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What
Is A Healthy Plant?
When buying a plant the
soil should be moist and no roots should be growing out of the bottom
of the container. The foliage should be medium to dark green (assuming
green is the color it's supposed to be), free of insect damage,
disease, wilt, dead leaves, or leaves with brown tips or edges.
If it's a flowering plant, there should be a number of buds; only
one or two blossoms at most. It should look fresh and smell fresh.
Check for slugs or other insects at the base of the plant.
The size of the plant
should match the size of the container, not so tiny it can barely
be seen, not loose, rangy and floppy. In general, younger is better.
Young plants that have been hardened off properly by the grower
and are ready to be moved on into their final home are always the
best choice. That means plants in 6-packs (also called pony packs
or color packs) or up to 4-in. pots for all annuals. Some perennials
are available only in 1-gallon size containers.
Many gardeners are not
aware that most plant nurseries do not grow their own plants. Rather,
the plants are grown in large greenhouses by wholesale nurseries,
and delivered to retail nurseries, garden centers, supermarkets,
etc. in large trucks, usually on a weekly basis. How long these
plants sit on the shelves and how well they are cared for waiting
to be sold has a lot to do with the quality of the plant. In general,
the wholesaler delivers plants that have been hardened off properly
and are ready to be planted that week or the next. The longer they
stand on the shelf, the greater the chance that quality will suffer.
Specialized plant nurseries
(those that sell only succulents, or water garden plants, or camellias,
etc.) generally propagate their own stock in their own greenhouses
or growing fields. The prices may be a bit higher and the numbers
of plants within a given species may not be huge, but you're dealing
with a hands-on professionals who have intimate knowledge and expertise
in plant care. You can be assured you'll get a plant that will perform
exactly as described, given proper care, and it will be worth the
slight amount of additional expense.
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