From 2019 to summer of 2021 we have imported from Thailand and Sri Lanka a dozen times. The nurseries ship to us via Air Freight. This allows the plants to go from their nursery to ours in just 2-3 days!

Previously, once received we would pot them up, observe them for 4-6 weeks, and then ship them out to customers. Now for some orders, we are offering a pre-order.

Items in the shopping list labeled pre-order mean that once we import them (which involves USDA permits, a broker, and inspection) we will ship the plants immediately to you. This way you can get the plants sooner and acclimate them to your set-up. This allows the plants not to be jostled and disturbed as many times as our previous method.

Our pre-order works slightly different than other nurseries. For an item to be listed as a pre-order, that means that we have already paid the foreign nursery and the plants are about to be shipped within a week or two! If you order a pre-sale item, you should get your plant within two to three weeks. To import them into the country takes 2-3 days and then we ship using Priority USPS which is another 2-3 days.

While items that we have in stock only ship on Mondays, pre-order items will ship as soon as we receive the plants. This is typically Tuesday-Thursday.

When you receive your Nepenthes from your pre-order order or from our stocked plants you will need to acclimate them to your growing conditions.

Pot them up immediately. We typically use 100% long fiber sphagnum but others have had success with 50% long fiber sphagnum and 50% perlite. Once potted up, give them a good watering with distilled, R/O, or rainwater. They should be kept in very high humidity initially. Aim for 80-100%. Placing them in a terrarium or zip lock bag is a good idea. Plants that are suspended over a shallow water level is another option, but probably will not be sufficient if the ambient humidity is low. Air flow is also important. So you’ll need to figure out how to balance high humidity with air flow. When we keep the plants, we acclimate them in our closed greenhouse, which is misted hourly. It is also important to initially keep them in low light. Every day slowly expose them to more light and lower humidity. If you are using a plastic bag, open the bag  10% a day. Pitchers typically die/shrivel up after a lengthy shipment. This is normal. Leaves should remain rigid and green. If they start to brown or become limp, do not lower the humidity and do not increase the amount of light.  Losing 1-2 leaves is also normal – especially if your humidity is not high enough. Never fertilize a stressed plant.

Acclimation takes time. Plants may take 2-6 weeks before they are putting out new leaves. Check out this video I wrote to learn more.