How To Pick Out a Healthy Plant at a Garden Center
Picking Out Healthy Plants
By: Russell Camp - Landscaping Coach
When selecting plants for your landscape it is important to pick the healthiest plants available. A healthy plant has a much better chance of not only surviving, but thriving in your landscape. Knowing how to pick the healthy one out of a crowd can be an elusive skill. Once you are equipped with some basic knowledge of plants, as well as the plant business, it is not quite so intimidating.
Where to find healthy plants?
Since you can't see the plants you might purchase from an online nursery, let's assume you are visiting your local nursery and garden center to pick out some plants for a small area of your landscape plan. Except for specimen trees or shrubs, you will probably be buying multiples of any given plant. It is important that all the plants in the group look similar so that your project looks good from the start. With this in mind, consider the following:
- Be picky - In some regions of the country there is reasonable competition among nursery and garden centers, so don't be afraid to turn up your nose at second rate plants, as long as you are sure you can get better plants elsewhere. Shop around as if you were buying living room furniture, because in a way you are buying living (as in "alive") room furniture! If you buy plants sight unseen from an online source and they appear to be unhealthy call the nursery to make sure if this is what the plants are supposed to look like. If you see bugs crawling around or diseased foliage and know for sure the plants are unhealthy, send them back.
- Know thy plants as thyself - After you have your landscape planned out or a professional plan in hand, do some homework. Educate yourself through books, magazines, and the Internet as to what a particular plant is supposed to look like when it is healthy. Just shopping at several garden centers will also give you a good idea of what a plant should look like when it is healthy. Be prepared for a young plant to be a little disappointing-looking if you have only seen pictures of mature plants. Some large hollies are downright homely when restricted to growing in a three-gallon container, but don't despair. When planted properly they will grow more quickly than you can imagine, and become the mature shrub or tree that they are intended to be.
- Here's your sign - A healthy plant will usually have a lush, full set of leaves and a great shape. (NOTE: If the plant is deciduous, and you are shopping in the winter, you can simply look for a great shape.) Look for thinning or bare areas in the foliage, and piles of leaves on the ground. There will always be a few leaves that have been shed by the plant because no plant keeps every leaf it ever produces. However, if you see thick layers of shed leaves in or around the container the plant is growing in this could indicate three things: 1) The plant has gone into shock from lack of water, 2) the garden center has over-watered causing problems with the root system such as "root rot" or 3) the garden center does a lousy job of sweeping. How do you know your "lush" from your "shapely"? Do your homework.
- Check roots - Another thing you can do when selecting plants is to slide a representative plant out of its pot to inspect the roots. Most smaller size plants and trees are grown in containers these days. Most every container-grown plant or tree in a garden center may appear to be pot bound, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Most nursery growers won't ship plants until the roots fill the pot, which keeps most of the soil in place during shipping. While small, fibrous roots are all right; thick roots pushing out the plastic are bad. These indicate a plant that has truly been in the pot too long and may never thrive. On the other hand, if there are too few roots in the pot this could be an indicator that root rot has possibly set in from over watering. Avoid plants that have developed root rot. TIP: Local nursery and garden centers that water plants individually by hand usally have the healthiest plants. In a retail nursery, indiscriminatory watering by way of overhead irrigation can cause some plants to be over-watered while other plants may not receive enough water. Checking roots will tell the story.
- Bugs - Bugs are everywhere, but not all bugs are bad bugs. Think butterflies and bees. Without butterflies and bee's your garden won't be pollinated. No bee's, no flowers and no fruit. But do inspect foliage of plants you intend to purchase for the presence of insects that may be a problem. If you see bugs hanging out on a plant bring this to the attention of the nursery. They should be able to quickly identify any bug and let you know if it is a concern or not. Whiteflies, scale crawlers, mealybug and aphids are common pests that, though treatable, can be a problem. Avoid purchasing plants that are infested with these critters.
- Special orders don't upset a good nursery and garden center - If you don't see what you want, or don't like what you see, ask a representaive of the garden center if they can order in what you need. A garden center worth it's soluble salts will be ordering plants several times a week during the busy season. It is usually not too difficult to add what you want to their order. Ask and ye shall receive, maybe.
Happily at your service,
Russell
Other Articles by Russell Camp
An Introduction to Successful Landscaping and Landscape Maintenance