I dont buy things or plants online but cant complain... they always arrive green, you would imagine that palms wouldnt make it in a box, but they do...lol.. I lopened my box just to look at it before I gave it to my friend for his bday and I was worried because he decided to have it on a saturday so the palm stayed in a box for three extra days. I dont know if that goes for all the other palms but this one is really hardy. Also be careful with the spikes, when he opened it up at his birthday everyone wanted to touch it and a bunch of people got pricked by the spikes