Unboxing a rare aroid: the first 48 hours

A rare aroid has just landed on your doorstep after two or three days in the dark. What you do in the next 48 hours matters more than anything else you will do for it this year.

Open the box the day it arrives

This is the single most important thing. A plant that sits boxed for another day loses leaves that it would otherwise have kept. If you cannot be there, have the parcel held at a pickup point rather than left on a porch in the cold or in full sun.

Cut the tape rather than tearing the box open, and lift the plant out by the pot, never by the stem or a leaf.

Check three things before you do anything else

• The substrate. Push a finger in. Plants usually travel slightly damp; if it is still moist, do not water.
• The base of the stem. It should be firm. Soft or discoloured tissue at soil level is the one thing worth telling us about straight away.
• The growth point. The newest, tightest leaf at the centre is what the plant will grow from next. As long as that is intact, the plant is fine even if an older leaf looks tired.

Where to put it for the first two weeks

Bright, indirect light — a few feet back from an east or north window, or behind a sheer curtain at a brighter one. Direct midday sun on a plant that has just spent days in the dark will scorch leaves that were perfectly healthy when they were packed.

Keep it above roughly 60 °F and away from radiators, cold draughts and the top of a fridge. Ordinary room humidity is fine; a humidifier helps but a sealed propagator is not necessary for an established plant.

Watering: less than you think

The most common way a healthy shipped plant is lost is a well-meant watering on arrival. Wait until the top few centimetres of substrate are genuinely dry, then water thoroughly until it runs from the drainage holes and tip away whatever collects in the saucer.

Aroids in a chunky, free-draining mix want to be watered properly and then left alone. Little-and-often keeps the mix uniformly damp, which is exactly the condition roots rot in.

Do not repot yet

Give it two to three weeks. The plant is already dealing with a change of light, humidity and temperature; adding root disturbance is what turns a settling-in wobble into a genuine decline. When you do repot, go up one pot size at most, and use a chunky aroid mix rather than a dense peat compost.

What is normal in the first fortnight

• One older, lower leaf yellowing and being dropped.
• A pause in growth for two or three weeks.
• A slightly limp look for the first day, recovering as the roots take up water.

What is not normal is mushy stems, rot spreading from the base, or the loss of the growth point. If you see that, photograph it and email us — every plant we send is covered by a 30-day guarantee, and we would much rather hear from you in week one than week four.