When we ship custom large topiaries or live trees, we must put them on a pallet or crate them. We typically do not know the details of shipping your order until it is built. We can provide an estimated quote for pallet, making a crate and shipping costs, but the real cost of shipping is known when we are ready to ship. Thus, shipping is just a quote on the shopping cart.
Also, if you need to use a tail gate lift to unload the crate or pallet at the destination, this is an additional charge we are imposed by the shippers.
We have found shipping to be cheaper if we make the topiary in smaller pieces and you would need to assemble the topiary upon arrival and typically do not need an automated tail gate lift to unload the pallet or crate as the topiary would ship in standard shipping boxes to the destination.
Applicable fees for shipping a large over sized custom topiary is the cost to make the crate or slate to fit on a pallet or fee to take an existing pallet to hold the trees upright for shipping, plus the shipping cost and optional tail gate lift.
Below is an example of a crated horse topiary to ship as a whole piece.
