A plant that has just come out of a box is not in the same state as one you carried home from a greenhouse. It has spent two to four days in the dark, probably at the wrong temperature, unable to photosynthesise and unable to drink properly. What you do in the first week decides how quickly it recovers.
This is what we tell every customer we ship to, whether the box is going to Houston or Helsinki.
Open the box the day it arrives
Not the next morning. A sealed box is dark, warm and humid, which is exactly how rot starts. If you know you will be out, have it held at the depot rather than left on a porch in Texas heat or a freezing doorstep.
Unwrap everything and take the plant out of its packing material completely. Photograph it before you do anything else — if there is shipping damage, that photo is what settles it, with us or with any other seller.
Expect it to look rough
Some yellowing on lower leaves, a bit of droop, one or two leaves lost in transit — all normal, all recoverable. The plant spent days in the dark and shed what it could not support.
What is not normal: mushy blackened stems, a sour smell, or a root ball that falls apart wet. That is rot, and it needs dealing with immediately rather than waiting to see.
Do not repot it
This is the most common mistake and it is the one that actually kills plants. The instinct is to give a tired-looking plant a nice new pot and fresh soil. Repotting is a second major stress on top of shipping, and the combination is what finishes plants off.
Leave it in its nursery pot for at least two to three weeks. Wait until you see new growth — that is the plant telling you it has recovered and can take the disturbance.
Water once, properly, then wait
Check the soil first by pushing a finger in. Most shipped plants arrive slightly dry, which is deliberate — wet soil in a box is far more dangerous than dry.
If it is dry, water thoroughly until it runs from the drainage hole, then let it drain completely. If it is already damp, leave it. Then do not water again until the top two inches are dry. A stressed root system cannot use much water, and soggy soil on a jet-lagged plant is how you turn a recoverable plant into a dead one.
Medium light for the first fortnight
Do not put it straight into your brightest window. A plant that has been in total darkness for days will scorch in direct sun. Give it bright indirect light for two weeks, then move it to its permanent spot gradually.
In Texas specifically: keep it away from an unshaded west window until it has settled. That window is brutal from May to September and it will cook a recovering plant.
No fertiliser for a month
Feeding a stressed plant does not help it recover; it burns roots that are already struggling. Wait for new growth, then start at half strength.
Quarantine it for two weeks
Keep any new plant away from your existing collection for a fortnight, whoever it came from including us. Pests travel, and eggs that were invisible on arrival hatch about a week later. Two weeks apart saves you an infestation across every plant you own.
How we pack, and what to do if it goes wrong
Every order is wrapped, braced so the root ball cannot shift, and boxed by hand the morning it leaves Boerne. Through the cold months a heat pack goes in, and we time shipments so nothing sits in a depot over a weekend.
If a plant arrives damaged, send us a photo within 48 hours and we will make it right. That is easier for everyone than you trying to nurse something that arrived broken.
Close enough to collect instead? Local pickup in Boerne skips all of this — the plant goes from our greenhouse straight into your car. See what is ready, or request something specific.