After you pay
You own a plant now. Here’s the first week.
It was fine on that shelf for weeks. The goal is to change as little as possible.
01
Show the receipt.
To whoever’s behind the counter. Then take the plant off the shelf yourself — pot and all. Leave the tag in the pot; it’s got the care lines and the address of this page.
02
Get it home warm.
Under 50°F outside, tropical leaves get damaged in minutes. Ask for a paper bag, put it inside your coat, or take a car. Don’t leave it in a cold car while you run an errand.
03
Put it in the room on the tag.
The light number is the least it wants — a 1 is fine in a 3, a 3 isn’t fine in a 1. What the numbers mean.
04
Don’t repot it. Don’t feed it.
Not for a couple of months at least. It just moved house; it doesn’t need a second one. The nursery pot has holes, which is all a pot needs. If you want a nicer pot, set the nursery pot inside it.
05
Water it when the tag says. Not before.
It was watered before it went on the shelf. Count from the date on the tag, or set the reminder on the plant’s page — it puts a repeating event in your calendar, nothing else.
06
Expect one dropped leaf.
A plant that changes rooms often lets go of one old leaf. One is moving house. Several, all at once, is water — see what it’s trying to tell you.
Pets, kids, radiators
Every plant page says whether it’s safe to chew. If it isn’t, a high shelf solves it — the plants that aren’t chew-safe are the trailing ones, and they look better up high anyway. Keep any plant a foot or two from a radiator or heating vent; the air there is drier than a desert.
If something looks wrong
Every symptom, every plant, on one page. Or email hello@pilf.me with a photo. Replies come from a person, usually the same day.