Ordered from a small online nursery, it evidently sat somewhere over a bank holiday and arrived after nine days in transit. Soil bone dry, four of six leaves yellow and floppy, one snapped stem. The seller says give it two weeks before deciding. Is that a fair ask or is it just past the point where they can be blamed, and if I keep it, does it get repotted now or left completely alone?
I order a lot and my first hour routine is fixed: unbox immediately, check for pests before it goes near anything else, water thoroughly into the sink and let it drain properly, then a bright spot away from radiators and direct sun, and a bag or a clear box over it for a week if it is a humidity fussy species. Nothing else for at least a month. Most plants that look dead on arrival are dehydrated rather than dead, and the ones that do not recover usually declare themselves within ten days.
Quarantine before pests is the step people skip when the plant looks pitiful and they want to rescue it. That is how a courier delay becomes a spider mite problem across the whole shelf.
I repotted a stressed arrival because the nursery soil looked dreadful, and I killed it inside a fortnight. A plant that has just spent a week in the dark with no water has no capacity to also rebuild a root system. Bad soil for two months is survivable; root disturbance on top of transit shock often is not.
Exactly this. The only time I repot on arrival is if the roots are sitting in something waterlogged and sour, and even then I do the minimum and keep the same root ball intact.
Different call: take the refund and buy a calathea locally where you can see it. They are hard enough to keep happy from a good start, and a nine day box is not a good start - you may spend six months nursing something that never fully comes back, and blame yourself for it. Nothing wrong with rescuing it too, but do not pay for the privilege.
Ask the seller in writing now whether the two weeks affects your right to a refund. Most reasonable sellers will say no. If they will not put that in writing, you have your answer about them.
@leaf_litter_lou · 2mo ago
Two weeks is a normal ask for a hardy plant and a big ask for a calathea, which is close to the worst traveller in the common houseplant range - they resent dry roots, cold, and being in the dark, and nine days is all three. Photograph everything today, in daylight, including the box and the label, and send the photos now rather than in two weeks, because that protects you either way. Then water it, put it somewhere bright but not sunny, and do nothing else. No repotting, no feeding, no cutting anything off that is still green.
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