Take a peek behind the scenes! Our shipping weeks are busy times where we process all orders and pack and send around 1800 plants each week. In this blog, you can see how we do it.
Preparations
After harvesting, our peonies are sorted by size, variety, and quality. The plants we sell in our webshop are of the highest quality. They are beautiful, large tubers with at least 3 'eyes' – these are the buds on the tuber from which leaves and flowers grow.
Additionally, we sort the perennial plants growing in pots and inspect their root systems to ensure they are ready for their new home. Quality assurance is very important to us. If a variety hasn't grown well, we won't ship it. In such cases, we contact the customers who ordered it to discuss an alternative.
Packaging materials
Before the shipping weeks begin, we order all the packaging materials we need. We opt for sustainable options as much as possible. For example, our cheerful wrapping paper is made from sugar beet pulp, we print our packing slips on PaperWise paper (made from organic waste), and the plant blisters are made from 100% recycled material. This is another way we try to contribute to our environment.
Our new packing room is smartly designed so that all materials are at hand, and 2 to 3 people can pick and pack orders simultaneously.
Let's get started!
We have all the packing slips on hand that need to be sent this week. Our customers specify in their order which week they want to receive the plants, so we can smartly plan our week and arrange help where needed. Indoors, we pack the ordered root tubers, and outdoors, we pick the potted perennials. We pack the plants together in one box, although sometimes our orders are so large that we divide the plants across multiple boxes!
Shipping
Every day, a pallet of boxes is picked up by our carrier. These are collected in the afternoon, sorted overnight, and often delivered the very next day!
It's sometimes strange to think that just a few years ago, we used to personally deliver every package by car. Back then, it was only about ten packages a day, but with these numbers, that's no longer feasible. We are growing rapidly as a company and improve our process each year, allowing us to pack and ship ever more efficiently.
The shipping weeks are busy weeks where we work hard and extensively. Afterwards, we traditionally take a short vacation to recuperate!
