in the soaking tubs (10% bleach solution).

This is the orders I was washing, it was drizzly, it started getting cold and I was tired and still had more to go


I usually stay until dark (around 6 or 7 pm) doing all of this. Then I have to take all these orders home to get boxed up. I got up at 1:30 am doing this and it took me until 6:30 am and I wasn't finished. I didn't get any gift plants washed so I just packed the boxes and left them open until I got back. I had to go back to the garden and wash 2 more orders I didn't get to the night before and wash gift plants. I got back home around 8:40 am and then had to finish boxing them all up. Then I have to print out shipping labels so I didn't get done until around 11:30am and then rush to the post office before they close at 12:00.

So for 30 orders it took me about 24 hours total do. and I try to do this twice a week plus I help another seller do his orders and he has way more than me. Last year was a little better because I didn't have to worry about the granddaughter (her mother was living with us) so I could work longer and more days and pull orders the day before washing so it went a little smoother)

Some people have help with doing this and there are some who do it completely on their own so if there is anything as a buyer that will help a little it is usually appreciated like reminding us of a shipping date or letting us know you are ready (if no date given) about a week or two before or telling us you will be out of town.

Those fans look decent Michele.

Michele - For me, it is exhausting dividing clumps of daylilies. To do that twice a week, clean, pack, and ship them ... as well as correspond with the customers .... Whew!!! That is why I probably would never sell daylilies (or any plants for that matter). A heck of a lot of work and time is required! Even if it is your business, it's very physically demanding work! And then you say you are raising a 6 year old granddaughter too? I don't know how you do it! I work with young students and I am exhausted by the end of the school day. If I do any gardening after work ... it's something easy and quick. (My Saturdays are for gardening.) You are amazing!!!! And those fans you are getting ready to ship in that photo look great! I hope this year is just as successful as last year's sales (despite the cold winter)!

tink3472
Wow, I never realized the daylily business was so demanding. I just envision walking out on a nice spring day, admiring all the beautiful blooms, digging out a perfect specimen of a plant, tagging it and having the postman come by and pick it up. Everyone's dream of being in the daylily business!
Well, I am retired from business, so I am not quite so disillusioned in my vision, but wouldn't that be nice, but I guess the pay being so good makes it all worth it...oh, I am talking about the pay in the form of the satisfaction you get from growing such beautiful plants...you didn't think for a moment I was talking about money did you! I know it is long, hard work, but I do love to see people who still have such a work ethic, stories like yours show some Americans still have what it takes to get the job done. Good job!

I think it would take me 24 hours to do 6! Never-mind 30!
This is one reason I do not usually ask for a certain ship date unless they are asking me specifically. I understand this is a lot of work, very hard work. They (sellers) are often overwhelmed this time of year, and something always going wrong. They are so busy they might not be able to answer emails either, but I keep all my emails and I know what I ordered. My very first order was to a company up north and I ordered in February but they were the last to ship and that was October. When I finally got the plants they were small and black. LOL.

Oh, LA does provide a list under ''MY ITEMS WON AND SOLD'' if you click on ''WON'' you will see that these items will remain on this list for 66 days only. Then you click on ''WON'' under ''ARCHIVED WON ITEMS'' this is a list of things over 66 days old and up to 300 days, so you can print this out and have a good list of what you bought, click on ''FEEDBACK'' if you sort it by seller you will have what you are expecting from each one. You can NOT print it after you leave feedback so be sure to print or save to computer first and you will have that for your records because they will disappear after the 300 days. also you can sort them by item and have your daylilies in alphabetical order, that makes it easy to find something. Just saying.

I forgot the most important thing about being a seller .... doing all the work and maintenance of growing so many cultivars and varieties of daylilies! I grow about 300 different NOID daylilies. Just trying to keep them labeled for future hybridizing is a challenge in itself. LOL! I don't usually treat mine for pests or diseases, but do of course fertilize and water them. I know Michele and most other sellers do it ALL to keep them healthy for selling! Her 2 woman operation boggles my mind as does raising a young granddaughter! She is definitely cut from a different cloth than me! (And I'm no slacker!)

I am always amazed that sellers actually post on this forum. Where do they find the time??? .... they must get very little sleep during the growing season!

All that they do .... so buyers can wander around their garden beds to admire those beautiful daylilies that they purchased from Michele and others! My hat if off to all the daylily sellers who are honest and hardworking!

And that is why I always tell sellers to ship after a dare when it's easiest for them.

I've never bad a seller email and expect a response immediately but I've had students do that! It's something that just gets under the skin and stays there. I've never (and will never) understand an attitude that thinks someone else should be at his or her beck and call. If nothing else I appreciate your work Michele.

I do have a buyer who has repeatedly failed to respond to emails from me and Mike Longo. I have to figure out what the next step there is.

Michelle, thanks for the info. I wish lived where I could come help you. I could bring my (will be 2 in July) Grand Daughter. Wouldn't that be fun! I watch her every day while her mother (my daughter) works. They also live with me so I can kind of relate on that hand. As far as the shipping, I know I am not the only customer (that was why I said I didn't want to be pestering anyone). I just didn't understand why they ask you to provide a shipping date and then they don't ship on that date. I included that info with the short letter I sent with the money order payment. This is the same seller that has never marked paid for the purchase either. I did have to send 2 emails to find out if the payment was received. Should I be worried?

When I was young we wrote letters and waited weeks for an answer.

@JWWC..Do you have the buyers address? Maybe he lost power or his internet service for what ever reason, maybe he bought too many daylilies and could not pay the bill.

Under registration, I noticed Mike Longo does not ask for a phone number. That might be a real good way to contact someone who has not answered an email. Mike has his own way of handling things but I think it would be good to ask for a phone number just in case.

@tink3472 ...You're the best!!

Hehehe and we had to walk allllll the way down the street to mail those letters! Full disclosure I live in an old neighborhood with a walking route now. It's glorious.

I do have his address and phone number. Will try calling at some point.