Creating whimsical features in your home

3 Ways to Tell If the Nursery Plants or Seedlings You Want to Buy Are Healthy

by Edwin Johnston

People who are passionate about plants typically have different species of plants in their landscaping, and each plant species plays a critical role. Having an attractive landscape requires a lot effort, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming. If you have interacted with landscape bushes and plants for a while now, you might have learnt that healthy and vigorous plants nourish the landscape in a big way. If you want to have beautiful and healthy plants in your garden, you need to get healthy seedlings from a reputable nursery. See what you should look at when selecting landscape nursery plants:

The Leaves

Although plants might appear healthy from a distance, this isn't always the case. By assessing the leaves of the nursery plants, you can tell whether they are healthy or if they need more attention to attain the expected growth standards. Unhealthy plants have limp, brown, yellow, black or wilted leaves, while healthy plants have lively and lush green leaves. Yellow leaves indicate incorrect watering, while brown and yellow spots could be a sign of disease. Avoid buying unhealthy plants, since they could be a big problem for your landscape.

The Roots

When the seedlings remain in the containers longer than they should, the integrity of their roots gets affected. As the roots grow, they tend to find their way out of the container and sometimes interlock around the other roots. Interlocked roots don't easily grow outward into the soil when transplanted, and this causes stunted growth, and the seedlings could also die. Most seedlings with interlocked roots have brown, soft roots that collapse easily when touched. If you see the roots protruding through the container cracks or drainage, then the plants might have been in the container for too long.

The Weeds

While weeds are an indication of poor plant maintenance, they can also indicate that the nursery plants are being deprived of the necessary nutrients and other growth factors. Weeds compete for water, shade and nutrients with the seedlings, causing stunted growth. No one wants landscape plants that will just consume the nutrients in their garden soil without showing vibrant growth. Avoid buying such seedlings or plants because you might also risk introducing weeds into your landscape. To tell if the nursery seedlings are healthy, check if they are weed-free.

How beautiful you expect your landscape to be will depend on how keen you are when selecting seedlings or plants. When buying landscape plants, don't do things hurriedly. Make sure that you're only buying healthy plants since this is the only way to create a striking landscape in your property.

Contact a local plant nursery to learn more.

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