Are you searching for the perfect plants to purchase for your yard that’ll liven up your outdoor space? While you may first believe this process is effortless, considering numerous factors ensures successful growth and beautiful landscaping. We’ve highlighted thirteen tips for choosing the best plants and shrubs for sale. Review this list below and contact the appropriate professionals today who can assist with purchasing, planting, and landscape maintenance.
1. Consider Light Availability
Each property offers a unique light availability for plants and shrubs . For example, your landscape might be full sun, part shade, part sun, or full shade. In addition to the light availability, it’s crucial to consider the duration and intensity of sunshine in your area. You must consider this factor and evaluate the condition of your outdoor space since each plant has its own specific needs for light availability. If a plant has too little light availability, it’ll likely appear pale and have a yellow or white tinge. Plus, plants with inadequate sunshine tend to have thin stems, which will damage growth tendencies immensely. On the contrary, putting plants in areas with too much light availability will result in wilted leaves and scorching. With this stated, your plants will decrease curb appeal quickly if you don’t evaluate light availability. When looking for plants and shrubs for sale, consider how much sunlight your home has.
2. Review Aesthetics
Reviewing your desired aesthetics is essential when choosing the best plants for your yard. Since landscape design takes lots of planning and includes several factors, it’s no surprise that reviewing the aesthetics of plants when purchasing is necessary. To do this, first, consider the color scheme you’re trying to achieve. Monochromatic color schemes, one color with various hues, have been all the rave since they create a simple and classic appearance. Popular colors for this scheme include blue, pink, purple, and yellow. These colors will be bright and lively and help make a statement in your outdoor space.
Complementary color schemes might be just the ticket if you’d want additional colors when looking for plants and shrubs for sale. For gardening, purple and yellow or orange and blue are great options. Especially since there are countless plants with these colors, this color scheme should be easy for any gardener. Secondly, consider the textures of the plants. The main texture types for plants are coarse, medium, and fine. Having textures in your outdoor area can ensure variety and balance in your landscaping. Lastly, the shape of a plant is essential to consider when evaluating aesthetics. According to Timber Home Living, the five plant shapes include columnar, round, weeping, horizontal, and pyramid. Similar to the texture of a plant, having various plant shapes creates a cohesive landscaping appearance. Plus, implementing different plant shapes guarantee that your outdoor space doesn’t look too manicured and overdone.
3. Examine Maintenance
Various plant types will require different maintenance measurements. With this stated, examine what plants need from you to thrive once planted. For example, some plant types need extensive soil treatments, expensive weed killers, staking, companion plants, and raised garden beds to ensure flourishment. While these tasks aren’t an issue for some gardeners, others might not have the time or resources to perform these maintenance chores. Plant types that require lots of care include orchids, fiddle-leaf figs, peace lilies, and caladiums. On the contrary, some plant types need little to no attention to remain pristine after being sown. Examples of these plants include petunias, begonias, pansies, and snapdragons.
4. Consider Wildlife Impact
Wildlife, such as foxes, rabbits, squirrels, and badgers, are attracted to gardens and prone to making these areas their so-called stomping ground. With these stated, it’s only proper to consider the impacts on wildlife when picking plants for your yard. Poisonous and toxic plants might harm wildlife when touched or ingested. Examples of these plants include lily of the valley, castor oil plant, foxglove, dieffenbachia, and oleander. These plants will result in various harmful symptoms, such as swelling, irregular heartbeats, convulsions, hallucinations, drowsiness, and rashes. With this stated, there are also plants to purchase that will attract wildlife and offer these animals some benefits. For example, wildlife will be satisfied with shrubs and flowering plants that provide nutritious berries and seeds. Additionally, there are herbaceous plants, such as morning glory and Goldenrod, which will allure pollinators such as honeybees, butterflies, and moths.
5. Consider Longevity
Plant longevity is a wise consideration when purchasing new plants for your yard. Since each plant will have a particular lifespan, speaking with professionals during purchasing is essential. For example, some plants, such as artemisias, have a short lifespan of approximately one month. On the other hand, plants can last for an extensive amount of time. Perennials, for instance, can last for 70 to 100 years if cared for properly. With this stated, it’s probably safe to say that you don’t necessarily want lots of plants that have a short lifespan. On the contrary, you likely desire to invest in plants and shrubs for sale that will be worth the purchase and last for years and years to come.
6. Evaluate Growth Habits
Categorizing the growth habits of plants is done in either two ways: perennials and annuals. Each plant type has advantages and disadvantages, which makes the preferences vary depending on the gardener. Perennials are known for regrowing annually. In addition to blooming each year, perennial blooms grow slowly and bloom quickly. Popular perennial plants include hostas, dahlias, hibiscus, salvias, and lavender. Contrastingly, annuals only live for one growing season. With this stated, many gardeners still choose these flowers due to their continuous blooming and season-long coloring. Zinnias, cosmos, marigolds, and larkspurs are all great examples of annual plants to purchase for your garden. Often, gardeners will pair these two types of flowers together since perennials offer great long-term investment, while annuals make your garden appear effortlessly beautiful all season long.
7. Assess Potential Competition
Competition is possible between plants when there is an unequal need for nutrients, light, water, pollinators, and space. When this occurs in a garden, the plants will visibly struggle and appear to lack care and attention, even while you’re doing everything they require. Often, competition occurs when non-native plants are present in the garden. Non-native plants aren’t fit to thrive in the ecosystem due to a lack of resources. When these plants are a part of your garden, they will take up an abundant amount of resources that hinder the growth of native plants. To avoid this, observe your garden’s region and the correlated native plants. Knowing this, it’s not surprising that 92% of homeowners are purchasing plants native to the region. Popular non-native plants in the United States include English ivy, wisteria sinensis, Japanese honeysuckle, and barberry. With this noted, it’s essential to explain that non-native plants will vary depending on country, state, and region. As a result, speaking with professionals is much more vital when researching plants and shrubs for sale.
8. Review Required Soil Types
A garden has a specific soil type that varies depending on the region. With this stated, each plant needs certain soil to survive and thrive. If you are looking for plants and shrubs for sale that need a soil type different from your own, it can cause the plant, specifically the roots, from getting enough nutrients and moisture due to its composition. In light of this, you can easily purchase a soil test, which will give some answers to which type of soil your garden has. When performing these tests, you can determine the group of soil you have.
According to Real Homes, there are six main categories for soil: clay, sandy, silty, peaty, chalky, and loamy. Clay soil is lumpy and has poor drainage. As a result of this, clay soil is best for plants such as shrubs and aster. Sandy soil is a superb option for rooted vegetables since it’s quick and dry and only does well with plants with extensive root systems. Silty soil is soft and compact and is a wise option for shrubs and moisture-loving greenery. Peaty soil has a spongy texture and is known for being fit for vegetables and shrubs. Chalky soil has numerous stones and can encourage the growth of shrubs and bulbs. Lastly, loamy soil has a fine texture, which is great for plants like wisteria, delphinium, and honeysuckle.
9. Evaluate Hardiness Zone
The measurement of a plant’s ability to withstand harsh, cold temperatures is its hardiness. According to the USDA, these zones are based on the minimum temperature for a plant’s environment. In addition to the main component of temperature resistance, the hardiness zone measure’s the plant’s ability to tolerate damaging factors such as drought, heat, wind, and flooding. Simply put, your garden’s hardiness zone derives from the geographical area and specific climate conditions that sway a plant’s survival and growth. With this stated, it’s essential to study the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map to evaluate your garden’s hardiness zone. This particular map depicts the annual minimum temperature during the winter season. On the United State’s mainland, the map has nine different zones. With all of this considered, knowing your hardiness zone will help you depict which plants and shrubs for sale will be best to survive and thrive in your region’s weather conditions.
10. Review Plant Functions
Like aesthetics, gardeners might want to specifically choose plants that achieve specific functions from the selection of plants and shrubs for sale. With this stated, there are three main functions that plants can serve: architectural, environmental, and engineering. Plants can serve an architectural purpose by defining the ceiling, walls, or floors of landscaping. Ceilings and walls can form from a canopy made from shrubs. This function will help add height and density to your outdoor living space. With this stated, you can increase privacy and filter intense sunlight to create a shaded area.
Plus, gardeners can establish floors with herbaceous perennials to direct traffic and limit physical access to delicate growth. Plants can serve the environmental function by regulating temperatures around a home. In addition, plants can serve an environmental function by creating an insulating layer that will block the intense wind. Examples of plants with these capabilities include peace lilies, begonias, Boston ferns, and bird’s nest ferns. Lastly, plants can have engineering functions by controlling erosion and decreasing drainage. Having these sorts of plants will ensure the success of your garden’s system. Plants that have these capabilities include Japanese spurge, ostrich ferns, periwinkle, and spotted dead nettle.
11. Assess the Resistance to Disease & Parasites
While it may not be at the forefront of your mind, assess a plant’s resistance to disease and parasites before purchasing it for your yard. Diseases that plants are prone to include black spots, downy mildew, powdery mildew, and damping-off. These conditions can severely damage the health of your garden and require costly treatments to rid of them. Parasites, like invasive insects, can also threaten your plant’s growth. With this stated, you should look for plants and shrubs for sale that successfully resist disease and parasites.
12. Measure Soil Depth
The measure of your soil depth is an essential factor that will determine the success of your plants. While many gardeners might initially consider the amount of topsoil in their growing areas, obtain a more detailed analysis. To do this effectively, a gardener can use a metal soil probe or begin digging holes in multiple places around the garden to get a consistent depth when reaching bedrock. While most gardens have an average soil depth of five feet, it’s not uncommon to have as little as one foot of soil depth. With this stated, it’s essential to consider your plant type and planting techniques when doing your duties. For example, some plants can’t thrive in shallow soil depths due to inadequate nutrients and water. A flower that will quickly wither if put in shallow conditions includes chrysanthemums.
On the contrary, you can also find plants and shrubs for sale that don’t mind shallow soil depth and will flourish in these conditions. Examples of these flowers include zinnias, lavender, hostas, petunias, and periwinkle. It’s also essential to note that you can still choose plants that love deep soil even if your garden doesn’t provide this. Plant these plants around large spreading mounds that measure one foot tall to ensure a successful growing season. By doing this, you can be confident that you’re giving your plants the conditions it needs to succeed.
13. Examine pH Levels
The pH level of your garden measures the acidity and alkalinity in the soil. Since specific plants require nutrient absorption of a certain pH level, this is a crucial factor to consider while purchasing. Acidic soils typically have a pH level of 5.5 or below, while alkaline soil measures 7.5 and above. Plants that thrive in acidic soil include evergreens, hydrangeas, daffodils, and mountain heather. On the contrary, plants such as lavender, geraniums, and campanula love alkaline pH levels. The process for examining the pH levels of your garden is quite simple. To do this quickly, purchase a soil testing kit from a local nursery and know the results in approximately two days.
To review, it’s essential to consider light availability, aesthetics, maintenance, wildlife impacts, longevity, growth habits, competition tendencies, soil types, hardiness zone, plant functions, disease & parasite resistance, soil depth, and pH levels when choosing the best plants and shrubs for sale. After reviewing this list, you can confidently choose and purchase plants that best fit your needs and garden conditions. If you need additional help with these decisions, contact Gateway Home & Garden Center today!
