It's About Stress
The same principle works for rainfall and drainage. It's easy enough to water plants but much harder to adjust the drainage around them. Put a plant that hates wet feet into soggy soil and you STRESS it. Move it elsewhere or use a container. Then consider the soil. Is it sandy or clay? Is it acid or alkaline? Heathers, for instance, like acid soil. If you plant them in alkaline soil they will not do well. If your soil is alkaline and you really want heather you need to do some serious soil amendment and choose your fertilizer carefully. Because the plant gets most of its nourishment from the soil it has to rely on you, the gardener here, to research and then provide the optimum soil type and the right food in the right quantity at the right time. Anything else creates stress.
While these are the basic causes of stress there are others. One is exposure to pollution or sea spray. Some plants are very persnickety about such things and there's not a lot you can do other than keep the plant indoors.
Soil compaction is an enemy that is easily dealt with as is heavy traffic. Keep the kids away or wait till they've grown up and gone. Animals can cause stress too so try to keep cats, deer, moles etc. away. Another stressor is a nearby plant that sucks up all the food, moisture and perhaps sunshine for itself. If you have a treasured plant make sure its neighbours don't bully it into an early grave.
A couple of other stressors. The first is finding you bought a very root bound plant. If it's really bad I'd take it back for a refund. Otherwise you can try loosening up the roots but it may never be a truly healthy plant. The second is - buy locally grown plants whenever possible. Which means taking a hard look at plants bought at the big box chain stores. Yes, they're cheaper than most smaller nursery gardens, but the plants have probably been trucked right across the country (stress!) and been started off somewhere where growing conditions are quite different.
It all comes down to learning what the plant's needs are and taking time to do it right. Make the plant feel at home, understand and care for its special needs. Some people have a natural talent for that and the patience to go with it.
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