The How-To's of Plant Shopping...

Before you start your car or jump online, assess your gardens. First, take several pictures of the area you're working on, but also make sure you include neighboring plants. Then, take a few notes regarding the height of the neighboring plants. Do the neighboring plants come up to your ankle? Your knee? Your hip or chest? And have they finished growing? Using a smartphone to record this info is super easy and super fast.

To review a bit of last week's journal entry... if you want to create more eye-candy in the garden and you already have large-leaf plants, go for a small-leaf or a strappy plant. If you have lots of dark green plants, mix in variegated or chartreuse plants. But, if the contrast in your garden is a little over the top and chaos is kicking in, make the differences between groups of plants more subtle or make your groups larger.

Color contrast in the winter garden.

Fast forward... you are at the nursery or online for the first time this year. Your heart rate is picking up speed as you consider the gorgeous vignette you're about to create. This is it! The moment of truth and then you start thinking... these plants are so gosh-darn expensive and, oh boy, I might make a mistake. Panic sets in and you're just a little overwhelmed. You wander aimlessly and give up without making a decision or revert to impulsive shopping... love that one, gotta have it. Here are few tips to help ensure growing and design success...

1. Read the plant tags for light exposure and soil moisture requirements. If you site a plant properly, its chance for success rises above 90%. Usually, plants only develop pest and disease problems from stress, which comes from improper light exposure, pH or soil moisture levels. If the tag info is just too general, use your smartphone to look up more specific info on the internet at .edu sites.

Plant tags have valuable information.

2. Understand the mature size of the plant. The words "dwarf", "little", and "compact" are relative terms. The plant may be compact relative to other plants within the same genus species. A 4-foot "dwarf" shrub is a big shrub and may be too big for the spot you have in mind. Visualizing the height of the plant relative to your body helps when choosing the right plant for the right spot (i.e. knee=18", hip=3', chest=4', nose=5', etc). If you only have a 2-foot high space under a foundation window, buy a plant that matures at two feet or shorter.

3. Use your photos and/or pull plants together. Yes, literally, pick them up and place them next to one another. If shopping online, create a collage of Google Images with your photos. I do this all the time for my clients, and I make last minute changes to my designs all the time. Sometimes, the plant combinations we've worked out in our heads just don't work in real time. We maximize our chances for design success by creating the combination in the nursery or on the screen before we buy.

Next time we'll begin to take a look at my favorite native plants in the field.  Until then...