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The days are getting longer, and you want to make your yard a place to enjoy the beautiful weather. Choosing healthy plants for your landscape gives you the best chance to achieve your gardening goals. WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno has more.
When you start scouting plants for your landscape inspect them for damage and signs that they may not have been well tended. Eric Stallknecht, Virginia Tech assistant professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences says make sure the plants you are purchasing are well hydrated.
“You quite literally see stems bending over, leaves drooping down,” explained Stallknecht. “First thing you want to check is to make sure that’s not happening. If plants reach a certain wilting level, at some point they will die and they won’t recover if you re-water them. So that’s the first step to look for.”
He says you should also inspect the roots. For summer annuals slide the plant out of its container and look for white roots visible around the outside of the root ball. If the plant pulls entirely free of the soil or if the clump of soil feels like it could fall apart in your hand, the root system is not well developed. And Stallknecht adds don’t be afraid of discounted plants.
“They’re just discounted simply because space needed to be made for new plant material,” said Stallknecht. “The second is they might have slight damage to them. Plants and through your own nurturing of those plants have the capacity to grow out of some of that damage. So even if it has maybe broken stem, maybe it has slightly less quality than maybe its counterparts, you know, those discounted plants, if you are willing to take care of them, can look quite healthy, quite nice in a landscape.”
Before you head up to the cash register be sure to read the label. It will tell you how big the plant will get, whether it likes sun or shade and the type of soil it likes. This information will tell you where your plant will thrive. Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.
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You’re getting ready to make your yard an outdoor sanctuary and a trip to the garden center is on your list. WFIR’s Denise Allen Membreno got some tips from a Virginia Tech professor on how to choose the healthiest plants.
Garden centers have a cornucopia of choices when it comes to plants. But which ones will thrive in your yard. You’ve inspected the foliage and blooms for damage. Eric Stallknecht, Virginia Tech assistant professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences says don’t forget to check the roots.
“For a lot of your spring annuals, if you were to gently remove that plant from that container, what you’re looking for is kind of a white net of roots around the exterior of that plant,” continued Stallknecht. “There’s a good sign. That means there’s all of a kind of a negative indicators as well. So for something like a woody perennial plant, if you were to remove it from the pot and you saw a lot of circular roots growing within that pot, like call them a girdling root, that is kind of a negative sign that that plant has been developing in that pot for too long.”
Scoring the root ball may help the plant overcome girdling roots and allow the roots to spread out in a normal fashion. Stallknecht says when choosing plants, plan for the future.
“If you know you want to plant, you know, multiple hydrangea right next to each other, maybe it’s three feet wide by three feet tall,” said Stallknecht. “So in that sense, you know how wide or how far apart to space them in that space. So this is where understanding what it could grow into in its full size is really important.”
Stallknecht says when in doubt of what plant to put where he recommends contacting your area’s Cooperative Extension Agent or Master Gardener Association. Denise Allen Membreno WFIR News.
The post How to choose the healthiest plants for your landscape first appeared on News/Talk 960-AM & FM-107.3 WFIR.
