How to Avoid Getting a Flawed Plant

When a raw plant is only trialed in a pot , you ca n’t truly see how it reacts to real - spirit garden conditions . Or when all you have to go on as a grower is a packet of marketing cloth , thing can go faulty . The following are a few model of how problematic plants can get onto retail nursery shelves .

No ground trial

This was a color breakthrough with dark red blossom that made lots of gardeners and growers ( me included ) slobber with plant lust . But it turned out that the hardiness paygrade was overly affirmative . Rather than being hardy to Zone 6 ( – 10 ° farad ) , it was really only hardy to Zone 8 ( 10 ° F ) . Unless growers tried to overwinter it for former spring sales or planted it in a ground test , it could be days before they knew it was n’t hardy . Also , many intrepid coreopsis die in winter from soused pes , so folks were unemotional to pass over to the “ not hardy ” conclusion immediately , when in fact ‘ Limerock Ruby ’ was not reliably hardy below Zone 8 .

Limited plant information

This baby had a salient merchandising image that made the florets appear two-fold . Early plant verbal description were save based on the image , but it did n’t in reality have double heyday . Any ‘ Tiara ’ garden phlox sold in spring wouldn’tbloom — severally — until summer , surprising ( or disappointing ) the nurseryman .

Misleading marketing language

selling - speak is tricky . For case , it ’s vulgar to find “ insubordinate to powdery mildew ” in a flora verbal description , but degrees of opposition have n’t been establish . While “ resistive ” does n’t mean “ immune , ” some seller appear to use it as if it means , “ At least one other plant aim it worse than this one . ”

Why gardeners sometimes get burned by new plants

At its best , newmeans “ better , ” but it can also entail “ unlike ” or just “ marketable . ” Even when a works is better in one way , it can be blemished , sometimes fatally , in another . It may be great in one section of the country but poorly beseem to yours . So how do plants that do n’t perform terminal up for cut-rate sale on garden center bench ?

How plant propagation has changed

Long ago , plants were all get from seeds , cutting , or division by growers from their own stock . They knew the plants because they lived with them year in and year out . They learned which were hardy and more disease resistant , how they grew , what ethnic precondition they needed , and how far you could push their limitations . But maintaining farm animal is a pain in the neck ( or low ) , and novel products and processes remove the need for it . chaw flats allowed for gentle shipping , which give boost to medical specialist plug vendors who could ship to the growers easily . Unrooted cutting farms meant that growers could buy in cuttings rather than take their own .

The answer is that most growers no longer live with their plant life , so they do n’t know them as closely as they used to . ( Bareroot agriculturist are the exception . ) Now , agriculturalist mostly angle on information offer by plant breeders and marketers , who highlight the selling points while downplaying ( if mentioning at all ) the weakness . Many raiser do conduct plant trial , but those are often potentiometer trials only . The manufacture sells the flora in pots , so it does n’t count how well a plant performs in the ground if it looks like hot demise in a throne . Unfortunately , the opposite word is n’t also true ; there are more than a few plants that look great in a pot but execute ill in the land .

There is an easy solution

The solvent is straightforward , gratefully — ground trial , preferably lots of them so that results can be compared . If you ’re interested in visit terrific in - ground trials , jibe out the Chicago Botanic Garden in Illinois and the Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware . All - America Selections is now trialing vegetatively propagate perennials in land site across the country , so you may count on plant life that won that awarding . If you ’re in the Northeast , seem for the Handpicked For You ® recording label ; it ’s a collaboration from five growers all trialing the same industrial plant in - ground to make indisputable they perform in the part .

Paul Westervelt is the annual and repeated production manager and theatre director of new plant research and development for Saunders Brothers , a sweeping nursery in Piney River , Virginia .

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Ground trials are the answer to better plants. To truly know how a plant will perform over time, you need to test it in a garden for several years. Trial gardens like this one at the Chicago Botanic Garden put groups of plants to the test for years.

‘Limerock Ruby’ coreopsis (Coreopsis ‘Limerock Ruby’)

‘Limerock Ruby’ coreopsis (Coreopsis‘Limerock Ruby’).Photo: Mt. Cuba Center

‘Tiara’ garden phlox (Phlox paniculata ‘Tiara’)

‘Tiara’ garden phlox (Phlox paniculata‘Tiara’).Photo: perennialresource.com

Misleading marketing language

Photo: Steve Aitken

Plugs revolutionized plant growing. Many of the shrubs and perennials you buy start out as small plugs, which are sized for shipping in boxes. They can range from the size of a pinky finger to that of a small yogurt cup.

Plugs revolutionized plant growing.Many of the shrubs and perennials you buy start out as small plugs, which are sized for shipping in boxes. They can range from the size of a pinky finger to that of a small yogurt cup.Photo: Danielle Sherry

Many of the shrubs and perennials you buy start out as small plugs, which are sized for shipping in boxes.