Hello r/airplants, 

I am new to air plants and air plant care. At the beginning of November we ordered some air plants from Airplants Direct supplier on Faire for our retail shop, thinking it would be a fun addition to the store. We ordered several dozen small plants and x12 containers of their custom blend of powder plant food. The package was shipped priority mail, so I was expecting ro receive it within a single week. I am in Alaska and most packages take some extra time (up to 1 month+ for ground)  but generally priority packages get here in prompt timing. 

The weeks went by and I watched my poor box of plants sit at post office after post office, always moving just enough to not justify a missing package form. Because of this the plants went way past their due watering date. I am firstly upset with the postal service, and will attempt to proceed in finding reimbursement for the drying out of the plants. The box was a bit beat up and my local PO said they had to tape it up and had documented it had been damaged (I appreciate our local PO workers and know this was not on them).

That would have been bad enough - at this point I was not upset with Airplants Direct, as they had no say in the speed of the priority shipping.  However, I was horrified at the contents of the box when I opened it. A bunch of blue-dusted and stained dry plants, all muddled together in a single hateful clump was the sight that greeted me - the fertilizer bottles had been laid on the bottom of the box raw, with no packaging keeping them from the plants. The poor plants...they were all on top of the bottles, again nothing separating the species or anything. They will be receiving an upset message and hopefully can reimburse some damage from their end as well.

I have promtly rinsed them all in a lukewarm water bath and have them soaking, changing the water occasionally. I read to soak very dried plants in water for 5-8 hours. 

As a newbie to air plants, I am reaching out in hopes someone might be able to share additional tips to keep these poor little plants alive. Hoping the stained ones are not poisoned from overfeeding, and hoping the stains come out with more soaking.

My heart hurts for these little guys. 💔 Sorry for the gore, tagging NSFW because it is brutal. They look like I feel right now.

Help! Air plants damaged by negligent supplier packaging - powder plant food spilled & soaked into plants for possible weeks