Unboxing Your Plants: A Step-by-Step Guide

Plant gifts are the best gifts. They grow. They change. They last. And while it may be Boxing Day all over the world, it’s un-boxing day for Lazy Gardeners everywhere. 

Your plants arrive perfectly packed and ready to be potted. But where to begin? Do you water them first? Leave them in their nursery pots? Place them on your windowsill?

The first moments after your plants arrive are critical to setting your new plant partners up for success and longevity. We’re here to make it simple.

1. Unwrap your Plants

This is an obvious, but important step. Your plants have made a long journey and are craving some fresh air! Even if you aren’t 100% ready to water or repot them, simply unwrapping them and allowing them to breathe is a great way to acclimate them to their new home while absorbing the moisture and light of their new environment.

Using a pair of gardening or work gloves is always a good idea, especially if you’re handling sharp succulents or cacti. 

2. Dust them Off

Our plants ship all over the country and are often moved from handling facilities to trucks multiple times. While we carefully pack every plant to ensure optimal health, loose soil can move around and build up on some of the plants and their leaves. Using a soft-bristled toothbrush or carefully using your fingers (with gloves), brush off any loose soil to give your plants the fresh and healthy look they deserve.

3. Pick a Pretty Pot

Whether you paired your order with one of our pots, or you’ve already picked the perfect one, it’s time to repot your new plants! Grab your succulent and cactus soil mix and fill up your new pot about halfway. Remove your plant from its nursery pot and massage the roots to loosen them so that they can ground themselves in the new soil. Then, place the plant in its new pot and fill in the remaining space with soil. 

For a helpful video and detailed instructions on how to pot your plants, read our blog post here.

4. Water them Down

After a long journey, your plants could use a healthy dose of H2O. At Lazy Gardens, we stick to the golden rule of watering: soak your plants and let them dry completely. An easy way to give your plants a thorough, balanced watering is to place them in your kitchen sink and use a dishwashing attachment. A watering can will also do the trick. The sink is also an easy place to allow any excess water to drain out.

For a helpful video and detailed instructions on how to water your succulents, read our blog post here.

5. Find a Sunny Sill (then find the perfect spot)

Regardless of your succulent’s lighting needs, some initial sun is always a good idea out of the box. After that, we tend to default to bright, indirect light as the go-to option for our succulents and cacti. This can be accomplished by moving your plant a few feet off of a sunny windowsill or using a filtered lightshade. Read our guide to Succulent Lighting here.

At this point, you can sit back and watch your plants grow the Lazy way. Unboxing your plants is the fun part. What happens next is key to giving your plants the space they need to thrive. From there we’ve got all kinds of plant care tips and tricks to make sure you keep your plants in good shape.