We've worked through roughly half of the overdue orders over the past few months, and we'll be working through several hundred more over the next few months. We are currently rooting around 3,000 young trees and hope to have all orders shipped by early spring 2018.
Almost all cuttings orders have been shipped. There are still some cuttings customers I haven't heard back from, so if you have an outstanding cuttings order that you have not yet received, please contact us at greenfingardens@gmail.com so that we can get you taken care of. If you know anyone who has not yet received their cuttings order, please refer them here. This fig project has been a huge and very complex undertaking, and we don't want anyone falling through the cracks.
(Speaking of cracks: there was one customer who didn't receive the Olympian they ordered, and I wrote a note on their packing list saying I'd refund it, but by the time I remembered to do so I couldn't figure out who they were. So if that's you, or if you know who that is, please ask them to email me so that we can square things up.)
It's hard to have all varieties ready at the same time, especially when propagating around 250 varieties, so the best method for shipping has proven to be this: when the main part of your order is ready, I'll email you to double-check your current shipping address, to let you know which parts (if any) of your order are not ready, and to provide you with an extensive list of available varieties that are ready and could be substituted into your order. You can choose substitutions for anything you ordered, not just the parts of your order that I don't have ready (for example, if you've already acquired a variety during your wait, you can sub something else in for it). If we haven't contacted you about your tree order, please wait for us to contact you; don't email asking for an individualized progress report, as that will just gum up the system and slow things down for everyone.
I'd also like to make a very special offer to those of you who are still waiting on overdue tree orders. If you are willing to take cuttings instead of trees, I'll give you double-value (including shipping). So if you had a $100 order for trees (perhaps it was $70 for trees and $30 for shipping), you could convert that into a $200 order of cuttings (which would probably be $180 to $190 worth of cuttings and $10 or $20 for shipping). Here's the current list of available varieties of cuttings to choose from: http://www.figcuttings.com/p/blog-page.html (please don't email and ask about the availability of varieties that are not on the list)
I pruned all the trees in all of my tunnels in recent days prior to the arrival of extremely low temperatures around -10F (-23C). I wasn't sure if the wood would stay warm enough during the deep freeze, so I rescued it all beforehand. That means I now have around 6,000 cuttings in safe storage. They'll hold up pretty well for a while (I preserved viable cuttings for 3-5 months last year with the same technique), but it would be best to ship them out asap.
I'm hoping that a lot of tree customers take advantage of the double-value offer. Some people only want trees and don't want cuttings, and they can wait and receive their tree orders as planned, but there are probably many people who would prefer to switch and immediately receive a double-value shipment of cuttings, so I wanted to make that option available. Since it's much faster and easier to fill and ship cuttings orders than tree orders, the more people who make the switch, the more it will help us quickly work through the remaining overdue orders.
I remain sorry that it has taken so long and resulted in so much frustration, but we're making tremendous progress right now, and we are nearing the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you so much to everyone who has been patient and steadfast, and especially to the many of you who have taken the time to send me words of encouragement: you have been angels in the storm, and I am sincerely thankful for your help and kindness.
