Tips on Buying Plants at the Garden Center

This article was originally published on April 21, 2008 and expired on May 23, 2008. It is provided here for archival purposes and may contain dated information.

Pick your day carefully. Most garden centers gear up for big weekend sales by bringing in fresh inventory mid-week. That usually means that early in the week, pickings will be slim and at the big box stores the plants probably won't have been watered for several days with lots of casualties out on the shelves – the dead and the dying wilting in their little pots. On the other hand, going plant shopping on a weekend is garden masochism, just you and a thousand desperate gardeners fighting over the Big Daddy petunias. Best bet: go on Fridays, when the shelves are fully stocked and the inventory is in prime condition.

Size matters. Usually, you get what you pay for. Given my druthers, I'd rather buy several four-inch pots of lobelia than a flat of little cells. The root systems are better developed, and in the interest of Time is Money, you will save a lot of time and effort in transplanting six larger plants rather than 48 little seedlings. While this is true of annuals, it is even truer when it comes to perennials. If you've ever mail-ordered a hosta and received a three-inch tall plant that took four years to attain even dwarf status, then you know what I mean. Buy the biggest plant you can afford, now.

Nip it in the bud. Don't be seduced by plants full of blooms. In fact, those are the ones that you do not want to buy. Root-bound annuals start putting their energy into producing flowers, because there is nowhere else to go. Tomato and pepper plants will do the same thing, flowering and even fruiting on the store shelf. What you will end up with is a stunted plant with the dreaded leggy growth and few more blossoms. Large-flowered bedding plants like pelargonium can be slow to rebloom, so the plant you take home covered in rosy petals will be pretty for a few days, then will be naked for a few weeks hence. I look for plants whose flowers are just starting to bud out, with perhaps one or two blooms. (The blooms are useful if you are concerned that the garden center has been playing it fast and loose with its tags and that the allegedly pink Wave is suspiciously close to its purple siblings on the shelf.) If you absolutely have no choice and every plant is in full bloom, then pinch off the buds when you get home. Not only will the plants put down healthier roots, but also you will be rewarded with fuller, bushier plants later.

To learn more plant buying tips as written by a Chicago area master gardener, go online to http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/cook/gardener/060524.html