A customer selects maroon coral bell, yellow and maroon foamy bell and gold and green variegated Japanese forest grass to create a colorful vignette of shade-tolerant perennials that will do well together. © Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
Some customers walk through the garden center and make a beeline for the perennials, on the hunt for a new daisy. Some wander aisle to aisle, checking out this plant then that one, reading the labels as they think through a design.
Others, however, stop in their tracks, eyes wide as they take in what many call an overwhelming scene. Thousands of annuals, perennials, herb, vegetables, roses, hydrangeas, evergreens, trees and more stand ready to feed your family or decorate your landscape, deck or porch.
Let’s take a deep breath and run through some tips to make your quest for plants as easy as shopping for groceries. You know what your family likes to eat. If no one likes okra, you don’t buy it. This concept holds true when deciding what to grow in the vegetable garden or in a pot on the patio.
In general, vegetables that produce fruit, such as peppers, tomatoes and beans, need a minimum of six hours of direct sun a day. Leafy greens, such as lettuce and spinach, and root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes, tolerate light shade or filtered sun.
Just like you have a list when you grocery shop, make a few notes to take with you to the garden center. The list should include the dimensions of the area you want to plant, and the width and depth of containers you want to fill. Note how much direct sun you have where you want to plant or place pots. This information guides in the selection of a plant, taking into account its size, soil and light requirements and your site.
Most independent garden centers will have someone who can give you some ideas about what plants will work with your site or containers. Saturdays are not the best day to seek this help, especially with a complicated or large design. Saturday is a garden center’s busiest day. Some garden centers make appointments for a consult.
Read the tag and take a little time to learn a bit about a plant to make sure it will do what you want or how much care it may need. Pair up plants to see if they make a good color companions and have similar horticulture needs.
Garden center employees usually have favorite combos or plants they can recommend, so ask for suggestions and be open to them. Staff members know which plants are going to do better than others and they can give you tips on growing them successfully.