Shipping & Receiving Large Heavy Items
(fountains, statues, benches, spillways, bulk filter material etc.).
Please request a quotation for large items by placing them in your cart and checking out. No payment is needed for a quotation request.
The Receiving a Freight Shipment page describes what to expect (18-wheeler), how to receive freight shipments (have a camera, annotate receipt, etc.), and terms & conditions for those items.
Shipping Aquatic Plants, Live Animals, & Supplies
All plants are propagated at Tricker's greenhouses and ponds and shipped directly to you. Many aquatic plants are availbale all year. The out-of-stock plants will be noted as such on the product page.
To help make your water garden successful, we have a shipping schedule based on your location and climate for live plants & live scavenger animals (tadpoles, clams, and snails; not aquarium animals) . The Spring Shipping Schedule (below) for aquatic plants & scavenger animals is determined by the destination state, climate, and shipping transit times.
Plants and live scavenger animals are shipped depending upon the weather conditions, the maturity or strength of the plants and hardiness. Water temperatures, including night temperatures, during transplanting is an important consideration.
Expect to receive your plants earlier or later, depending on the weather and whether you ordered only hardy, not tropical, plants.
Tropical aquatic plants should not be planted outdoors until the frost is over and the water temperature, both day and night, stabilizes to at least 70°F.
Hardy aquatic plants may ship earlier than tropicals.
The Terms and Conditions of Sale has more information about shipping and receiving your order.
A brief period of warmth, followed by cold can either stunt or kill the aquatic plants.
Hardgoods such as supplies and garden decor are shipped all year.
Aquarium plants and live food are also shipped all year long.
Freight items such as cast stone outdoor decor, large pond liners, and other large items, click here for extended terms.
Scavengers are live outdoor pond animals and include tadpoles, clams, and snails that ship according to this schedule. Live aquarium food and aquarium plants are shipped all year.
Depending on the quantity and type of supplies, Tricker's will send water garden supplies prior to the plants.
If you prefer different shipping dates, then consider ordering plants and/or live animals separate from hardgoods that ship all year.
If you want these to ship outside our schedule, then let us know at checkout and include a message as to why, such as you have a greenhouse where your order will be placed.
Aquatic Plants Safe-Shipping Schedule
The map shows the approximate Safe Shipping Schedule for aquatic plant orders placed before June 1st.
Orders placed prior to June 1st: Aproximate Safe Ship Dates for Tropical Plants (hardy plants typically go out earlier)
1 = End-April
2 = Beginning May
3 = Mid-May
4 = End-May
5 = End-May-June (typically End-May depending upon weather conditions and variety of aquatics selected). AFTER JUNE 1 all orders are shipped ASAP.
Checkout Shipping Options
You can have your plants and animals shipped per our
If you are not familiar with the plants that you order and what their weather/climate conditions should be, then please select the recommended Spring Shipping Schedule. Botanists transplant after the spring temperatures stabilize, and so should you.
Aquatic plants grow rapidly and a short wait is often rewarded with growing and continued flowering success. Problems may be from your weather changing to cold, limited sunlight from clouds and fog, etc. If you choose to ship your plants and/or animals earlier than the recommended schedule for your state, please use the comment section and explain why, i.e. you will use a greenhouse with heated water, strong photo lights, etc.
A delay in shipping may occur in early spring because our hardy aquatics and some tropical aquatics need to emerge from dormancy where they will be strong enough to ship and transplant. This may happen in late spring.
Tricker's wants you to be successful, and a short wait will be rewarded. When summer begins, all aquatics can be planted throughout the summer in an outdoor water garden for your enjoyment.
The above map is UPS's standard ground shipping transit times from our historic aquatic nursery in Ohio. Most hard goods will be shipped via ground UPS. To remote states, expeidted shipping will be used for live plants and animals.