Shipping Information

Due to Shipping Rate Increases by FedEx, unfortunately our shipping rates have gone up in order to get plants to you alive. Some non-perishable hardgoods may be shipped via USPS. We tried to offer USPS Priority Mail for Small Orders to see if they could reliably deliver. It really was a hit or miss so rather than have failed deliveries once it gets hot, we unfortunately had to discontinue it and go with Fed Ex for the most part. Some areas of the country still do not have reliable mail service and Priority Mail can take 4 or 5 days to deliver in those areas. Since our products are alive, they must be delivered within 3 days.

Our pond plants are shipped to you direct from the nursery. Pond supplies are shipped either with your plants or before the plants, so everything you order should arrive at about the same time. All plant orders are shipped according to USDA Planting Zones, or Proper Planting Time for your location during the Spring months. During the spring months orders are shipped Monday through Wednesday and occasionally on Thursday if we can be sure the plants will arrive by Saturday. During Peak Season, it may take a week before we can ship your order. We do not offer "Expedited Shipping". We do not ship plants over the weekend, and in order for an order to ship the first part of the following week, it needs to be placed by Thursday, to be sent to the nursery to be on their shipping schedule the following week. Any orders placed after that and over the weekend are scheduled to ship as soon as possible. If you cancel an order before it has been sent to the nursery, there is a $6.00 cancellation fee for orders of $100.00 or less. For orders over $100.00, the cancellation fee is 2.9% of the order total. This is due to the PayPal and Credit Card Processing Fees we incur and they do not refund us those fees when you cancel the order.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

By email: pondplantsonline@yahoo.com
By Phone: Currently Unavailable

SHIPPING CHARGES VARY DEPENDING ON LOCATION AND WEIGHT OF ORDER. ORDERS ARE SHIPPED BY THE FOLLOWING CARRIERS:

FEDEX GROUND/HOME (1-3 Day Transit depending on location from FL )
FEDEX AIR (2/3 Day Transit + Order Processing Time)

UPS GROUND (1-5 Day Delivery depending on location)

USPS PRIORITY MAIL - (3-7 Day Transit Not Guaranteed)

We do our best to ship orders within 1-5 business days of when you place your order. During the winter months and early spring, orders are held until "Zone Appropriate". Check the shipping schedule below for an approximate date as to when your order will be shipped. If you would like your order shipped immediately, please add a note in the comment section when checking out, "SHIP NOW" and we will ship as soon as possible as long as the plants ordered are available and ready to ship. Shipping plants prior to proper planting time for your location does void our plant guarantees.

FedEx Air 2/3 Day shipping is shipped Monday and Tuesday usually. It takes 1 business day to process your order and send it to the nursery to be shipped. If you order on Tuesday after 11:00 AM Eastern time, your order will not be shipped until the following Monday. If we can get it delivered by Saturday without incurring additional delivery charges we will ship the same week if at all possible. FedEx does not count the day of pick-up as one of the transit days. FedEx Ground delivers Tuesday through Saturday. FedEx Air delivers Monday through Friday.

Most pond plants are sent via FedEx. Live orders are sent at the beginning of each week to get across the country before the weekend. Live orders go out Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Plants usually arrive in 2-3 days when shipped via FedEx.

Orders shipping to Hawaii, Puerto Rico must be shipped either USPS Priority Mail or FedEx Air and may be subject to additional shipping charges. We will contact you to discuss shipping fees if shipping cost exceeds our usual flat rate cost.

All orders with pond supplies or hard goods only will be shipped out within 3-4 business days of receiving the order.

SHIPPING SCHEDULE:
Below is our 2024 approximate shipping schedule for your plant orders. Many of the plants will not be available to ship until Mid March or Early April. Hardy plants are shipped according to the schedule below. Tropical plants are held longer, as water temperatures need to be at least 65 degrees for the plants to thrive. Orders are held based on your low night-time temperatures. Once your night time temperatures are no longer below 50 degrees, it is safe to transplant water garden plants. Last frost date is not a good indicator, as the water is still too cold for most pond plants. We check Accu-weather regularly and do our best to ship your plants when we feel it is safe for the plants to survive and thrive outdoors. Although sometimes Mother Nature is hard to predict. In which case, protect your plants if cold weather is forecast in your area after receiving your plants.

If you would like your order shipped immediately, please write a comment to "Ship Now" when placing your order and we will be happy to do so as long as the plants are available. Shipping plants early does void our plant guarantees.

Zone 10-11 - NOW (Weather Permitting and Subject to Availability)

Zone 9 - MID-MARCH (Weather Permitting and Subject to Availability)

Zone 8 - END OF MARCH - BEGINNING OF APRIL - (Tropicals May be Held Longer Depending on Spring Weather Conditions)

Zone 7 (East of the Rockies) - MID-APRIL (Tropicals May be Held Longer Depending on Spring Weather Conditions)

Zone 7 (West of the Rockies) - END-APRIL (Tropicals May be Held Longer Depending on Spring Weather Conditions)

Zone 6 - EARLY MAY (Tropicals May be Held Longer Depending on Spring Weather Conditions)

Zone 5 - MID MAY - END OF MAY (Tropicals May be Held Longer Depending on Spring Weather Conditions)

Zone 4 - END OF MAY - FIRST OF JUNE (Tropicals May be Held Longer Depending on Spring Weather Conditions)

Zone 3 - FIRST OF JUNE

Our shipping schedule is approximate for most of our hardy plants. Tropical plants are held longer due to weather patterns in some zones. During shipping season we check weather constantly to try our best to ship the plants when it is safe to plant them outside. Shipping plants before zone appropriate does void our plant guarantee. If you request for us to ship plants, snails or tadpoles when we feel temperatures and weather conditions are unsafe, it will void our live delivery guarantee. We hold orders here and ship them at the proper planting time for your zone.
If you would like your order shipped prior to the proper zone above for your area please leave a comment, such as, SHIP NOW PER CUSTOMER, in the comment section when checking out.

PLEASE KNOW YOUR STATE LAWS REGARDING ORDERING PLANTS.

CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA and Puerto Rico - SHIPPING INFORMATION - Shipping Live Plants - Due to State Agricultural laws, California, Arizona and Puerto Rico have regulations on importing marginal plants and we cannot ship any potted marginal plants into those states. All waterlilies, lotus, legal floating plants and legal submerged plants are available to ship to California, Arizona and Puerto Rico as they are not potted in soil.

PUERTO RICO - Puerto Rico SHIPS VIA USPS PRIORITY MAIL OR EXPRESS PRIORITY MAIL ONLY.

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING OF LIVE PLANTS - We do NOT ship internationally.

PAYMENT INFORMATION: We use Shopify Payment Processing powered by Stripe to process our credit card orders. Your financial information is secure and safe when paying through Shopify. Or, we also have the option to pay by PayPal™, the world's largest processor of online payments and is owned by eBay™ Corporation and is a financially solid company. Over 30 million people world-wide use and trust PayPal to handle their online transactions.

PondPlantsOnline, LLC. is based in Ohio, so Ohio sales tax does apply to orders shipped within Ohio.

OUR GUARANTEE - We guarantee we will ship you a sound and viable plant, but cannot guarantee your growing results. There are simply too many variables outside our control. All plants will arrive healthy, but once you receive your plants, in order to be successful at growing them you need to make sure your water is warm enough and you follow the planting instructions included with your order or refer to the planting instruction section located on the front page of our website. Feel free to contact us by email, if you have questions on growing your plants. OUR PLANT GUARANTEE: PLEASE REPORT WITH PICTURES any plant that arrives in less than good condition within 24 Hours of arrival. We have an arrive alive guarantee. If you report plants in less than good condition upon arrival with pictures, we will guarantee the plants going forward if they do not survive. We will offer a refund or replacement if something was sent improperly and does not survive. Choosing not to report an issue on arrival, carries no forward guarantee as we have no evidence of what may have caused the issue if not reported: Large fish, koi, or other animal damage, unattended packages, or planting improperly. We do ask you report items at first signs of stress, so we can examine them by photo to try and reverse the stressor on the plant. Plants should not perish when planted according to our instructions. If you wait until nothing is alive to contact us, we cannot determine what went wrong and there will be no refunds or replacements. We cannot guarantee plants that are damaged by fish, turtles or other wildlife. We do not guarantee plants due to your neglect. We send tracking information, so you know when to expect delivery. We are not responsible for packages left in metal lock boxes or left outside during hot or freezing temperatures upon arrival.

TERMS & CONDITIONS - REFUNDS, RETURNS AND CANCELLATION POLICIES: Because of the type of products that we sell, we do NOT accept plant returns. If you feel your product has arrived damaged or inferior, please contact us at info@pondplantsonline.com and provide a picture of the plants. We must be contacted within 24 hours of the receipt of your goods. If there is any issue with your order, please contact us within 24 hours upon receiving it. We believe in providing excellent customer service, and if there is a problem with a plant or product, we want to hear from you. We will do everything we can to rectify the problem. Occasionally, but rarely, there may be plants that are out of stock or not performing well enough to ship and we may substitute something in its place of equal or greater value. If you do not want substitutions, please mark in the comments section when placing your order "NO SUBSTITUTIONS". If you order plants that are illegal for the nursery to ship into your state, they will be substituted with similar plants of equal or greater value. By committing your order online, you are agreeing to accept the plants and products. If you cancel an order, there is a $15.00 cancellation fee if the order has been sent to the nursery. If you cancel an order before it has been sent to the nursery, there is a $6.00 cancellation fee for orders of $100.00 or less. For orders over $100.00, the cancellation fee is 2.9% of the order total. This is due to the PayPal and Credit Card Processing Fees we incur and they do not refund us those fees when you cancel the order. You will need to contact us if something is wrong with the items you purchased within 24 hours of receipt. It will be our decision on how to handle the issue. For hard goods there is a 20% restocking fee. All return shipping is the responsibility of the customer, and no refund will be made on the return shipping costs you incur. The cost of re-shipping any order replacement is your responsibility, unless the pond plants are dead or damaged in shipment. If a refund is issued it does not include the shipping fee. No free shipping is available on exchanges. If you feel the plants are dead, you will need to contact us and provide us with a picture of the pond plants before we will replace them. We will pay the shipping costs of plant replacements after receiving the pictures. When you order tadpoles or snails and temperatures are 80 degrees or higher across the country we cannot guarantee live arrival and no refund or replacement will be issued. It is your responsibility to provide us with the correct shipping address, email and phone number when placing your order. Please make sure your shipping address is correct when placing the order. FedEx charges us an Address Correction Fee of $18.00 if we have to change an address once the package is in transit. This charge may be billed to you to cover our additional cost to change an incorrect address.
You may contact us by email at info@pondplantsonline.com for any concerns or questions.