The 48-hour intake protocol

Hour 0: quarantine

Keep the new plant away from your other plants for two to three weeks, ideally in a different room. Pests hitchhike, and a scale outbreak spreading across a collection is a far worse day than one struggling plant.

Hour 1: full inspection

Look at both leaf surfaces, the leaf axils, the stem, the soil surface, and the roots. Note what you find before you change anything, so you can tell later whether you're making progress.

Hour 2: treat pests, gently

Rinse the plant in lukewarm water. Wipe visible pests off with a cloth or a cotton swab dipped in 70% isopropyl alcohol. Follow with insecticidal soap or a diluted horticultural oil, and repeat weekly for three weeks to break the egg cycle.

Do NOT repot yet

This is the single most common fatal mistake. Repotting is major surgery: it tears fine root hairs at exactly the moment the plant has the least energy to regrow them. A stressed plant should change one variable at a time.

Repot immediately only if the soil is waterlogged and actively rotting — in that case, remove the rotten roots, let the plant sit somewhere shaded and airy for a few hours, and replant in fresh, fast-draining mix.

Otherwise, wait two to four weeks until you see new growth. New growth means the roots are working again, and only then is repotting safe.

Hours 3-48: stabilize

Bright indirect light, no direct sun, no fertilizer, no pruning of anything that is still green. Water only if the soil is genuinely dry. Then leave it alone. Boring is the goal.