 TRANSPORTING YOUR NEW PLANTS HOME: When transporting plants home, they must be protected from heat and wind. Plants should not be locked in a hot trunk or tightly wrapped in plastic, which magnifies the sun and creates heat. New growth buds and leaves are also susceptible to wind damage from even short trips at low speeds.
Please protect your investment or ask us to help. STORING YOUR NEW PLANTS AT HOME: When you get your plants home, they should be watered immediately and stored in a shady area until planting. Do not store plants on asphalt or concrete exposed to the sun. Plants should be checked daily to make sure they stay moist. Container stock can dry out in just one hot windy day. PLANTING YOUR NEW PLANTS: There are basically three methods of handling plant material. Balled & burlap, field potted, and container grown plants each require a slightly different method of planting. A little care on your part will go a long way to ensure the survival of your new plants. Moisten all plants before planting. 1. Balled & burlapped plants should be planted with the burlap on. DO NOT REMOVE THE BURLAP!! All twine, whether jute or plastic, should be cut from around the trunk of your plants after placement in the hole. Once that the plant is sitting at the right height in the hole, use a sharp knife or razor knife to make several cuts upward along the root ball. Be careful not to cut yourself, and don’t go too deeply into the root ball. Wire baskets may also be left on the plant as they will help support the root ball and will not disrupt the growth of the plant. 2. Field potted plants should be removed from their pots whether fiber or plastic. It is often easier to remove fiber pots by slicing them down the sides with a serrated knife. Do this as close to the planting hole as possible. Try to keep the dirt intact around the roots as you slide the plant out of the pot and into the new hole. Bumping the sides of plastic pots with your fists or a mallet will often loosen the soil away from the sides of the pot, allowing you to slide the plant out. Plastic pots can 3. Container grown plants generally come out of the pots quite easily when moist. They are, however, quite frequently root-bound from growing in lush potting soil. The outside roots are often woody and dead from drying and from contact with the plastic pot. You should loosen the root ball in container plants about 1” in from the outside edge. This can be done either by crumbling the root-bound area with your fingers or by making several slices about 3/4-1” deep with a razor knife. This will allow new roots to break out and help the plant establish.
GENERAL PLANTING: Try to provide good topsoil for planting. One of the most important facts to consider is drainage. Far more plants are killed by too much water than not enough. When planting in clay ground or in wet areas, elevate the plant and place only half the root ball below the soil level. Crown dirt up around the top half of the root ball. DO NOT dig an extra large hole in clay ground and add sand and peat moss. This will only act as a pool for water to gather in which will rot the new feeder roots, eventually killing the plant. Try to slope plant beds so excess water drains away from plants. Do not bury plants deeper than where they were originally grown. Do not cover lower limbs with dirt or mulch. We recommend a 3” layer of good bark mulch as a topping for plant areas. The mulch can even be used to cover the top portion of the root ball. DO NOT USE PLASTIC under the mulch. Some of the new weed barrier fabrics are porous and work well, but plastic will not let water out. Spaghnum peat moss is excellent to mix with top soil or existing soil when planting. DO NOT add any fertilizer directly on the root ball when planting. Place fertilizer on the soil surface after planting and let it work in slowly. Products like Ortho and Upstart are excellent for planting. Remove all plastic tags and tagging ribbon which might girdle the plant as it grows. It helps to stake larger pines, spruce, and shade trees against the wind. This prevents the trees from being blown over or loosened by strong winds. Be sure the plants will not be rubbed by the stakes or wire used to stake them. Fourteen days after original planting, check to make sure that the soil and mulch have not settled and that roots aren’t exposed. check for watering by digging into the soil next to plants with a trowel or a spade. Because the surface is dry doesn’t mean the plants need water. Don’t water on a regular basis. Water when the plants need it ! A lawn, especially a new one, will require and be able to use much more water that plant beds will. Be careful not to flood plant areas adjacent to lawn areas. Be extremely cautious, also when using lawn weed killers next to plant areas. Many people show a great deal of care for their plants when they are first installed only to forget them later. Be sure to check your plantings in July, August, and September. This is a critical time for new plants and is often when they are setting leaf and flower buds for the following year. Plants that go into the winter dehydrated can be damaged easily by cold weather.
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