# Shipping and pickup

> We ship to the contiguous US: live plants from February to May and October to November, seed and acorns all year. Rates are by zone, and local pickup is free.

Blue Whale Trees, a native tree nursery in the United States. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/shipping/

We ship to the contiguous United States. Live plants travel February to May and October to November; seed and acorns travel any time. Rates are by zone and per package, and local pickup is free.

## Rates

Charged per package: a base rate for the first item plus a smaller amount for each additional item in the same order. A packet of seed, acorns or nuts in a box with a live plant pays the seed rate's amount for an extra item. One package rate per order, however many boxes it takes: a large order that needs two boxes, or seed sent ahead of a held plant, costs no more than the rate shown at checkout.

| Zone | States | First item | Each extra |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Mid-Atlantic** | Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, District of Columbia, West Virginia | $15.00 | $3.00 |
| **Rest of contiguous US** | Every other state in the contiguous US (not Alaska or Hawaii) | $25.00 | $4.00 |

### Seed, acorns and nuts alone

An order of only seed, acorns or nuts, with no live plant in it, has its own rate. A packet costs less to send than a box of trees. With a live plant in the order, the plants pay the rates above and each packet in the same box pays this rate's amount for an extra item.

| Zone | First item | Each extra |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Mid-Atlantic** | $5.00 | $0.50 |
| **Rest of contiguous US** | $10.00 | $1.00 |

The exact charge is shown at checkout before you pay.

## When live plants ship

Live plants ship in spring and fall when they are dormant. Seed and acorns ship year-round. Live plants ship in **February, March, April, May, October, November**. If you order a live plant outside those months we hold the live plants and ship them in the next window, and we email you when they leave; acorns, nuts and seed in the same order go out right away as a separate shipment.

A box leaves within 1 to 3 business days of the order and is 2 to 5 business days in transit. We email you when it leaves, with the tracking number when the carrier provides one.

Some states bar certain plants, or let them in only with a certificate or permit. Checkout refuses a plant to a state whose published rules, as we have read them, bar it. Our [table of state plant rules](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/state-rules/index.html.md) lists each one, state by state, with the plants it names. We checked them in the National Plant Board's [state summaries for shippers](https://www.nationalplantboard.org/state-law--regulation-summaries.html) in October 2026.

## When your plants arrive

- Open the box the day it arrives, even if you cannot plant yet.
- Keep bare roots in their damp packing, shaded and out of the wind, and dampen the packing if it has dried. Plant within a day if you can, and within a week at most. To wait longer, heel the plants into damp soil or mulch.
- Water a potted plant and keep it shaded; it can wait weeks if watered.
- If anything arrived damaged, photograph it within 48 hours and email us.
- A dormant plant shows nothing until spring, and the guarantee runs to leaf-out. If a plant set out within a week of arrival has not leafed out by the end of the first June after it arrives, email a photo of the whole plant by the end of July. For an evergreen, new growth counts as leaf-out.

The [bare-root arrival guide](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md) gives the reasons. Then follow the [planting guide](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md) and put the trunk size into the [watering calculator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/watering/index.html.md).

## Local pickup

**Local pickup** is free. Choose it at checkout; we will email you when your order is ready and agree a time.

Larger orders, restoration plantings and anything too big to box are best collected; [write to us](https://bluewhaletrees.com/support/index.html.md#contact) to arrange it.