A great way to ensure a healthy garden is to start out with the healthiest plants available.  You can use the following tips to pick the best plants you can find.

1. Look at sales displays and find the plants that are well cared for.  Plants that are on sunny, hot sidewalks, are allowed to frequently wilt, and are unevenly watered are not a bargain at any price.

2. Look at all the plants that are being offered in the entire group.  Are some of those plants in poor health?  If so, then go somewhere else to buy plants. Those in the group that look healthy today may be diseased tomorrow.

3. Begin your plant shopping early in the season when the plants are still young and the available selection is good.

4. Examine the roots.  Take the plant and gently shake it out of its container.  The roots should NOT be wrapped into a tight spiral.  They should be plentiful.   With plants that are bare root you should look for lesions, tissue that is broken, and fungi; before planting you want to prune them off.

5. Before purchasing any plant consider its color. If the plant has an overall pale color this means it is malnourished which is an easy problem to correct.  However, if a plant has distinct yellow streaks or brown leaf spots then this is an indication of disease.

6.  Purchase perennials, deciduous shrubs, or trees when they are just beginning to bud out or are dormant.  When there is leaf emergence above ground there is rapid root growth below.  You should try and get plants situated before this growth spurt occurs.

7.  If you buy bedding plants and they are already in flower you should pinch off the blossoms.  If you pinch the blossoms off it will help focus the plant’s energy into growing roots, so later in the season it will be able to support more fruit and flowers.