Boycott Bad Plants!

Posted by Barbara M. Martin May 6, 2006

I think shopping for plants and planting and growing the plants should be fun. But on several recent plant shopping and scouting forays I was shocked and disgusted by the poor quality of the plants offered for sale. And I am NOT talking about some rinky dink crummy little fly by night place where you would expect poor quality and ultra low prices and no expertise.

I have been so turned off that I turned around on my heel and walked out without buying a thing. I wish more people would do this: speak up with their money! Sure it's inconvenient and I was disappointed not to purchase what I had made the trip out there for. But we as consumers need to insist on better quality!

I think the garden retailers need to be forward thinking on this. They should be offering their customers healthy plants at reasonable prices. Happy customers will come back and buy more plants! They will become lifelong gardeners!

At the same time, gardeners need to educate themselves about what is and is not a "good" quality plant, what is suitable to their planting site, and what is a fair price. I was so saddened to see so many beginning gardeners optimistically loading their carts and looking forward to a beautiful yard. Those bad plants - and their own unknowing complicity in the scenario -- doom them to failure.

Seeing that drove me to rush home and write a series of articles on how to buy a great rose bush. It starts today! Here's the first one: Buying A Rose Bush. Please send it along to any gardening friends who you think might like it -- I want every one to succeed with their new roses -- and with their flower gardens over all!

Sometimes I wonder if the retailers bank on a strategy of selling poor quality plants so that the customer -- assuming it is their own fault the plant is not thriving -- will be forced to come back and purchase the perceived solution to the problem, be it fertilizer, insect spray or some miracle cure. Or even to replace the plant -- with yet another inferior plant!

Or the customer becomes frustrated and gives up on gardening.

This is a lousy situation. Don't fall in the trap. Do a little research, educate yourself about the plants that thrive in your local area and in the growing conditions in your yard, look for good quality healthy plants when you shop.

If you see bad plants, talk to the manager and let them know why you are not purchasing their plants. Maybe together we can bring about some positive change.