Plant Shipping & Policies

Living things require a little fine print.

I put a frankly unreasonable amount of care into the plants I grow, select, propagate, and ship. My goal is simple: healthy plants, accurately represented, packed carefully, and sent to you in a way that gives them the best possible start in their new home.

They are, however, still plants.

Leaves change. Roots grow. Variegation does whatever variegation feels like doing. Shipping boxes occasionally have adventures I did not authorize. And once a plant arrives, its environment and care are no longer things I can control.

These policies are here to make sure we're both working from the same expectations before a plant leaves Critical Mass Biophilia. By purchasing a live plant, corm, starter, or other living plant material from Critical Mass Biophilia, you agree to the applicable policies below.

01Shipping

Shipping schedule

Plant orders currently ship on Mondays.

For now, concentrating shipments on one day allows me to pack carefully, keep an eye on weather and transit conditions, and reduce the chance of plants spending a weekend sitting in a carrier facility. As order volume grows, additional shipping days may be added.

Shipping may be delayed due to holidays, extreme temperatures, severe weather, carrier disruptions, or other conditions that I believe create an unreasonable risk to your plants.

Estimated delivery dates provided by a carrier or at checkout are estimates unless the selected service specifically guarantees a delivery date.

Shipping methods

Plant orders may be shipped via UPS or USPS, depending on the options available at checkout. There is an important difference:

USPS is offered as a lower-cost shipping option for customers who are comfortable assuming the additional risk associated with shipping live plants by that method.

Choosing USPS does not excuse an error on my part. If I send you the wrong plant, omit an item, or otherwise make a fulfillment mistake, please contact me. I'll make it right.

For particularly rare, valuable, large, or sensitive plants, I may require UPS or an expedited UPS service as a condition of sale.

Shipping charges

Shipping charges are calculated at checkout based on the order, package, destination, and selected shipping service.

If a shipping upgrade or additional weather protection becomes necessary after an order is placed, I'll contact you before making a change that requires additional payment.

Your shipping address

Please check your shipping address carefully before placing your order.

Customers are responsible for providing a complete and accurate delivery address. I cannot be responsible for delays, returned packages, losses, plant damage, or additional shipping expenses caused by an incorrect or incomplete address provided with the order.

If you notice an error before your order ships, contact me as soon as possible. I'll do my best to fix it. Once a package has been transferred to the carrier, an address change may not be possible.

Tracking & receiving your plant

Tracking information will be provided when your order ships. Please monitor it.

Live plants should be brought indoors promptly after delivery and should not spend the afternoon contemplating existence on a freezing porch, in a hot mailbox, or inside a parcel locker.

For purposes of these policies, an order marked delivered by the carrier is considered delivered.

If tracking shows delivery but you cannot locate your package, check the delivery area and contact the carrier promptly. I'm happy to provide information reasonably needed for a carrier investigation, but I cannot guarantee reimbursement for packages the carrier confirms as delivered.

Carrier delays

Once a package is accepted by the carrier, its routing, handling, and transit time are outside my direct control. Missed scans, routing errors, weather disruptions, mechanical problems, and delays unfortunately happen.

A carrier delay by itself does not automatically qualify an order for a refund or credit. If a UPS shipment arrives with significant plant damage as a result, however, it may be eligible for resolution under the Live Arrival Guarantee.

Returned & undeliverable packages

Packages returned because of an incorrect address, refusal, failed delivery, failure to collect a held package, or another issue outside my control are not eligible for the Live Arrival Guarantee.

If the plant is still in suitable condition when it returns to me, I may be able to reship it at the customer's expense. Please understand that after making two trips through a carrier network, a plant may no longer be in a condition I am comfortable shipping again.

Combining orders

Separate orders are not automatically combined.

If you place multiple orders that have not yet been packed, you're welcome to contact me and ask whether they can be combined. I will do so when practical, but I can't guarantee it.

If combined shipping results in a meaningful postage difference, I may issue an appropriate shipping credit or refund. Please don't assume that placing multiple orders will automatically result in refunded shipping charges.

Shipping restrictions

Plants will only be shipped where I can legally and reasonably send them.

Agricultural restrictions can vary by destination and plant material. I reserve the right to cancel an order that cannot legally or safely be shipped to the address provided. If I cancel an order for this reason, the affected purchase will be refunded.

02Live Arrival Guarantee

UPS shipments

Eligible plant orders shipped via UPS are covered by the Critical Mass Biophilia Live Arrival Guarantee.

That means your plant should arrive alive and in a condition reasonably consistent with a healthy plant that has just spent some time traveling in a dark box. It does not mean your plant will arrive looking as though it has just returned from a spa.

USPS shipments

Plant orders shipped via USPS are not covered by the Live Arrival Guarantee.

By selecting USPS at checkout, you accept the transit risk associated with that shipping method, including plant damage related to delays, temperature exposure, handling, or extended transit time. Again, this does not apply to fulfillment errors made by Critical Mass Biophilia.

Normal shipping stress

Plants can be dramatic about travel. Normal shipping stress can include:

• temporary wilting or drooping
• curled leaves
• an older yellowing leaf, or the loss of an older leaf
• small tears, minor blemishes, or other minor cosmetic damage
• changes in leaf position

These things alone do not mean a plant is unhealthy. Plants also need time to adjust to differences in light, humidity, temperature, airflow, and other conditions after arrival.

If something is genuinely wrong

The guarantee covers damage that happens in transit. Damage after delivery, such as a box left outside in heat or cold, is not covered. See After delivery.

A continuous unboxing video is not normally required. For certain unusually valuable plants, however, a listing may specifically require one for Live Arrival Guarantee coverage. If so, that requirement will be clearly stated before purchase.

Please don't perform emergency surgery first

If a plant arrives with a problem, please contact me before repotting, trimming, cutting, dividing, treating, or otherwise substantially altering it, unless immediate action is genuinely necessary to prevent further deterioration.

I need to be able to see what arrived and assess what happened. Alteration of the plant before documentation may limit my ability to evaluate a claim and may affect eligibility under the Live Arrival Guarantee.

After the delivery day

Plants are living things and their condition can change quickly in a new environment.

Once the reporting period has passed, I can no longer reliably distinguish a shipping problem from an environmental or care issue. Continued growth, appearance, or survival after that point therefore cannot be guaranteed.

You're still welcome to contact me if you're worried about your plant. I like plants and I want yours to do well. I just may not be able to treat the issue as a live-arrival claim.

03Resolutions, refunds & cancellations

Making it right

If something covered by these policies goes genuinely wrong, I will make a reasonable effort to make it right.

Because I sell unusual living material - and because an identical replacement may simply not exist - the appropriate solution will depend on the circumstances.

Store credit is my preferred resolution for approved plant claims. Depending on the situation, I may instead offer a replacement, partial credit, refund, prorated shipping refund, or another reasonable resolution.

Submitting a claim or photographs does not automatically guarantee a particular resolution.

Shipping refunds

Shipping is a service that has already been purchased and used once an order has shipped, so original shipping charges are generally non-refundable.

When a shipping-related refund is appropriate, shipping refunds will generally be prorated to the affected portion of the order rather than automatically refunding the entire original shipping charge.

Returns & exchanges

Because plants and propagation material are living, perishable products, all sales are final. I do not accept traditional returns or exchanges for live plant material.

Returning an outside plant to my growing space also creates a biosecurity risk to the rest of the collection, so once a plant leaves my care, it cannot simply come back because someone changes their mind.

Please review the listing, photographs, size, shipping method, and other details carefully before purchasing.

Cancellations

Orders may be cancelled until packing or fulfillment has begun. Once I have begun preparing an order for shipment, cancellation is at my discretion. Orders that have already shipped cannot be cancelled.

An accidental purchase, change of mind, failure to review a listing, or failure to select the intended shipping method does not automatically qualify an order for a refund.

04Weather & temperature

Weather holds

I monitor weather because plants unfortunately cannot.

I reserve the right to hold an order when extreme heat, cold, storms, carrier disruptions, or other conditions make shipping unnecessarily risky. If I hold your order for weather, I will ship it when conditions are reasonably suitable.

I'd rather have your plant spend another week happily growing here than knowingly put it into a box headed toward a weather disaster.

Heat packs, insulation & weather protection

Heat packs, insulation, or other weather protection may be offered or used when appropriate.

These measures reduce risk; they do not eliminate it. No heat pack or insulated box can guarantee a particular internal temperature throughout an unpredictable carrier journey. Weather protection is also not a substitute for an appropriate shipping speed.

Shipping against my recommendation

In some circumstances I may recommend an expedited service, weather hold, or additional protection.

If you specifically request shipment despite my recommendation to wait or upgrade, any resulting temperature-related damage may be excluded from the Live Arrival Guarantee. For conditions I consider genuinely unsafe, I reserve the right to decline to ship until conditions improve.

After delivery

Please arrange to retrieve your package promptly.

Damage caused after confirmed delivery - including heat, cold, direct sun, freezing temperatures, animals, theft, prolonged time in a mailbox or locker, or simply leaving the box outside - is not shipping damage and is not covered by the Live Arrival Guarantee.

05Local pickup

Local pickup is available by appointment for eligible orders.

Pickup instructions and location details will be provided directly after your order is ready. Please do not arrive without a confirmed pickup arrangement.

Plants continue growing while they wait, so prompt pickup is appreciated. If you cannot make an agreed pickup time, just contact me and we'll work out another time.

Please inspect your plant when you receive it. Once a local-pickup order has been accepted and leaves my care, its transportation, temperature exposure, handling, and growing conditions become the customer's responsibility. If you see a problem at pickup, please tell me then so I can address it with you.

06Living plants

Healthy does not mean flawless

I sell healthy plants. I do not sell plastic plants pretending to be healthy plants.

Living leaves can have small tears, blemishes, healed marks, minor tip damage, evidence of an old leaf, or other cosmetic imperfections from normal growth and handling. Unless a listing specifically promises otherwise, minor cosmetic imperfections are not considered defects.

WYSIWYG plants

A listing identified as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) is for the individual plant pictured.

Even WYSIWYG plants continue growing after their photographs are taken. A new leaf may emerge, an older leaf may yellow or drop, roots may grow, leaves may reposition themselves, and coloration may continue developing.

If a WYSIWYG plant changes materially before shipment in a way that I believe meaningfully affects what you purchased, I will contact you.

Representative photos

When a listing uses representative photographs rather than photographs of the exact plant, the plant you receive will be of the listed cultivar and general size or stage described, but natural variation should be expected.

Leaf count, shape, coloration, root development, variegation, growth pattern, and other characteristics can differ between individual plants.

Variegation

Variegation is biology, not a printing process.

I will describe and photograph variegated plants as accurately as I reasonably can, but future variegation cannot be guaranteed. A plant may produce more variegation, less variegation, different coloration, or partially or completely revert as it grows.

The appearance of the plant today is not a promise about every leaf it will ever produce.

Plant identification

Plants are identified and sold to the best of my knowledge using the information available from growers, breeders, suppliers, provenance, and accepted horticultural usage.

Plant taxonomy and cultivar naming are not always tidy. Names can change, synonyms exist, and plants circulate in cultivation under trade or cultivar names that may later be revised.

I will never knowingly misrepresent a plant. A later taxonomic or nomenclatural change, however, does not mean the plant originally sold was incorrectly represented.

07Corms & propagation material

Corms are living propagation material, not finished plants.

I inspect corms before shipment and sell material that I believe to be healthy and viable at the time it leaves my care.

Once a corm arrives, successful sprouting and establishment depend on temperature, moisture, humidity, substrate, sanitation, handling, and other conditions outside my control. For that reason, I cannot guarantee that a corm will sprout, root, establish, or survive after the applicable arrival period.

Variegated corms

A corm produced by a variegated mother plant does not come with a guarantee of a particular level or pattern of variegation.

Variegation can express unpredictably in new growth. A resulting plant may show more, less, different, or no visible variegation compared with its mother.

When mother-plant photographs are provided, they show the plant from which the corm originated. They are not a guarantee of the exact appearance of the plant that corm may eventually produce.

Corm kits

When a corm is sold with a propagation cup, substrate, or other growing supplies, those materials are provided to help give the corm a good start. They are not a guarantee of germination or successful establishment.

Plants retain the right to ignore our best plans.

08Pest management & beneficial insects

Critical Mass Biophilia does not routinely use conventional pesticides on the plant collection. Instead, I use beneficial insects and other preventative or integrated pest-management practices as part of maintaining the collection.

That means you may occasionally encounter a harmless beneficial organism associated with a plant or its substrate. This is not, by itself, evidence of a pest infestation.

At the same time, no living plant collection can responsibly promise that every plant is completely free of every pest, egg, spore, microorganism, or hitchhiker at every moment. Plants are inspected before sale, and I take the health of the collection seriously.

I nevertheless recommend quarantining every new plant, including mine, before introducing it to an established collection. It's good plant keeping.

09Care after arrival

Once a plant has been successfully delivered or picked up, its environment changes completely.

Light, temperature, humidity, watering, substrate, fertilizer, airflow, repotting, acclimation, pest management, and general care are all outside my control. I am therefore unable to guarantee continued growth, appearance, variegation, rooting, or survival after the applicable arrival period.

If you're unsure what to do with something you bought from me, though, please ask.

I would much rather answer a care question early than receive a photograph three weeks later accompanied by, "So, theoretically, how much water is too much water?"

10A few final things

I reserve the right to cancel an order if I discover an inventory error, a plant becomes unsuitable for sale before shipment, the destination presents a legal shipping restriction, weather or other circumstances make fulfillment unreasonable, or another problem prevents me from responsibly completing the order.

If I cannot fulfill something you purchased, you will receive an appropriate refund for the unfulfilled item and, where applicable, an appropriate adjustment to shipping.

Prices, inventory, availability, shipping practices, and these policies may change as Critical Mass Biophilia grows. The policies in effect when your order is placed will apply to that order.

Above all, these policies exist because I am dealing with living things.

I will represent them as accurately as I can, care for them properly while they're here, pack them thoughtfully, and deal fairly with you if something goes wrong.

In return, I ask customers to choose an appropriate shipping method, monitor their tracking, retrieve their plants promptly, document genuine arrival problems quickly, and provide reasonable care once the plant is theirs.

Last updated: October 2026