When you are buying or receiving plants from someone there are a few things that you need to look at before deciding to plant them in your garden.
You will generally get a better quality plant from a garden center and it will be less likely to have disease or other problems that could spread to other plants in your garden.
There is still the possibility that the garden center plant might not be the healthy specimen that you might expect so you should still check it out before parting with your money.
The first thing you need to do is look at the plant and see whether it looks healthy.
This might seem very obvious but we often assume that buying from a garden center will assure us of a healthy plant when in actual fact even garden centers can have problem plants and you don’t want to be the new owner of their problems.
Plants are very good at showing any signs of distress so a plant that doesn’t look healthy, generally isn’t.
Check the conditions of the leaves, stems and roots of the plant where possible.
You should also look at the condition of the soil that it has been growing in, as this will have had an effect on its health.
If you are buying flowering plants it is always best to buy the ones that have yet to flower, as they will withstand the trauma of transport and transplanting better than those that already have flowers.
If there is no alternative but to buy or receive plants that already have flowers then many people suggest that you should remove all the flowers to give the plant a better chance of survival. While you might be reluctant to do so, you will probably have a better plant that will produce more flowers in the future.
If there is anything on the plant that concerns you seek advice or decide against having that plant in your garden
You should consider adding magnolias to your backyard landscape.
Why?
They are easy to grow and relatively pest free. Most have large showy flowers and attractive large leaves. Many are evergreen and attractive year round.
There are many great shrub-sized magnolias for the smaller garden. Check with your local garden center to find magnolias and to find the best time to plant in your area.
As a rule of thumb, it is best to plant in the early spring in the northern areas and in the fall in the southern areas.
Plant your azalea in early spring or early fall.
If your soil is loose, well drained, and has lots of organic matter, planting will be easy. If drainage is poor, you’ll need to correct the drainage problem or plant in raised beds. You can work in some well-rotted leaf mold or compost if the soil is short of organic matter.
Ferns make good, low maintenance garden plants that have surprisingly few pests and diseases. I enjoy ferns as they fit very well around my pond, but can be placed in other areas as well, and are pretty easy to maintain.
Many ferns prefer light to moderate shade, somewhat moist conditions and soil rich in organic matter. Ferns are adapted to a wide variety of conditions–some ferns prefer dry rocky sites or wet marshy conditions while others thrive in limestone-rich soils. There are garden ferns for just about every condition you encounter in a garden.
Acutally, there are over 500 kinds of hardy ferns that can be grown in American gardens.
Different plants have different water needs. It’s important to keep this in mind when selecting plants and when choosing the area of your yard where you will be planting them.
Some tolerate drought during the summer but need winter rains.
Others need a consistent supply of moisture to grow well.
Careful attention to the need for supplemental water can help you select plants that need a minimum of irrigation to perform well in your garden.
If you have poorly drained, chronically wet soil, you can select lovely garden plants that naturally grow in bogs, fens, and other wet places.
If you do not want to spend much time watering your plants, choose accordingly. The wide variety of plants available will allow you to pretty much do what you want and still give you a colorful backyard.
Nothing. The ants are only on the buds to collect sugars excreted by tiny nectaries on the surface of the petals. While they don’t need to be present for the buds to open properly, they won’t hurt your peonies either, so don’t be concerned.
My grandson likes to knock the ants off the buds, and that’s fine. But they are not going to do any harm - nor are they going to do any good.