Lets get pumped up! We are going shopping for flowers today!

You arrive at your local garden center, get out of your car and do your fast paced walk to the nearest cart. The first greenhouse you stop in, you are speechless and overwhelmed all at the same time. Once you get past that, you are ready to dig in and choose your plants for your planters and gardens. Just wait! Before you do that, read on and learn what you need to know about selecting your plants.

You see it. The most beautiful flower. Its the only plant in the group with a flower on it. You go in for the grab. You are officially ‘Blinded by the Almighty Flower’.

Don’t pick your plants out based on whether it has a flower or not. Always go for the most biggest lush plant of the group. They all get flowers eventually. The bigger the plant, the quicker it takes off. A lot of times, the smallest plants, have the most flowers. The reason why is the plant is giving most of its energy to producing those flowers, over putting it’s energy into growing as a plant. If you still decide to pick out the plant with the flower, it’s no big deal. It’s still a healthy plant, it will just take a little extra time to catch up. I’m just providing tips to help you enjoy your garden/planters faster, since our growing season is so short. Once you have planted your plants into your garden/planter, I’d even suggest taking all of the flowers off. This will force the plants to put all of their energy into growing in size. Don’t worry, it will produce a lot more flowers after that.

Lets move on to the next thing you need to know before shopping for flowers.

Brown leaves. I’ve heard people say, ‘this plant looks like it’s dying’, so many times! Brown leaves don’t always mean a plant is dying. A lot of plants recycle their leaves, and you have to maintain them by picking the bad ones off. For example, you go to a greenhouse for geraniums. The geraniums are placed real close together in flats. This results in brown leaves at the bottom of the plant. When they are grown close together like that, the bottom leaves aren’t getting any sun, which results in brown or yellow leaves. All you do is clean them up, and they are beautiful once again. The only time you should be worried about brown leaves is if it is all the way up the stem of a plant. Then there are real problems there.

Lastly, can we discuss the lanky plants?

For tall, lanky flowering plants, just pinch the middle. This stops the plant from growing up for a few weeks, and forces it to bush out. It’s a great technique! I’ve shared this technique in my video,’How to Create a Monster Basket’

For tall, lanky vegetables, I don’t always suggest pinching. (Even though for many people, tomatoes are the exception.) I’ve had people go as far as saying, ‘I’m not buying those overgrown tomatoes. They look horrible.’ I look over at the veggie plants, and to me, they look great! Yeah, they are pretty tall.  Maybe even leaning over a bit. What’s most important is that they are still green and thriving! They just need someone to trust in them and plant them, because once you do, BOY OH BOY! BadaBing! BadaBoom! You are all of a sudden loaded up with so many veggies during your harvest season.

In the beginning, at any garden center, all plants will look like a normal perfect size. By mid to late season, they should start looking longer and lanky. You want to know why? Because if they look too perfect in size by mid to late season, they are getting dosed with growth retardant. Growth retardant stalls a plant from growing for 4-6 weeks in order to maintain that perfect height people want out of a vegetable plant. Are you willing to wait 4-6 weeks longer just to harvest? Heck no! So the next time you hear someone next to you, at a garden center, complaining about the size; you now have the knowledge to tell them what you know. Knowledge, it’s great to have.

Lets say, for example, a tomato plant is tall and lanky. Just dig a small trench in your garden and lay it down. A tomato plant gets roots all the way up its stem. So it will then become one big spread out tomato plant, and it will work like a work horse for you. All harvest long!

I will continue to share all of my knowledge on gardening, with you. If you keep on reading, you too, will become a pro!

This can help too! This is what I use in my gardens.