Encyclia leaves - water damage?
 

I received an Encyclia from Carter and Holmes in South Carolina. The package was mailed via USPS to Los Angeles, which took about 3 days to arrive.

The plants were wrapped in bubble wrap (?), completely sealed. When I opened the plants, they were soaking wet. The newspaper and easter paper used to wrap them individually were very wet, the medium was wet, and condensation formed on the leaves of plants. I think it is idiotic to bag plants in plastic during Summer, I'm not sure if they water them, thinking that will chill them. In my view, you're just creating a broiling bag or a sauna, perfect for bacteria, molds, and water molds to thrive.

One of the plants, an Encyclia hybrid, has sunken marks on the leaves. I'm unfamiliar with Encyclias; this is my first one, but the marks look like the initial stages of brown rot right before it starts oozing. They seem dryish to the touch, though.

I don't know if the marks are from a past pest attack or if Encyclias are prone to nasty leaves like Oncidiums and Zygopetalums, and therefore, this is nothing to worry about.

Do you have any thoughts on what this could be? I will contact the vendor, but I'd like to learn about it beforehand.

Thanks!

Encyclias don't have the "ugly leaves" issues of soft leaved plants like Zygos and Oncidiums and Cymbidiums. That looks like some sort of damage from heat (cold unlikely) or pathogen. I think contact the vendor for sure. 3 days in transit should have been no problem (even if dry... Encyclias are similar to Catts in being "dry tolerant" for short durations) It didn't need to be sopping wet.

Agree with Roberta. It would have been better off if they had shipped it bare root. Odd that they would ship an Encyclia like that. I wonder if that's how they ship their cattleyas?

I ordered two polychilos phals as well, and they were all wrapped together, I wonder if their thought was that the phals shouldn't dry out? Which is odd to me, they could've sent everything just wrapped in paper, and they would've been fine for three days.

I don't think I've ever received plants wrapped in plastic except for amateur or sub-par sellers. Only carnivorous plants have maybe been shipped in a plastic cup or with a dome but always with some holes.

C&H seems like a pretty old-fashioned place, so this is odd.

Ask them. Plastic with sphagnum is pretty common for bare root imports, especially those that really don't like to dry out. But those have to tolerate potentially long shipping times (like a couple of weeks) For epiphytes that have no problem drying out (and actually should, somewhat, such as Catts and relatives like Encyclias), for domestic shipping, it doesn't make sense to me. But we can only speculate... they can provide actual answers. and replace the plant if that's needed.

That is heat damage. It shouldn't get much worse. It's a problem with summer shipping, plastic or no plastic. I think the bubble wrap is more for bump and jostle protection.

There are so many things they can add for bump and jostle protection... but bagging wet plants in this heat without even some holes is asking for problems. The plastic will inevitably increase the temperature, paper and other stuff might insulate somewhat but still would allow for some transpiration and heat exchange.

The "wet" part is likely the problem, if it got hot enough you had a sauna.

My thoughts exactly! They graciously acknowledged that the plant had heat damage and will be shipping a replacement. They also said that if any other plants started to show signs of damage, they would replace them as well. Luckily, they aren't, they actually seemed to like it! (Phal. violacea and Phal. cornu-cervi)

All in all, great customer service.

C & H is definitely a class act. And the original plant will probably be OK too, so you'll have a backup.