Thanks so much for the interest!
Haven't tried the cactus yet but when I do I'll share an experience report!
I received the Salvia plant through the mail about a month ago. She was much smaller, in shock, and had black/brown spots on a lot of the leaves. All I did was re-pot, fertilize, & leave her inside by a window with some, but not a lot, of sun for about 10 days. Then I moved her outside but paid close attention to how droopy her leaves were at the end of each day. Each day I moved her to a new spot on the porch until I could tell from her leaves that she really liked the location, at which point I let that be her home. Unsurprisingly, she loves a shady corner of the porch. So I leave her there unless it's extremely hot or windy.