Opening a box containing a plant you ordered online feels a little like Christmas for gardeners, especially when you’ve been waiting weeks for a hard-to-find variety. The temptation is to unwrap it, give it some water, and immediately place it beside your other plants or into the garden. However, plants can carry insects, eggs, mites, diseases, or other organisms that aren’t immediately obvious, and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service specifically warns that online plant purchases can introduce invasive pests and diseases. A careful online plant pest inspection takes only a few minutes and could prevent one inexpensive purchase from creating an expensive garden-wide problem. Before that new arrival meets the rest of your plants, here’s where—and what—you should check.
