Shipping & Handling
How a living plant gets from our benches to your door without dying on the way.
Two ways to get your plants
| Method | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shipping | $14.95 flat free over $99.00 |
Lower 48 states only. Packed Mon–Wed, 2–4 days in transit. |
| Local pickup | Free | Pinellas Park, FL. By appointment only — call (727) 254-9153 first. |
Shipping is a flat rate regardless of how many plants are in the box — it costs us much the same to send six as it does sixty.
Local pickup
Pickup is free, in Pinellas Park, FL, and by appointment only. Call (727) 254-9153 to check availability and book a time. We give you the exact address once your appointment is confirmed — please do not just turn up, there is not always someone here and we would rather not waste your drive.
Cash is accepted on pickup; card, Venmo and Zelle all work too. Collecting in person also means no transit stress on the plants at all, which for anything cold-sensitive in winter is genuinely the better option if you are close enough.
When we ship
We pack Monday through Wednesday only. This is deliberate: a box shipped on a Thursday or Friday has a real chance of sitting in an unheated depot over the weekend, and that is where mail-order plants die. If you order Thursday afternoon, your plants go out the following Monday.
Orders are packed within 1–3 business days of that window, and transit is typically 2–4 days.
How we pack
- The root ball is bagged and secured so soil does not shake loose in transit.
- The plant is braced inside an insulated box so it cannot rattle around.
- Heat packs are added automatically when forecast temperatures along the route drop below 45°F.
- Boxes are marked as live plants so carriers handle them accordingly.
You get a tracking number by email the moment the label is created.
Extreme weather holds
If your area is in a hard freeze or a serious heat wave, we will hold your order and contact you rather than ship a plant into weather it will not survive. You are welcome to tell us to send it anyway — but a shipment you asked us to push through a weather hold is not covered by our claims policy.
Risk in transit
Orders ship at the purchaser's risk — once a carrier collects the box it becomes your property, and a claim for loss or damage in transit is filed with that carrier. We pack carefully, keep records, and will supply whatever a carrier claim needs, but we cannot refund freight damage on their behalf. Anything that arrives wrong, diseased, or untrue to name is a different matter and is covered by our guarantee — photograph it and tell us within 48 hours.
Where we ship
We ship to the lower 48 states only — the contiguous United States plus Washington DC.
We cannot ship to Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico. Live plants entering those territories need phytosanitary certification and inspection paperwork we are not set up to issue, and the transit times involved are hard on a plant regardless. We would rather not take your money for something that arrives dead. We do not ship internationally for the same reasons.
State restrictions within the lower 48
Live plants cross state agricultural lines, and several states restrict specific genera to protect their own commercial growers from pests and disease. We enforce this at checkout — you will be told before you pay, never after.
| State | Plants we cannot ship there |
|---|---|
| Arizona | Barbados Cherry (Acerola), Blue Java "Ice Cream" Banana, Dwarf Cavendish Banana, Frederick Passion Fruit, Grand Nain Banana, Jaboticaba (Brazilian Grape Tree), Kari Starfruit (Carambola), Pickering Dwarf Mango, Raja Puri Banana, Red Lady Papaya, Ruby Supreme Pink Guava, Soursop / Graviola |
| California | Barbados Cherry (Acerola), Blue Java "Ice Cream" Banana, Dwarf Cavendish Banana, Frederick Passion Fruit, Grand Nain Banana, Jaboticaba (Brazilian Grape Tree), Kari Starfruit (Carambola), Pickering Dwarf Mango, Raja Puri Banana, Red Lady Papaya, Ruby Supreme Pink Guava, Soursop / Graviola |
| Florida | Barbados Cherry (Acerola), Jaboticaba (Brazilian Grape Tree), Kari Starfruit (Carambola), Pickering Dwarf Mango, Red Lady Papaya, Ruby Supreme Pink Guava, Soursop / Graviola |
| Louisiana | Pickering Dwarf Mango |
| Texas | Barbados Cherry (Acerola), Jaboticaba (Brazilian Grape Tree), Kari Starfruit (Carambola), Pickering Dwarf Mango, Red Lady Papaya, Ruby Supreme Pink Guava, Soursop / Graviola |
Something went wrong?
Email russ@tropiplants.com or call (727) 254-9153 with your order number and a photo, within 48 hours of delivery. We answer every message, usually the same day.