FAQ

A botanical treasure hunt is another phrase we use for our major site-wide restocks!

We are a small family run business with a trove of botanical treasures that greatly values our plant community and the plants we offer.

Because of our limited staff, each part of the journey for our botanical treasures requires all hands on deck for sourcing, growing, preparing, processing, packing, communicating and doing it all over again.

To be able to control the quality of our plants, we opt to not make everything available. Instead my Mom goes and carefully selects the ones she feels are ready to move onto new loving homes.

This process does take a great deal of time and effort and while the frenzy of a botanical treasure hunt may not be for everybody, we really are offering growing gems!

To find out more about our botanical treasure hunts click here

YES!

You'll be able to preview what gems will be available during a treasure hunt for approximately 24 hours before the hunt begins!

The add to cart button and price will be disabled while we continue to prep the site for the event. But, at least this way you can take a gander at what goodies you might be interested in.

For more details on how to prep for a CSN botanical treasure hunt click here

While our nursery primarily serves as a growing haven for botanical treasures, we're excited to announce that we occasionally open our doors for drop-in shopping!

Keep an eye on our e-newsletter, our website at our Location/Hours of Operation page or follow our social media accounts for updates on these special browsing hours.

When drop-ins aren't available, you can always place orders online for nursery pickup or choose from options like event pickup or shipping when available.

There are a few avenues you can go about to get your hands on some of our botanical treasures: 

1) On our website! We've got an online store, with an ever increasing collection to browse. 

2) If you're looking to connect with some growing gems in person keep an eye out for markets or events we attend or Host! 

3) Sometimes the best treasures are stumbled upon! We supply a select number of local nurseries and plant shops with some CSN gems so keep an eye out for our name tag! 

If you are able to see product but can't view the price or see an "Add to cart" button, odds are you've caught us "Pre-Hunt".

When we prepared for our Botanical Treasure Hunts, we preview our plants the day before and leading up to the start of the hunt to give all the eager botanical treasure hunters time to prepare.

Pricing and ability to add to cart will be available at a designated time that will be visible on our homepage.

For more details about our Botanical Treasure Hunts click here

A part of the magic of plants is that they require our care to flourish. Knowing this, while we do have an expansive selection of botanical treasures, we are not in the market of rehoming these growing treasures before they are ready.

We want to give you and your new found gem the best chance at a long, beautiful life together. As a result, we only make plants available when they are ready to be re-homed.

Due to demand and limited supply, items do then to sell out rather quickly when they do become available. Regardless, we will continue to work hard to produce and/or source more of these botanical treasures for those looking to add these special gems to their own collection. You can follow our Facebook page and Instagram account for updates.

Product limits are suspended until further notice, allowing you to shop to your green hearts' content!

If circumstances change and implementing limits would benefit our community, we will revisit the idea of product limits at that time.

Due the nature of plants, scare availability, the unpredictable conditions we receive our plant gems in and our current workload, we are unable to offer these services. 

Most often we run on a first come, first serve basis once these botanical treasures become ready for a new home. 

Feel free to send us a message if there is something in particular you've had your eyes on and we can let you know if it's something that we may available soon, or will add to our "to look for" list. 

If you are looking for something specific that isn’t on our online store please send an email to: info@crystalstarnusery.com.

It’s possible we have the item at our nursery but it's not quite ready to go to a new home yet, If we don’t have the variety you are seeking we can add it to our botanical treasure hunting list to try to source for the future.

We understand that the practice of group orders was necessary to leverage buying power to help source out gems in areas that lacked the resources or supply from local nurseries. Which is why we are working hard to create a system that allows access to quality botanical treasures across Canada!

To ensure consistent, responsive service to our customers, group orders will be processed as an individual order. 

For more details click here

The best way to ensure you don’t miss out on a chance to add some of our botanical treasures to your collection is to sign up for our newsletter (You can subscribe at the bottom of our webpage) and follow our social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram for updates!

Click here to check out our "What to do when you're expecting post" Post!

Whether you picked up your order or your shipment/delivery arrived, unpack the plants as soon as they arrive home. Water ONLY if dry. Then place them in a in well lit area with indirect sunlight, and good air circulation that is separate from your resident plants. No matter where you adopt your new plants from, this is best practice to protect both your new plant babies and resident plant gems. 

Not all of our plants require transplanting but if you choose to do so wait at least a couple weeks and make sure the pot of choice is well suited for your plant baby. 

Humans aren’t they only beings that require time to process change, your plant(s) just left a cozy environment with all its friends and came to a new place. Give it some time to adjust before changing the last familiar thing.

If you received your new plant baby in the fall or winter, we recommend waiting until the spring to transplant in most cases for your best chance of success. Plants generally slow down their growth considerably during the winter, with shorter days and cooler days. This makes it harder for them to grow into their new “Shoe” and more susceptible to root rot. 

*Please note, transplanting within the first week of receiving your order will void the Healthy Plant Guarantee. Any concerns upon receipt should be directed to us via email with details of the concern and photos so we can assist you best. Please see our 7 Day Healthy Plant Guarantee.

We recommend leaving it in the pot with moss for at least two weeks to acclimatize to your surroundings. We root most of our cuttings in sphagnum moss as we found they are more successful in this medium in their juvenile stage and easier to care for. 

When you go to transplant, if you would like to remove all the moss. Simply soak the moss ball in water with a couple drops of dish soap to help loosen the moss fibres. Then carefully and gently remove the moss. Just keep in mind that some of the roots can be mistaken for the moss fibres.

The photos we provide on our product pages are for reference only unless otherwise stated. While we do our best to provide a specimen similar to the photo provided, this isn’t always possible. As we are predominantly importing our products, they can be received in varied conditions and sizes, however we do take the time to acclimate them prior to rehoming so you can continue to grow them in your care. 

Since you aren’t able to personally select your new growing gem, you are putting your trust in us to select a special specimen to call your own. When we select a specimen we are choosing one that we would personally select for ourselves if we were out on the hunt. 

We are looking for plants that have proven their health to us before sending them home to you to ensure they have the best chance to thrive in your care. This means we look for a developing root system and growth points to determine the overall health of the plant. At times this can trump size and foliage markings since just like us scars and size does not determine our overall health. 

In addition, photos of blooms are provided for reference only and does not mean you will receive a plant in bloom unless otherwise specified. 

Our platform is able to accept our Gift Cards, Visa, Mastercard, Visa Debit, and Mastercard Debit to capture payment for orders.

*Please note we are only able to accept specifically: Visa Debit or Mastercard Debit, traditional debit cards/banking cards cannot be processed online at this time.

You've got several options to get your order from us!

1. Local Nursery Pick up: If you live nearby, you can place an order and schedule your pick-up from our nursery! For more details about placing an order for pick-up at the nursery, click here.
2. Event Pick Up: When we take the hunt on the road to you, you can arrange to pick up an online order at the event! We accept orders for pick-up at events about 1 to 2 weeks prior to the event date. For more details about placing an order for pick-up at an event, click here.
3. Shipping (When weather permits): We provide Canada-wide shipping through trusted courier services. While dry goods can be shipped year-round, plant shipping is reserved for the spring into fall seasons, depending on weather conditions. Some exclusions may apply. To view our shipping policy, click here.

The order retrieval options available at checkout are display based on availability and/or your location. 

- Pick up is available year round regardless of location, but please only select this option if you are able to arrange pick up for your order.

- Shipping is available Canada-wide, but will only be displayed as on option when we are offering shipping. To view our full shipping policy click here

Please note:Select items may only be available for pick up. In these cases you will not be given the option to have your order shipped at check out.

Since we are dealing with live goods and take our quality control seriously, all our plants undergo an inspection prior to being made available online and then again prior to being processed for pick up, shipping or delivery. 

Should we run into a situation where a growing gem does not meet our standard of quality to be re-homed upon final inspection, we will contact to you via email to inform you of your options and issue a refund where necessary.

Orders will be processed based on the order retrieval method selected:

1) Nursery and Event pick up - Will be prepared based on the selected and confirmed pick up dates.

2) Shipping - Will be processed mostly in the order they were received, with exceptions made due to weather or location when necessary.

Due to the nature of our products, we are unable to accept returns, refunds or exchanges on any of our plants or products. 

That being said we want you to shop with confidence with us and trust that your newest plant baby will be healthy and ready to thrive. This is why we offer a 7 Day Healthy Plant guarantee on our plants*. Some restrictions apply to find our more click here

Orders that have not yet been processed, picked up or shipped can be cancelled in part or whole with monies received returned to method of payment minus a 5% restocking/processing fee. 

Congrats on being one step closer to adding some botanical treasures to your collection!

All order pick ups require a confirmed pick up booking.

After you successfully place an order with us you'll be taken to an order summary page with instructions and link to book your pick up time.

You will then have 14 days to book and pick up your order from the day your order was placed. Orders not retrieved within 14 days will automatically be cancelled and refunded minus the 5% restocking/processing fee.

For full nursery pick up details click here

The booking portal will display available pick up times up to 14 days from when your order was placed as orders should be retrieved within this window.

Pick up times are available first come first serve. Pick up times following a botanical treasure hunt can appear limited as many eager plant parents are booking their growing gems' "Welcome Home!" day.

Due to the size of our location, we do need to regulate the number of pick ups throughout the day to ensure flow of traffic. Please select your pick up date and time from the availability provided.

For more details about orders placed for nursery pick up click here

If your pick-up time coincides with drop-in hours, we'd love to have you come in and browse a selection of ready-to-go gems!

To find out when our drop-in hours are happening, look for updates on our home page, e-newsletter, and/or social media accounts.

You sure can!

Instructions to book your pick up will be provided when you successfully place on order with us.

Of course!

Instructions to book your pick up will be provided when you successfully place your order with us.

We offer Canada-wide shipping on dry goods year-round and for plants from Spring into Fall, while weather permits!

Our start and end dates for shipping plants aren't set in stone, as it is at the mercy of Mother Nature. However, we will be sure to announce our start and end dates as they are determined via our social media channels. 

For full shipping policy details click here.

Unfortunately, we do not currently offer plant shipping outside of Canada.

However, we are excited to announce that we now provide shipping to the US for most dry goods!

We’ve put A LOT of effort into making these botanical treasures treasure worthy. That care and dedication doesn’t stop when its time to ship them off to their new homes!

All orders for shipping are carefully hand-packed, with each plant individually wrapped and carefully boxed to keep them as cozy and safe for travel as possible.

We also ship all of our plants, that require growing medium, IN growing medium! There is already enough stress placed on the plant when it changes homes, the last thing we want to do is take away its security blanket.

Finally all our packages are shipped via a trusted shipping courier (ie. Canada Post, UPS, Purolator or FedEX) to ensure your new botanical treasures get into your green little hands as soon as possible. 

For more details regarding our shipping policy, click here.

We ship out orders on Monday and Tuesday of each week (excluding holidays) Canada-wide and to the Greater Toronto Area on Wednesdays. This way we can try to reduce the time of these growing gems in transit and in a dark confined spaces.

Orders placed during a botanical treasure hunt/restock are subject to additional processing delays due to the volume of orders received, the size of our team processing and other external factors such as weather. Our goal is to process all orders within 2 weeks of the order being placed however require and appreciate your patience in the event of any additional unexpected delays.

We are also eager for our botanical treasures to go to new loving homes, but we also want to make sure we are able to ensure quality and care when selecting and packing the orders for shipping.

Please rest assured your order will be well cared for until we are able to get it to you. 

To help save you additional shipping costs when placing multiple orders, we offer to combine orders for shipping for a $10 processing fee per additional order as long as they meet the following criteria: 

• A current order placed with the Canada Wide Standard Flat Rate Shipping applied (Usually this is applied to the first order placed)
• Add-on orders are placed under the same account by the same individual and shipped to the same address
• Previous order has not yet been prepared and processed for shipping