What to Do When Your Mail Order Plants Arrive

Your plants have had a big journey — dug up from their ideal growing environment, cleaned, soaked in kelp solution, and packed carefully in a dark box before travelling to you by road or air, often through some fairly different temperatures and humidity along the way. A little wilting, some yellowed leaves, or a plant that’s been cut back for safe posting is completely normal and not a sign anything’s wrong. With the right first steps, they’ll bounce back quickly and start putting out fresh growth in no time.

Unpacking and Potting Up

Unwrap your plants carefully and pot them into a high-quality, free-draining potting mix — not garden soil, which holds too much water and doesn’t drain the way potted tropical plants need. As a general rule, use the smallest pot the plant comfortably fits in: too large a pot holds excess moisture around the roots and makes plants prone to fungal problems and rot. Most of our plants suit a 140mm to 200mm pot to start.

Water the plant in well with a seaweed or Seasol solution straight after potting — this step is genuinely important, not optional, and helps the plant settle and start recovering from the journey. Continue with a weak seaweed or kelp solution weekly until the plant is established; seaweed solutions strengthen plants generally, and a fish emulsion feed adds a good broad range of micronutrients if you want to alternate.

Getting the Light Right

Place your newly potted plant in a shadehouse or somewhere with indirect light, gradually increasing sun exposure over the following weeks. Remember — your plant has just spent time in a dark box, so direct sun straight away can do more harm than good. Ease it into brighter conditions rather than exposing it immediately.

Watering and Feeding While It Establishes

Water regularly as the potting mix dries out, but avoid overwatering — this is genuinely the single biggest cause of plant losses after posting. Roots need oxygen to function, and roots sitting in waterlogged soil can’t get it (unless you’re growing an actual water plant). Once you see new growth, that’s your sign the plant is settling in well.

Feed with an organic fertiliser or chicken pellet fert once roots have established through the pot — there’s no rush here, and going gently is the safer path. A plant without a strong root system yet can’t handle full-strength fertiliser any more than it can handle heavy watering; ease it in and increase once you see the plant actively responding with new green growth.

Planting Into the Garden

Once your plant is established in its pot with good new growth, it’s ready to go into the ground.

If you’d rather skip the pot stage and plant straight into the garden, that’s an option too — just know you’ll have less control over light and water at this early stage, so success rates can be a little lower. If you do plant directly, make sure the area is well mulched, watered regularly, and protected from intense sun while the plant settles in.

A Word on Patience

It’s worth saying plainly: too much care can be just as harmful as too little. A plant that’s had a rough trip needs time, gentle conditions, and a light touch — not a rush of water and fertiliser to “fix” it quickly. Start slow, watch for the plant responding with fresh growth, and build up care from there.

If you have any questions about caring for your new plants, get in touch as soon as they arrive — that’s the best time for us to help you get it right, well before any issues have had a chance to set in.

Happy gardening!

Ann

[Internal linking note: this article is designed to be linked from the global Shipping & Care tab on every product, per the earlier product template discussion. Also link to the soil biology and bed preparation guides for anyone wanting to go deeper on getting soil right before or after planting out.]