Guide to Buying Smart at the Garden Center

Janet Harriett

Forget what the calendar says. After months of bleak winter when it seemed like nothing would ever grow again, the first day of spring is the day that plants arrive at the nursery. One of the surest symptoms of spring fever is the irresistible urge to buy out the garden center's rows upon rows of greenery. But spring fever gives way to summer, and those rows of greenery may become rows of scraggly plants tucked into a side yard, still in their nursery pots, or, worse, dead and finding a second career as overpriced compost. Buying smart at the garden center is better on both the pocketbook and the plants.

The key to buying smart at the garden center is to never, ever, under any circumstances, buy a plant the first time you see it. Instead of plopping the pot in the cart, make a note of the plant's common and botanical names and do a little research at home. Go online for images of the plant in all seasons, and find out if it requires any special care or has any qualities like toxicity or invasiveness that might not be noted on the tag.

At the very least, take a cooling-off period. In a well-stocked nursery or garden center, the plants will be available next weekend. If not, there are always mail order catalogs and online nurseries. If necessary, leave the cash, checkbook, debit card and credit cards at home for the initial foray into the garden center to prevent impulse buys.

During the cooling-off period, determine exactly where the new plant will go. Find a stake or a twig equal to the mature height of the plant and stick it in the ground at the potential site to make sure the plant's mature size will not overwhelm nearby plants or block a view. Before buying large qualities of bulbs, consider the digging involved. A drift of a hundred tulips might seem like a good idea until you find yourself digging a hundred planting holes. Don't buy plants that do not already have a spot waiting for them in the landscape.

Try a little advanced planning to take the edge off the spring fever that causes so many gardeners to overspend on unwise purchases in the garden center. Seeds start arriving at the garden centers in late winter, and seed packets are much less expensive than even the tiniest pot of annuals. Pick up a few packets of herb seeds and starting a windowsill herb garden in January or February, and you can get something growing by the time garden center shopping time comes around. Even something a small as a couple of old yogurt cups planted with chives can be enough greenery to temper the urge to unwisely buy out the garden center on the first day of spring.

05/12/08  By Janet Harriett