When starting off you’re garden, you’re presented with 3 choices. Start from seed, plant the cuttings or buy an already developed plant. At this late stage in the year (well, for my part of the world anyway) I wouldn’t recommend trying to start from scratch unless you’re looking to harvest next year.
If you have cuttings, that’s fantastic, but a lot of us will be using garden centres as a stepping stone. Choosing a healthy plant ensures it will survive the transplant and continue to thrive with minimal effort on your part.
One of the first things to do is take a look at it and the soil. It may sound simple but a lot of the time, just looking at it will tell you a lot of what you need. Do you see any off-colour patches, holes or wilted stems? Give the leaves a feel, are they waxy or do they feel a bit limp and dry? Of course, this depends on the plant, but usually waxy leaves are a good sign.
If it passes that first check, the next step is checking for flowers. While they may look gorgeous, from experience, flowers will make the transplant from the nursery to your home a lot harder to deal with for the plant. Snip them off before you leave. Don’t worry, by doing this you’re actually encouraging more growth anyway, win-win!
Last of all, check the root structure, if they look rotted or soft you should probably be wary. A healthy root structure will look well-formed and be firm to the touch. Some plants are exceptions to this, but it’s a good general rule.
Remember though, if you find something wrong, don’t automatically assume the nursery is full of morons. These are mostly trained professionals so feel free to ask them any queries you may have, they’ll be delighted to to about it with you if you show you care about finding a good plant and you’ll probably be rewarded with one of the healthiest ones in-store.
This is a pretty simple process so don’t panic too much if you’re not sure. Chances are, if it looks good, it’ll be fine to take home.
