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Selecting Healthy Plants |
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Once you have answered these questions regarding locational needs
and suitability, it's time to go shopping. Now, consider
the following.
- Retailer – Plants can be purchased at a variety
of places including nurseries, garden centers, grocery,
department and hardware stores and roadside plant sales – to name
a few. Many of these locations are seasonal and hire untrained
staff to manage horticultural areas. Plants are often left unattended,
receiving both irregular watering and weeding.
Nurseries are often the best places to make your major plant purchases.
They're usually staffed with trained employees who are immersed
full-time in the horticultural field, they grow most of
their own plants in a controlled atmosphere and they often give
plant guarantees. This is not to say that you can't make
a good purchase from your local grocery store, but you may have
to be more careful in order to guarantee a healthy plant.
In the end, your choice of plant retailer should be based on
experience and a general overview of how plants are attended to
in that particular garden center. Go to another retailer if
you perceive a general neglect in plant maintenance.
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- Foliage – The leaves on the plant should be a deep
green color with no signs of depression or disease. Indicators
include wilting, discoloration or scorched leaf edges. Remember
that some leaf problems can be ascribed to supplier neglect such
as uneven watering.
- Roots – It is difficult to appropriately evaluate
the root system without removing the plant from its container.
Gardening salespeople can assist you with this. The most evident
features of stress are roots protruding from the surface of the
soil or a large number of roots protruding from the bottom.
This may not be a concern for an outdoor plant, but an indoor
plant would require immediate repotting.
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Before purchasing, check the plant's leaves carefully to ensure
it's a healthy specimen, such as the one shown here. The
leaves should not show signs of wilting, discoloration or scorched
edges.
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Other
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