If your plants are arriving bare root (unpotted) then here are some things to consider before removing plants from their protective packaging, if you do not have suitable media ready then it’s best to keep your sealed plants in a cool place out of sunlight and this can keep them healthy for days if required as long as there are no blackening leaves.

Media - You should already ideally have a suitable soil type ready before plants arrive and this needs to be acidic and contain no added nutrients, for a list of growing media suitable for different species of carnivorous plants please see Carnivorous plant care. If your media is fairly dry please hydrate it well before potting as too dry a media can struggle to wick water from the bottom.

Settling in and position - Once potted up plants will ideally need a chance to set their roots in to keep the plant hydrated, for this period keep any newly potted plants out of direct sunlight and away from sources of heat, wilt or blackening of leaves may occur, a week or so should be sufficient, for plants requiring different light levels again please see the Carnivorous plant care section.

How re-potted plants are expected to look -

Dionaea - in particular seldom look presentable when potted up but in time they will settle and look good again with upright leaves, they can lose older leaves in the first few weeks depending on th time of year but they do regularly send up new traps anyway as older traps are recycled, the “bulb” is the important part where new growth comes from so in the event some or all of leaves die off do not assume it has died, complete leaf loss is though unusual and can be an indication of other issues.

Drosera - These plants may get some dirt stuck on the leaves and can lose the dew of the trapping leaves, it usually only takes a week or so to root in and dew up again, keep well hydrated.

Sarracenia - Depending on the plant being newly divided or a well established but newly potted up there might be some wilt or drying of the lids initially, wilted plants can pop back up when there is enough hydration, kept out of direct sunlight this shouldn’t be an issue however.

Darlingtonia californica - I wouldn’t expect any issues if kept with plenty of clean water and cool fresh conditions.

Nepenthes - These will be sent potted in most cases but with a new environment I would not expect issues apart from maybe a pause in growth.

General - Plants can sulk even from a change to the environment and more so being bare rooted and re-potted so loss of the odd leave can be expected, the important part is the rhizome/ bulb and the centre growing point, as long as they are healthy plants will bounce back, overall though plants don’t get too many issues as long as the advice is adhered to, remember, I’m only a message away if there are any concerns.