When shopping for plants at your local garden center, assessing the roots is key. Healthy roots are white to cream in color and well distributed in a plant’s root mass. (Beth Botts/The Morton Arboretum)
When you’re shopping in the garden center, how do you know you’re getting a healthy plant?
“Don’t just judge by the green part you can see,” said Stephanie Adams, a pathologist in plant health care at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle. “Look at the roots, which are just as important.”
Here are some tips from Adams for choosing good plants:
Read the label. “The first step is to make sure you’re buying the right kind of plant for the place where you’re going to put it,” she said. Consider the amount of sunlight the plant requires, and be sure it is hardy in USDA winter hardiness zone 5, which applies to most of the Chicago area. If the plant is a tree or shrub, find out how tall and wide it will ultimately grow so you know if it will fit in the space you have available. Make sure the plant is a good match for the soil conditions in your garden.
Judge the color. Most plants should be a uniform medium green. If a plant’s leaves are not uniformly green, make sure the white splotches or the purple tinge is the appropriate color for that cultivated variety and doesn’t represent a problem. Some cultivated varieties are bred to have differently colored leaves. For example, a plant with yellowish leaves might have been bred that way, or it might be a naturally green plant that is losing chlorophyll because of a disease. The label should make it clear what the plant is intended to look like.
Look for symmetry. Among perennials and shrubs, choose plants with evenly distributed leaves and stems all the way around.
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