Wherever you buy your plants, seeds, or bulbs, the problem is the same as always: How do you choose the healthiest, strongest plant for your garden? The first step is to find a nursery with conscientious employees who know their stock and can advise you.
Ask friends and neighbors for their suggestions on where to go, and then try to do your shopping on off hours or off days when the pressure of business is light.
Following are a few things the inexperienced buyer should know.
Seeds.
Seed racks are usually stocked with everything a given company produces for the year.
But just because a package of seeds is there doesn't mean you can run home and plant the seeds.
Don't buy anything until you read the directions on the package.
Look for a date stamp.
Is the seed meant for the current year? Look for suggested planting times (planting tomato seed in late June is wasted effort; the nursery probably has young plants).
Bulbs.
For some reason, bulbs are sold out of season rather regularly.
Check the bulb chart for proper planting times; don't buy them at other seasons.
Bedding plants and started vegetables.
Bedding plants are all the flowering things that you use for a short and brilliant color display.
They come in flats and a variety of small containers.
You should buy young plants that will grow quickly after you plant them.
Never choose those that are crowded or straggly.
They've been around too long.
You want compact plants with good leaf color and a few flowers in bloom.
If you buy plants in individual plastic cells or containers, check the roots when you get home.
Any long, white spaghetti at the bottom should be snipped off before planting.
New roots will branch out into the soil.
If you leave a coiled root on the plant, it may just go round and round under the plant, slowing or stopping growth.
Follow the same rule for vegetables, choosing compact plants with good color.
A partial exception is tomatoes.
Moderate stalkiness doesn't matter because you'll bury part of the stem when you plant.
It sprouts roots underground.
Large containers.
Plants in gallon and 5-gallon cans or corresponding plastic and pulp containers should be well branched with young and healthy looking bark and foliage.
Although it's always a temptation to buy the largest plant you can afford, trees and shrubs often do better if you buy young-looking gallon-sized specimens and let them form their root systems in your garden.
If you're looking at fruit trees, roses, or other plants that are often sold bare root in fall and winter, ask how long the plants have been in the can.
In the spring, nursery workers plant leftover bare root plants in cans.
Such plants should grow in the can for several months before planting so that root growth will hold the soil together.
Bare root material.
Bare root material should have firm, moist stems and roots.
If it is shriveled or dry and brittle looking, avoid it.