Purchasing A Perfect Plant

Often, when we as consumers go to the grocery store or to the department store, we buy with our eyes. Meaning we purchase what looks appealing. Items that have cute designs or items that include our favorite color or style. This is important as we should buy what is appealing to us. However, we must also be sure that the items we buy are logical in meeting our needs.

The same mindset is true of plants. We often purchase plants because we like the color of the flower or we like the shape of the flower bloom. And, again it is important to select plants that we like, but we also need to consider the overall health of the plant to be sure it will remain beautiful and healthy in our flower garden or flower containers at home. When purchasing a plant for your home garden, consider these three items, plant maturity, plant health, and soil health.

These Gerbera daisies are one of my favorites. 

Plant maturity refers to the stage of life the plant is currently in. Now, don't over think this. I like to think of plants as having three stages of life. A young and naive stage, a middle prime-time stage, and an over the hill, past-it's-peak stage. A young naive plant, is a plant that has young, green, healthy new shoots to it. I would consider this stage of plant life to have very minimal growth at this point. Additionally, I would consider a plant in the young and naive stage to have very few blooms if any blooms at all. Really at this young stage the plant is placing all of it's energy into creating and establishing a healthy root system and increase in vegetative growth.
A plant in the middle, prime-time stage is a plant that is healthy, with nice compact green vegetative growth. It has a sound root system, and one or two blooms opened with a few blooms that have not opened yet. These unopened blooms are the key to knowing the plant is in it's middle stage, as it has this new growth that has not fully opened or emerged yet. This is the optimal stage of life at which you should try to purchase your plants. The sound root system and the open blooms gives you an idea for the current health of the plant while promising so much more beauty as it continues to grow.
The final stage of plant growth is the over the hill, past-it's-peak stage. In this stage the plant has reached it's maximum growth, it is in full bloom and unlikely to grow or bloom much more. These plants might begin to show signs of wilt or of damaged and falling blooms. So, my best advise is to select a middle age plant that has established healthy growth, a few open blooms, with many more unopened blooms yet to fulfill it's beautiful colors.

New blooms are a sure sign of the good yet to come.

Secondly, when purchasing the perfect plant, look at the overall health of the plant. You ideally, want to purchase a plant that is going to make your flower garden or container arrangements, beautiful for many weeks.So you want to make sure the plant is healthy. How do we know if a plant is healthy? Well, the best place to look is the leaves. Most all plants have some sort of green leaf structure to them. The leaves should be a solid green color (unless they are cultivated for a variegated design). If plants have a disease, the leaves are one of the first places to show the symptoms of the disease. Most times the leaves will become discolored or show a yellowing of the leaf. Additionally, the leaves should be strong, crisp, pointed, or upright. This gives us an inside look to the cells found in the leaves. The leaves have storage compartments called vacuoles inside them. The vacuole holds water mostly. If the vacuole is empty (meaning the plant is lacking sufficient water), the leaves will begin to wilt, and fall back towards the stem or droop downward. Lastly, the plant should have nice green vegetative growth to it. The stem should be strong and sturdy, not broken or showing any damage. There should be healthy blooms that are open or beginning to open. If the plant has multiple brown, dead leaves or dead flower blooms to it, it may have a disease or be lacking some healthy nutrient. Select plants that have bright green, strong, crisp, and healthy leaves.

Light to medium brown soil with white perlite granules.

Lastly, as you make your plant purchase, take a close look at the soil the plant is currently living in. The soil can tell a lot about the plant. The soil is the place where plants receive their water and nutrients. So, the soil should be moist when you purchase a plant. Avoid purchasing plants that are bone dry. When soil becomes dry for a long period of time, it will form a hard crusty layer on top. Any water that you apply will mostly run off the soil, because of the crusty layer that has formed. At this point the plant has entered in the wilting stage because there is no water available for the plant to access. Additionally, try to avoid plants that are completely saturated. Most plants prefer to just have a moist soil environment. Many plants do not like "wet feet" or having excess water on their roots. Excess water in the soil invites disease and bacteria to form which will eventually harm the entire plant. When you pick up the plant container, it should not be overly heavy, but it should also not be completely light. The color of the soil should be a light to medium brown, and cool or moist to the touch. Also, when looking at the soil, look to see if there are nutrients (small colorful granules) that have been added. This is helpful to see, to know that your plant has been given additional plant food or nutrients to help promote growth beyond its greenhouse or store lifetime.

As you head to a local greenhouse or garden center to purchase beautiful spring annuals, be mindful of the condition of the plants. Yes, select a plant that is beautiful and has nice colorful blooms. But, as look deeper at the plant. Select a plant that is blooming yet, still contains unopened blooms, healthy, strong, green leaves, and moist light to dark brown soil. Happy Spring!