i purchased african gardenia, gardenia vietnamese, chinese perfume plant. i have been dying to get the african G. and chinese PP. forever. the G vietnam was an impulse.

the plants arrived super healthy, with the exception of the the questionable african G. some leaves look dull nd dry.

i am almost completely satisfied....except there are stowaways in the soil which freakkkkeeedd me out!
so far i have murdered 2 ants 2 snails there is a third in there. two mealy bugs(they were easily found near leaves). nd the nastiest one is a baby centipede or milipede which ever( the flat ones)

so my question is... should i dump soil now because i dont want these things near me or other plants. or leave them be and let plants adjust. the bugs really bother me though.yuck!! i am going to post piks of these adorable tiny plants.
P.S feel free to offer care advice!
thanks

mike

As with any store bought plant,always check for bugs.

Since it has been a few days now,you can change soil, pot up and enjoy.

Kindly post pictures of the beautiful blooms. Good Luck

First, ISOLATE your new plants. Mealy Bugs are highly contageous and will infest other plants. They must be removed..Wiping Mealy off w/Rubbing Alcohol works somewhat.

Although Accents advises waiting a few days before repotting, I'd repot ASAP. Toss the soil outside, away from other plants.

As for ants and centipedes/milipedes..I've purchased plants, 'from other nurseries,' that contained hitch-hikers. And I'm TERRIFIED of 'pedes.. Oh God!
It happens, every so often.
There were times I received plants from Fl, and baby reptiles jumped out of the package. lol..They were so fast I couldn't catch them.

Last year I bought a Chinese Perfume plant from Accents, wanted an African Gardenia, too; they sell fast.

I don't recall seeing G. Vietnam.

Your new plants look nice and healthy.
How are they doing now? Toni

i still have the chinese perfume plant in same soil. dont have any more soil. i have to get some asap.
i will try and post pitures. my phone camera is not so lear.

hopefulA.-LOL @ baby reptiles

i now always check for bugs. especially after the first time i was viciously attaked by a spider one time.

what i do with plants, when i first get them, is remove soil and drown entire plant in a bucket of waqrm water and alcohol. and spray with a solution of soap, alcohol water. i do this all in a rush. and then no bugs! i keep checking of course.

How is the chinese plant? is it fragrant?
i still have my chinese plant in its same pot and soil away from everything else. i need more soil and it has a few buds coming along. mine has one little tiny yellow ball open and no scent maybe its too small or something. also i sometimes see sticky clear stuff but i dont see any bugs. when its time to change his soil he will be thoroughly cleaned. for now i will spray him randomly with soap and water nd alcohol. how do you care for your chinese plant?

the african gardenia sure does sell fast on accents. mine needed roots pruning so its recovering from that,so no sign of new grow but no signs of death either. thats good no?

the G. vietnam is doing well also. before i changed soil and put it in a bigger pot the leaves yellowed slightly. it is showing signs of new growth and im excited about it.

when I ordered online, some plants that are not currently available, their online site says will put these plants as a back order, which is fine with me. I don't have to have all the plants arrive at the same time. However, when the partial shipment arrived, they cancelled my rest of the back order, but I have paid the shipping cost base on the total cost of full order. I sent e-mail back to its customer service complained and I have never goten any response back. I hope Peeper's not making money this way.

However, they have a lot to improve about their customer service.

Susan

The responsibility of providing pest free plants to customers rests squarely and legally with the grower....NOT you! If a grower fails a state inspection, which are typically unannounced, there may be serious ramifications.

Please, you'll be doing this grower a huge favor if you bring this serious problem to their attention so that they can take action before they get closed down. This goes for anyone.....report infestions of any kind to the grower.

purpleinopp_ it is very pretty!! smells like bubblegum. late at night i thought i smelled chalk.0.o

I cant wait till african gardenia blooms :)

Rhizo, howdy. I agree plants should be pest-free.
All pests...ants or scale.

I notice some sellers leave plants outdoors. Unless pesticides are used, it's impossible controlling bugs. Don't like smelling Raid or some such poison when a plant is shipped. Disgusting.

Believe me, I hate spiders and ants, but insects creep in soil.

Insects find their way in green houses, too.

God, after hearing about vicious spiders, I now have second thoughts ordering plants. lol.

XMike, do you know what type of Spider tried attacking you? That's awful!! Toni

it didn't really attack me but it crawled onto my hand when i was removing it from the pot it came with. the spider might as well have attacked me, the reaction would have been the same...freak out!

it was a hard to spot spider because the most visible part of it was the abdomen.