Coverage & geographic scope

Our standard shipping policies, protections, and guarantees apply to the 48 contiguous United States.

We do ship to Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico, but because transit times and conditions can be unpredictable, these orders ship at the customer's liability. Unfortunately, we're unable to guarantee delivery condition, timing, or temperature exposure for these locations.

Live Delivery Guarantee

48 contiguous states only

We guarantee that your plants and beneficial organisms will arrive healthy and ready to work on the first delivery attempt. If they don't, we genuinely want to help and will make it right, provided the conditions below are met.

To qualify for a replacement or refund:

• Please email us within 24 hours of delivery
• Someone must be available to receive the package promptly
• The guarantee applies only to the first delivery attempt
• Packages left outside, in mailboxes, or on delivery vehicles for extended periods aren't covered
• Packages that are returned to FGMN — including refused deliveries, return-to-sender, unclaimed packages, and carrier returns following failed delivery attempts — are not covered

We pack with care and insulate when needed, but even the best packing can't protect a temperature-sensitive shipment if it sits unattended or makes a return trip through the carrier network. Please open your package as soon as it arrives and reach out if something doesn't look right — we're here to support you.

When we ship

U.S. only

We ship Monday through Thursday. Orders placed after Thursday ship the following Monday, so your organisms travel early in the week and aren't sitting in a facility over the weekend.

Processing can take up to 7 days — we wait for the right life stage before shipping rather than sending an order out early. A shipment timed correctly is worth the short wait.

Most plants ship potted; larger plants may ship bare root when that's the safest option. Each plant is carefully wrapped in polyfill or paper, bundled, and secured. During extreme temperatures, we add insulation such as bubble wrap for additional protection.

Please make sure someone is available to receive the package promptly. Our Live Delivery Guarantee applies only to the first delivery attempt.

Important address policy

We strongly discourage shipping to PO Boxes. PO Boxes are not serviced by UPS or FedEx, cannot accept oversized or temperature-sensitive packages reliably, and routinely sit unattended for extended periods — all of which are incompatible with shipping living organisms. Please provide a valid residential or commercial street address at checkout.

If a PO Box address is used at checkout — or if a PO Box is disguised as a street address to bypass our checkout restrictions (including but not limited to: entering "PO Box," "Box," "PMB," or a box number in the street address field; using the street address of a USPS post office, UPS Store, or other mail-receiving facility; using a mail forwarding service address; or any other workaround intended to route the package to a PO Box) — FGMN assumes no liability for the shipment under any circumstances. The Live Delivery Guarantee, AfterShip Protection, carrier damage claims, and replacement/refund/store credit policies do not apply. This includes packages that arrive non-viable, are lost in transit, are damaged, delayed, returned to sender, stolen, or held beyond a safe holding window. These shipments ship entirely at the customer's risk, and any disputes or chargebacks filed on PO Box or PO Box–disguised shipments will be contested with this policy as evidence.

If an address is incorrect, incomplete, or not serviceable by USPS, UPS, or FedEx, we're unable to honor refunds or our Live Delivery Guarantee. We also can't replace or refund orders that are delayed, lost, or damaged due to address errors.

Packages forwarded or rerouted through third-party services — including mail forwarding services, package consolidators, and freight forwarders — are not eligible for refunds or replacements.

What to expect on arrival

Predatory mites, beneficial insects, and nematodes are living organisms, and a successful release depends on conditions both during transit and after delivery. The Live Delivery Guarantee covers arrival condition; the points below cover what's reasonable to expect once the package is in your hands.

What a healthy arrival looks like:

• Most predatory mites are microscopic and not visible to the naked eye. A successful shipment won't necessarily show visible movement on the carrier material — pest reduction over the following days and weeks is the true indicator of success.
• Sachets contain mostly eggs and immature stages, with adults emerging slowly through the pinhole over 4–6 weeks. You shouldn't expect to see large numbers of mites on or around the sachet at any point.
• Green Lacewing larvae arrive as incubated eggs and typically hatch within 24–48 hours of delivery. Cold transit can delay hatch by 1–2 days. Both Lacewing Larvae and Lacewing Eggs produce 1mm translucent larvae that are difficult to see without magnification.
• Cold packs that arrive warm or melted are normal — they did their job during transit. The absence of a cold pack means temperatures along the route stayed in a safe range and no cooling was required.

Post-delivery handling is the customer's responsibility:

• Release contents promptly on arrival. Packages held unopened for more than 24 hours after delivery are not covered by the Live Delivery Guarantee.
• Don't leave packages in direct sun, parked vehicles, unheated garages, or other temperature-extreme locations after delivery.
• Open and inspect the package as soon as possible after delivery so any issues can be reported within the 24-hour window.

Effectiveness depends on correct application:

Beneficial organisms are species-specific. The right predator for your pest, life stage, plant type, and environmental conditions determines whether a release will succeed. We provide a matchmaking quiz, species-specific product pages, and IPM resources to help you choose correctly. Sachets are designed for prevention and ongoing maintenance; treatment bottles and bulk releases are designed for active infestations — these are not interchangeable.

If a release isn't producing the results you expected, please reach out — we'll do everything in our ability to help you understand what's happening and how to course-correct. That said, we're not able to replace, refund, or issue store credit when an organism that arrived healthy subsequently fails to control a pest due to factors outside our control, including but not limited to: incorrect species selection for the target pest, mismatched environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, light), pesticide or fungicide residue on plants, presence of ants or other interfering insects, plant health and condition, application method, or delayed release after delivery. Most of these are solvable with a quick consultation, and we'd rather get you to a successful outcome than process a refund.

Photo and video documentation:

For sachets, treatment bottles, beneficial insects, and lacewing products, we may request photos or short video to evaluate a claim. For microscopic species shipped on carrier material, we recognize that visible documentation is often not possible and won't require it — but we will ask about your release method, environment, and target pest in order to support a claim.

Replacements, refunds & store credit

When a claim qualifies under the Live Delivery Guarantee, we offer one replacement shipment of the affected product at no additional cost, or store credit toward a future order. The choice between replacement and credit is at FGMN's discretion based on product availability, season, and shipping conditions.

• One reship per affected order. If a replacement shipment is sent and a subsequent issue arises, additional resolution is handled case-by-case and is not guaranteed.
• Store credit is issued as a code redeemable on a future FGMN order. Store credit cannot be converted to cash, refunded to the original payment method, or transferred to another customer.
• Refunds to the original payment method are issued only when a replacement and store credit are both unsuitable, and at FGMN's discretion.
• All claims for orders placed on fgmnnursery.com must be submitted by email to info@fgmnnursery.com. Claims for orders placed on PalmStreet must be submitted through PalmStreet — we're unable to process PalmStreet order claims by email, social media, or text message.

Carrier damage claims

If your package arrives visibly damaged and you didn't purchase AfterShip Protection, all UPS and FedEx shipments are sent insured by the carrier. While we're not able to replace or refund items damaged during transit, we're happy to help guide you through the carrier's insurance claim process.

To file a carrier claim, the carrier requires documentation from the recipient, including:

• Clear photos of the damaged item
• Photos of the internal packing materials
• Photos of the outer box and shipping label

We understand this takes extra time, but it's required by the carrier in order for the claim to be reviewed. Carrier claims can take several weeks to resolve, which is why we recommend AfterShip Protection for faster handling.

Weather protection program

48 contiguous states only

We monitor temperatures along the entire shipping route and pack with the forecast in mind.

When the route runs cold: if your order travels through areas forecasted to drop below 45°F, we automatically include a 96-hour heat pack at no additional cost.

When the route runs hot: during heat events, we add cold protection to insulate temperature-sensitive organisms in transit.

In either case, we may delay shipment if conditions along the route are unsafe. We know waiting can be frustrating, but protecting your plants and beneficials always comes first.

While we take every reasonable precaution, we can't assume liability for damage caused by prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures or carrier delays beyond our control.