Keeping plants alive during the summer can be hard, but the job actually begins on the trip home from the nursery.
Here are some transporting tips designed to keep your plants alive and relatively stress-free on the ride home.
● Plan your trip so that your plant-shopping stop is the last thing you do before heading home. If it's 100 degrees or hotter, plants left sitting in a hot car can wilt and die in no time, especially small ones. And even if they do survive, the heat stress will weaken them and inhibit their growth.
● If you're transporting plants in an open trunk bed, place small ones as close to the passenger cab as possible to minimize exposure to wind.
Taller plants — trees and large shrubs — should be placed on their side, with the tops of the plants facing to the rear.
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Better yet, cover your plants with a tarp to block the sun and wind.
● Prevent plants from rolling around by securing them with tie-down straps. This is especially important for plants lying on their sides during the trip home.
If plants roll, it not only will cause limbs and branches to break and leaves to be damaged, but it also will loosen and damage the root ball.
● Don't try to transport plants that are too large for your vehicle.
Tops of trees sticking out of car windows or trunk lids will wind-burn and dry out. Ask the garden center or nursery to deliver large plants. These businesses have the equipment and know-how to transport them without causing injury.
● Water the plants as soon as you get home.
Even those that appear to be moist should be watered to provide maximum hydration. A cooling spray of water from a garden-hose attachment will help freshen plants.
Just make sure to run your hose until cool water comes out before giving your new plants a shower.
● If you're not planting immediately, place your new plants in a location that's shaded from midday and afternoon sun.
Water them in their pots once or twice daily until you're ready to plant them.
If you've bought small bedding plants in 4-inch-diameter containers or smaller, you may have to water them three or four times daily. Better yet, just plant them right away.
The monsoon is a great time to plant because the increased humidity, cloud cover and occasional rains make it much easier for plants to establish themselves in the ground.
Even so, newly planted foliage — including true desert species — should be watered daily for the first two to three weeks to keep them hydrated and help them establish new roots.
The exceptions are cacti and succulents. They require an initial soaking, but after that, water them only once weekly through the summer.
Because daily watering can, over time, deplete the level of nitrogen available to your new plants, I recommend fertilizing with a diluted nitrogen fertilizer. You can use water-soluble nitrogen found in products such as Miracle-Gro, Peter's Plant Food and Schultz Plant Food.
Apply these mild sources of nitrogen every 14 days during the summer to prevent nitrogen deficiencies from developing.
Discontinue fertilization in the fall. Your new plants will need to go into a resting period before the arrival of winter.
Gardening
Advice by John P. Begeman