Processing & Shipping Time
Processing & Shipping Time
Contents
1. Our Week — Dispatch & Pickup
| Shipping | Pickup (by appointment) | |
|---|---|---|
| Monday – Wednesday | Regular Canada-wide shipping schedule. | 10 am – 5 pm |
| Thursday | Continued package dispatch from Ontario and Montreal. | 10 am – 5 pm |
| Friday | No package dispatch. | 10 am – 5 pm |
| Saturday – Sunday | No package dispatch. | Only if arranged in advance during the week — see below. |
Our office is open Monday to Friday, 10 am – 5 pm Eastern. We are closed on Saturday and Sunday, and we reply to messages within 1 – 2 business days.
2. Local Pickup
Pickup is available by appointment only, at our office at Hwy 7 / Bayview, Richmond Hill. The exact address is sent to you once your time is confirmed. Our address is not open to the public, and any visit without an appointment will be turned away.
To book, email us with your order number and two or three times that would suit you.
Weekend pickup
We do not work on Saturday or Sunday, but if you arrange it with us during the week, we can prepare your order in advance and leave it ready for a weekend collection. This has to be agreed beforehand — please do not plan on a weekend pickup that has not been confirmed by email.
3. How Long Your Order Takes
In-stock orders
Orders containing only in-stock plants are prepared and dispatched within 2 – 4 business days, following the dispatch schedule above. In cold weather this may be longer, as we wait for conditions that are safe for the plants to travel — see Section 5.
Preorder plants
Preorder plants are not in stock. They are imported for you, and typically arrive about a month after the preorder month closes — for example, plants from a September preorder arrive in October. You can follow the progress of every import batch on our Preorder Status Tracking page, and announced arrival and shipping dates are also posted on our homepage and Instagram.
Newly arrived preorder plants
Orders holding newly arrived preorder plants ship within about one week of the announced shipping date. When a large import lands, processing can take an additional week.
Orders placed on hold
If any plant in your order is not in good condition, or does not match its description, we hold the order and contact you before shipping. This delays dispatch, and we would rather delay than send you something we would not want to receive ourselves. If your order is on hold and you have not heard from us, email us and we will check it for you.
Mixed and large orders
If your order contains both in-stock and preorder plants, or plants from more than one preorder collection totalling more than five items, it takes longer to prepare. We will contact you first to go through the order and send out what is ready. These orders need extra handling, and we appreciate your patience with them.
4. Choosing a Shipping Speed
Rates are calculated at checkout, and we encourage you to choose the service that suits your area and the weather on the day. As a rough guide:
| Conditions | What we suggest |
|---|---|
| Mild weather | Standard shipping is generally sufficient. |
| Hot weather | A faster service is worth the difference — heat builds up quickly inside a parcel. |
| Cold weather | The fastest service you can reasonably take, together with winter protection. |
For small parcels — five items or fewer, or under 1 lb — our rates are competitive and fast, and we are happy to upgrade the service at our own expense where it helps the plants. Larger parcels cost more to send. If you have several orders that need to travel together, we combine postage; where that requires an adjustment we will contact you, and your order may be placed on hold in the meantime.
5. Cold-Weather Shipping
We do not hold orders waiting for warmer weather. Orders ship on schedule year-round, on the terms below.
There is no single temperature threshold. Different genera tolerate cold differently, and we assess each shipment against the plants in it, at three points — the origin, the transit route, and the destination. A shipment may be treated as cold-season even when your local forecast looks mild, because the route passes through colder regions.
When we assess a shipment as cold-season, Winter Shipping Protection and a heat pack must be added to your order. These are not optional extras — they are the condition on which we ship live plants in cold conditions, and the condition on which the Live Arrival Guarantee applies during those months.
⚠️ Cold-season orders without the required protection are cancelled by us and refunded in full, including shipping. We will email you when this happens.
We will not ship live plants in cold conditions without protection, and we will not ship at your risk on request. We would rather cancel your order than send plants we expect to freeze.
6. Tracking & Getting in Touch
When your order ships you will receive an email with a tracking number. Please allow up to 48 hours for the carrier's tracking information to appear.
For anything to do with your order — timing, changes, pickup, or a problem on arrival — email info@orchidmart.ca with your order number. Order changes are only actioned in writing, so that both sides have a record of what was agreed.
Orchidmart Inc. · Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada · info@orchidmart.ca