How to Take Advantage of Plant Sales

Plant sales are my favorite I love searching through and finding plants to take home and save. That being said, you have to know what you are looking for or you can end up with wasted money and dead plants.  

Rule Number 1: Only buy perennials 

Annuals won't be able to recover in time before the season ends but perennial will be able to establish itself enough to over winter and come back stronger the next year. This means that herbs are the perfect salvage plant or edible perennial flowers like beebalm. Shrubs and trees often take longer to recover from poor conditions but if you are willing to wait 3-5 years you won't be able to tell the difference.  

Rule Number 2: Don't buy a dead plant 

This might seem like an obvious rule but it's not always clear if a plant is dead or alive. When buying a rough looking plant check for signs of new growth, little light green leaves, new shoots. You can also check the roots, gently tip the plant out of the container and look light colored roots and if its slightly rootbound with healthy roots is a good thing. Avoid any roots that are browning, slimy, or smell bad. If you are buying a tree or shrub, you can gently bend the branches and upper trunk, if it has some flexibility and if the bark is greenish those are all good signs of life.  

Rule Number 3: Don't bring disease or pests into your garden 

Make sure you are checking all the plants for signs of disease or pests. Look for mishappen plants, stunted growth, or discoloration. If can be hard to spot discoloration if half the plant is wilted or brown but look at the new growth for these signs. You also want to check for holes in the leaves and stem that could be indications of pests.  

Once you've found your best-looking candidates and brought them home it's time to get them established in your garden. You'll want to take extra care with the roots because that's the most important part of the plant at this point. Squeeze the outside of the pot then tip it to get the plant out. Once removed gently massage the root ball, this will in encourage the roots to grow out and into the soil around them. A plant that is rootbound in its pot can remain rootbound and choke itself once in the ground if the roots aren't given some encouragement. Once in the ground water them thoroughly and prune away the dead or dying growth. This will encourage the plant to put out more shoots during the remaining growing season and reduce the plants overall stress.