At Plant Delights Nursery we make a great effort to produce well-grown, healthy, and accurately named plants, and it is our greatest wish for you to receive them in the best possible condition. Every order is carefully picked from our greenhouses, checked for accuracy, marked for necessary treatments, treated or bare-rooted if necessary, hand packed and shipped in our custom boxes. We ship all our plants fully rooted in pots, except for international orders and select dormant bulbs and tubers. While it does cost us more to ship the soil, in the case of delicate plants like Trillium, maintaining excellent root health is essential for the customer to receive a live and vigorous plant.

We have all heard the expression: first year they sleep, second year they creep, third year they leap. And while this certainly applies to some perennials, many of our plants skip “sleep” and “creep”, reaching near mature size in the first year, due to their excellent root health. Each box contains a PDN Plant Care Guide which provides important information on what to do after receiving your order. You can also find these instructions here.

Because we are gardeners like yourself and have ordered plants from mail-order nurseries for decades, we understand that the best time to order a plant is not necessarily the best time to plant it. That is why we have designed a custom checkout process that allows you to select your preferred shipping date that is independent of your order date. In other words, on our site you can purchase the plants in January (right after the new Spring catalog goes live!) and choose to get them delivered in April or place an order in July and have it delivered in October, whatever is appropriate for your area. The plants in your order will be reserved and taken care of by our nursery team until the ship date. A little tip, cold loving plants such as Cypripedium do best when shipped early in spring. If you do not indicate a preferred date, we will assign a date according to your USDA Hardiness Zone. Be sure to indicate any specific dates when you will NOT be available to receive your order. We want to be sure you are ready to receive your new adoptees. Email confirmations are sent after the order is entered into our order
processing system, so please watch for and review emails regarding your order. If any changes need to be made, please notify us as soon as possible.

Our shipping season typically runs from the end of February until the end of November, though it is driven by the weather, so in warmer years it may expand to nearly year-round. If the conditions are unfavorable anywhere along the shipping route, we reserve the right to postpone the shipment to ensure the safety of your plants. For the sake of the plants, our domestic standard shipping is designed to arrive within 3 days. Should you be concerned about the weather or need them quicker, we offer Next Day Air, and Second Day Air premium services to the continental United States at an additional cost. You can find the full list of our shipping fees here.

Despite our best efforts, some plants get damaged in shipping. One time, a package made it within 50 yards of the customer’s home in California only to take a sudden and very bumpy trip down to Florida, and then make its way back to California. When the unfortunate box finally arrived, it was held together with thoughts and prayers, and the plants inside have suffered severely. Though this was in no way our fault, we apologized profusely and refunded the order, and then had to fight the carrier to get reimbursed for the shipping charges. This is a rare case, but it serves to illustrate the challenges of shipping live plants versus things without roots and feelings.

When you receive your order, please unpack your plants as soon as possible! We can’t emphasize this enough. Please inspect your plants thoroughly, that includes pulling them out of their pots and making sure the soil is moist all the way through, and the roots and crowns are healthy. Watch Tony's unpacking video below for more tips.