When most of us go to the store, we set out with a fair idea of what we need and an instinct about how to evaluate what we’re buying. Those same shopping instincts are easily achieved when buying annuals.
Shop in garden centers with neat, clean aisles filled with healthy, vigorous plants. Nice displays are often created by staff members with thorough garden knowledge – and that means they’re a reliable source of information for making good plant decisions.
Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/Doug Dealey
Simply slipping plants out of their nursery containers before buying them can reveal whether they’re root-bound, have been recently repotted or otherwise mistreated.
Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/Kyle Chesser
Poor care can cause plants to be stunted or leggy. The best annuals are compact and vigorous, with healthy leaves and well-developed roots. They also should be free of obvious pests and disease.
Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
When making your shopping list, the first decision is whether to grow your annuals from seed or to buy nursery starts. Buying seed is less costly, but transplants need little nurturing. In some cases, seeds may be your only choice – especially if you’re determined to have the only Schizanthus pinnatus on your block. But if you haven’t got much time to nurture tender sprouts, you need instant color or you live in a short-season climate, think nursery starts. (And if you got too late of a start in your garden for seeds to bloom before the first frost hits – they’re your only option. You’ll also want nursery starts if you like annuals that can’t be grown easily from seeds – like petunias.)
Buying good seeds is about as simple as buying a box of breakfast cereal: Check to see that they’re less than a year old (the packing date is stamped on every package) and that they appear to have been stored properly in a dry, cool, airy place. Pass them up if the package is puckered from exposure to moisture or faded as though it’s been sitting in the sun.
Buying nursery stock is a little trickier – more like picking produce than corn flakes. You’ll face an array of choices, from 6-packs of seedlings in 1-inch cell packs to nearly mature plants in 1-gallon containers. So which should you buy?
If it’s still early in the season and you can wait 8-10 weeks for your garden to mature, go for the cells – they’re less expensive. If you’re starting late, buy larger transplants for instant color, keeping in mind that they’ll have to be watered very diligently. No matter what type of plant you buy, make sure its sun requirements match your garden site’s conditions. (Always read the plant label!) And if you’re buying more than one type of plant for a container or a particular planting bed, make sure all the species for that location have the same light and watering needs.
Once you’ve chosen your prospective plants, you need to make sure they’re healthy. Plants that were underwatered, undernourished or grew too large for their pots will be slow to establish themselves in your garden. In most cases, they’ll also bloom poorly and need constant watering. Look first at where the plants are displayed in the nursery or garden center: Make sure they’re not baking in the sun and that the soil is moist. Pick plants that are uniformly shaped, compact and bushy, and skip over any that are spindly, floppy or listing.
Check for healthy leaves that are a rich green – not yellow or brown-tipped, which are signs of malnutrition and/or improper watering. Foliage should never be mottled, wilted, brittle or puckered. Look underneath the leaves for whiteflies – evidenced by a flurry of tiny, white insects. Also avoid plants that may have spider mites (their telltale sign is tiny webs on stippled foliage). Also inspect the leaves, stems and shoot tips for any sticky residue, a sign of aphids.
Finally, very gently invert and slip the plant out of its container to examine the roots, which should be white (not brown and soft). If the roots are wound into a tight spiral, the specimen is root-bound. You may be able to salvage the plant, but you’d be better off with one that has a root ball with visible soil instead.
And though it’s tempting to buy plants that have the biggest blooms, shun them for younger, flowerless ones with lots of buds. These will adapt to your garden more readily and are less likely to be root-bound. Be especially wary of plants that are frenetically flowering very early in the season: They may have been forced into bloom before it was safe to set the plants outdoors, and they could very likely suffer severe shock when you transplant them – especially if the weather isn’t warm enough.
Truth be told, it isn’t easy to bypass the prettiest plants in favor of the healthiest ones – it’s more like avoiding the candy aisle in the supermarket when you came to buy carrots. But sticking to your shopping list will make for a healthier, more beautiful garden!
