I wanted to send a Victoria plant to another city and the trip would take 15 hours by bus. The plant had five leaves of one foot diameter. It was growing in a plastic basket of 13 inches diameter.

After wrapping the pads and stems, it was time to think over the size and type of the container that would be required for the purpose. The plant was kept in a shallow pond in shade.

The drum selected was not of proper size as you can see it in the picture. Almost all the leaves remained outside the drum. Eight 2 mm holes were drilled near the bottom of the drum and at the level of the pot inside. With the help of wires, the pot was tightly secured to the drum so that in case the drum fell in a horizontal position, nothing would go wrong.

Now the main problem was to protect the leaves.

I decided to cut another drum and placed it up-side-down over the previous one and tied it up with wires after drilling holes. The plant reached safely to its destination and without setback of uprooting.

My son Taru (Taru means tree) and gardener Ramu are holding the drum.

I received these reports from the recipient:

14th Sept. 2002 - Very beautiful packing. Plant healthy.
17th Sept. 2002 - Plant well. No travel sickness.
18th Oct. 2002 - Plant growing extremely well.
19th Dec. 2002 - Plant is doing very well and is still growing because it is not that cold farther south. It has flowered six times.