When you're shopping in the garden center, how do you know you're getting a healthy plant? Here are some tips for choosing good plants.
"Don't just judge by the green part you can see," said Stephanie Adams, a pathologist in plant health care at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois."Look at the roots, which are just as important."Read the label."The first step is to make sure you're buying the right kind of plant for the place where you're going to put it," she said. Consider the amount of sunlight the plant requires, and be sure it is hardy for winter climates.
Avoid plants with diseased roots."If you buy a plant with bad roots, you're set up for failure," Adams said. A sickly plant will disappoint you, and it also may introduce disease-causing fungus spores or bacteria to your garden soil, where they may infect other plants."Diseased roots are usually brown, sometimes even black," she said."They might look squishy or flat, like a shoelace, because they've collapsed." Avoid dried-out roots too.
Get a guarantee. For major purchases, such as trees and large shrubs, make sure the garden center gives you a written guarantee, and be prepared to do your part."The guarantee will only protect you if you have correctly planted and cared for the plant," Adams said."It won't cover a plant that dies because you forgot to water it."
As we begin a new year, a new crop of houseplant trends awaits. Here are the styles and plants you can expect to see more of in 2022. Vines Climbing plants also are having a moment as social media feeds fill with images of vines spilling from containers and snaking their way up stair railings and bookcases. Philodendrons, especially the velvet-leaved"micans" and variegated"pink princess" varieties, are desirable, as are large hoya and pothos plants. All are relatively low-maintenance.
"We've seen what we call a slow-motion explosion," said Damon Collingsworth, co-owner of Sonoma County-based California Carnivores, the largest carnivorous plant nursery in the U.S."When we opened in 1989, no one was interested because were kind of weird, but weird is desirable now."
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