Often members ask about Fedex and Ups shipping of cuttings from the USDA at Davis. I just checked my bill with Fedex for the 2 day shipment I received. I did ask for ground shipping but that did not happen. I am in Florida. Knowing the charge would be high I made certain I ordered a quanity to justify cost. My charge this year was $50.38. That would have been a little high for just a few cuttings. None of the ones I received duplicate anything I already have. Dividing each cutting into two or three cuttings I ended up with 130 cuttings. With a little luck there will many trades and outright give aways later this year. This will probably be the end of my orders to Davis unless they make available some of the varieties not currently available for distribution.

Jake

Jake, you have been good to me in the past (you are one of the best people in this forum).  If you have excess (even one each) of

DFIC 350, DFIC 399, DFIC 395, DFIC 393,DFIC 344, DFIC 339, DFIC 161, DFIC 74, DFIC 51, DFIC 22, DFIC 31, DFIC 46, DFIC 63, and Marseilles VS

I will split that bill 50/50 with you.  If you have others send me email.

Jake...You not only got a lot of cuttings for your $50 postage charge, but you received good quality cuttings that "will" root for you when you're ready to do so....I paid $35 in postage this year, but I did'nt order as many cuttings as you...either way it's money well spent.

I have received several requests from them; figs, pears, strawberries, & kiwis. They don't send anything ground because they want what they send to be highly viable. I was billed $80.00 for shipping for my strawberries, but I received more than 30 starts and everyone was well developed and they all rooted immediately. On top of which I received varieties that I could never have obtained in a lifetime otherwise. The work that is put into their collections is crucial to our food supply. Even if they did not fill requests their work in variety trials and research is priceless. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I think we are quite spoiled. It is the most amazing thing to be the recipient of such lavish collections. They could be charging for their products as well, but I am grateful that they don't (yet). This is one part of our way-too-big government that is priceless, in my opinion. I didn't even realize how much I took it for granted until the government shut down and I could no longer have access to their wealth of information. Sorry to go on so, but I guess I feel quite strongly on the matter.

Sorry but none of the ones you have listed were received from USDA this year. In fact, about half of those you have listed were not available from the USDA. Since they are more recent additions there is probably not enough material for distribution. Check back with me about Christmas about cuttings of the others.

I don't even check my fed ex bill.  It gets paid.  You try to purchase rooted varieties of what you got, count the money 10+ times!!  They do a good service.  I would be interested to see the reports on the research you are doing.  As would UC Davis.
Suzi

Overnight FedEx is expensive. It is their default option. I have them use my UPS account and have them sent ground. UPS is different for them, so may cause them to stop and look at the "ground" request.

I think if you are close they will send ground, which will get there in two days anyway. Also, it may be that they use the FedEx or UPS boxes for convenience.

I gave them my fed ex account number on my order and it was shipped via ups, and I never got a bill or letter or anything.

i typically ask for ground shipping. this time, it came in 2nd day air. cuttings were all good. figs are already rooting, but the others.. i'll have to figure out how to root them better. might need bottom heat. the cuttings are still alive so i'm holding out on heating mat. it's been two weeks. if i don't see roots by next week, they are getting heating mat.