Root Houseplants just got an upgrade!

The vigilant among you may have noticed that the online store has been down for a short while now, and this may leave some confused, or even anxious at what is to come. But fear not: for Root Houseplants is back, and with more to offer that ever before!

So… what has changed?

The way we did things at Root Houseplants worked as such: we would select a small number of plants, import them from various places to our lovely little warehouse in Liverpool, where we would care for them until someone placed an order. From then, they would be boxed up and shipped out to the customer. This worked well, but it was not free of a few problems. 

In the past few months, we have teamed up with a new supplier in the Netherlands. The Netherlands are the leaders of indoor and garden plant imports in Europe, which means it has the best, brightest and biggest assortment of lovely houseplants. Chances are, if you’ve bought a houseplant from a plant shop or box store in the UK, it has been sourced from the Netherlands. The country is fully loaded with industrial greenhouses, expert growers and cultivators, innovative ideas and a great network of knowledgeable plant-people, who produce new and classic products all year round, shipping around 1 billion plants around the world!

You’re probably wondering… So what has changed? The new supply system works in a vastly different way. Instead of importing plants to ourselves in Liverpool, we have set up a new system that transports plants directly from the source, to the door. This means a number of things will have to be done differently.

How will that affect things?

We have been spending a long time evaluating the various aspects of this new system, and whether it was going to be beneficial or not. While the old way was great, we firmly believe that this new system will open many doors for us as a business and you guys as customers alike. Just below, I have listed the many positives that this new system comes with, and why we think it's a great move!

• Carbon Footprint: In recent decades, the world is waking up to environmental issues. It is usually assumed that the garden industry would generally work in favour of offsetting carbon emissions, but unfortunately the opposite is true. The amount of carbon offset by plants respirating is largely trumped by the large amounts of emissions that are involved in transport, storage, upkeep and production. Our new partnership has reduced a delivery to a single journey. Equally, the removal of our storage facility has completely cut out the use of electrical devices such as heaters, humidifiers, fans and grow lights as well as significantly cutting our water consumption. Remodelling our online store has undeniably, significantly reduced our carbon footprint: something we strive to continue doing to make plant-keeping better for the whole world!

• Single Use Plastics: Similarly, the old system of import required a lot of single use plastics. These were not necessarily within our control, as a lot of the products we were importing came in plastic trays, wrapped with plastic film, in plastic pots with plastic labels. Further, things we were using to process our part of the delivery involved single use plastics too. This is something we were keen to move away from, while industries we rely on didn’t necessarily make this easy for us. Thankfully, now that our involvement in the delivery process has changed, we are much less reliant on single use plastics for the continuation of our online store! Another step towards a greener house plant industry!

• More Products: Simply put, we now have a much bigger array of products for people to choose from! Before, we were limited to a select few plants and sundries to buy in and maintain until they were sold and we could refresh the stock. Now, with the help of our friends in the Netherlands, we have access to all the plants in huge industrial greenhouses, as opposed to the few that we are able to bring in, as well as a huge array of sundries, including pots, soil mixes and growth technology products that were difficult to obtain previously. This means we will have more products available to you than ever before!

• Fresh Plants: It’s not news to anyone that the more plants are moved around the worse for them it is. This new system means less time for plants being sealed in boxes, or bouncing around in cold, dark lorries! The simplicity of a plant going from the supplier straight to your door means the plant will be much fresher on arrival,and subject to a lot less transport shock.

• More Variation: Previously, buying a plant in multiple sizes or colours was largely inefficient to us. Simply, getting a plant in two sizes and colours, significantly reduced our stock variety. But now, plants can be purchased with a choice of sizes, cultivars or colours without affecting our stock space! If that weren’t enough, we are now able to ship large plants to you, which is something we were previously unable to do!

• Cheaper Prices: Ultimately, cutting out storage, temporary care requirements and various other stages of delivery largely reduces the overall cost of delivering your plants. This new system allows us to continue selling plants at a reasonable price, some even lower than before!

So the benefits are certainly many, and these reasons are why we think this change is a great idea going forward. We understand that there will be a few drawbacks, and we aim to address these however we can. In pursuit of honesty, a value which we hold in high regard, below are the problems that may arise from this change, and what they might mean.

• Slower delivery times: In our old system, we were proud of our ability to get plants to you in very little time. Now, the time between paying at the checkout and the plant arriving at your door will likely be increased slightly. This is, unfortunately, a necessary hit to take to ensure that our delivery process is better for the environment and efficient. And while the arrival may seem slower, the plant has spent a lot less time being shipped around overall!

• Minimum delivery: Using this system for the transport of individual small plants or single items unfortunately counteracts our goal to reduce our plant miles, therefore it is necessary for us to limit our new system to larger purchases. This ensures we are not endorsing lots of frequent, half-empty lorry journeys, and instead encourage the less-frequent transport of more goods at once. Resultantly, but for a great cause, our minimum spend for delivery is now £25. 

Separation of Online and in-store: Now that we have removed our means of storage it means that plants from the shop do not match the wide availability of plants online. Instead, we source different plants to fill the shop, this means that we have also deactivated the store pickup option on the website. But this is not all bad news. The shop will have unique products that are not always available online and if you can, it's definitely worth a look if you’re ever nearby!

Our Promise to you!

As with any novel venture, we are still getting to grips with the whole process and how it works. As this is truly a new experience for all of us, some issues are likely to arise that we are currently unaware of. We don’t want anyone to worry, or be disgruntled by the possibility of issues. We would like to reassure everyone that any issues that arise will be dealt with and fixed as soon as possible, and we are working very hard alongside our new partners to create a streamlined and highly functional place online for you to source your favourite plants! 

We assure you that if any issues arise for you, during or after making orders, or you have any questions before you place an order, don’t be afraid to get in touch, and rest assured we will be on hand to guide you through, help you out and get things sorted effectively if need be. We want to show you how great this new move is going to be, and we’ll be happy to help anyone out while we get it off the ground.

Lastly of course, thank you all for your patience! We look forward to sharing plant love with you all again soon!