Plant Brands in the Garden Centers

This message was edited Jul 8, 2007 7:58 PM

I don't think I have any generic lines where I shop. Depends on the price and health of the plants I guess.

If it's a plant I want and it looks healthy, I don't really care about the brand name. Brands like Proven Winners and Monrovia often have newer, prettier cultivars that I like so I do tend to buy a fair amount of them, but it's because of the plant not the brand, if that makes sense.

Hi tp5535, I agree with all the others, if I find a plant that I want/need and who cares where it came from so long as it was not taken from any wild extinct plants that are banned, then I buy it, some plant growers specialise in shrubs and evergreens therefore are not always avaliable in the stores, others just grow what they are informed are top sellers and concentrate on these, others just have summer bedding plants as these give a fast turn over, so really, you will find most gardeners buy from various growers without even thinking about it, they just like either the covenience of local stores, like the plant and it is health or some will only use selected growers and deal by post, there is no right way to buy plants, just what suits your needs, your cost and conveniece if you dont like the search for a specific plant, I live in Scotland, so I prefer a Nursery where they actually grow the plants in my own area then I know they will survive my conditions, but as we have so many inported trees, shrubs and bulbs due th the geography of where scotland is, then I will travel, get by post or ask the Nurseryman to try soarce it for me, hope this clears thing up for you and gives you some confidence to go for what suits your own needs, just buy healthy plants at a fair price. Good Luck, WeeNel.

So brands don't matter when shopping for plants at a garden center?

The only reason ever to look for a specific brand is if there's only one grower who supplies a particular cultivar that you like. Otherwise, your best bet is to pick the plant that looks the healthiest, doesn't matter what brand it has on it. For example, Salvia 'Hot Lips' is Salvia 'Hot Lips' no matter what brand name is on it, it's all the same plant so it's really about how healthy a particular individual plant is.

Monrovia is the supplier/grower and proven winner plants are probably only grown under that name as the plants have been hybridized and are patented. Just buy what you like. Never worry about a brand name for plants.

It may be coincidence, but my Monrovia plant purchases never fair well and they actually usually die. I don't know why. I have purchased them from various nurseries.

Plus, I think it was last summer, some of their plants, maybe trees, had a disease and they unknowingly shipped it all over the country.

Ah, Here it is:

CALIFORNIA
Nursery reports oak disease
Infested plants have been sold out of state -- scientists shocked

Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, March 11, 2004

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An oak tree that fell victim to sudden oak death in on Pt...

Ornamental plants in the largest nursery in California -- a place that distributes flora around the country -- have been infested with spores from the tree-killing disease known as sudden oak death, it was revealed Wednesday.

The discovery of Phytophthora ramorum in camellias at Monrovia Growers in Azusa (Los Angeles County) means that the highly contagious disease has been transported to other states and may have been introduced into highly susceptible oak forests in places like the southeastern United States.

The news hit like an earthquake as forest pathologists from around the world gathered Wednesday at Sonoma State University for a California Oak Mortality Task Force meeting.

"It's a huge nursery with thousands of plants that went all over the place," said Susan Frankel, a U.S. Forest Service plant pathologist who is working with the state Department of Food and Agriculture on the problem. "Hundreds of nurseries are now going to require inspections. Hundreds of thousands of plants will have to be destroyed. We're very concerned for the forests of the United States, for the nursery industry and trade. It's terrible."

The news of yet another infestation was a major setback after two years of progress fighting the fungus-like scourge that has killed tens of thousands of California's majestic oaks. The widening swath of destruction seemed to have slowed in the past two years, especially in the Bay Area, and an effective phosphite treatment was developed and approved for use on private trees.

But there were signs of trouble last year when Phytophthora ramorum, which is the scientific name for the disease, was discovered in camellias in a small nursery in Washington.

It meant the disease had spread to another state -- but infestations had been found before in nurseries and isolated, so it wasn't yet a disaster. However, Frankel said, the camellias were eventually traced back to Monrovia. Testing of plants there confirmed Monday that six varieties of camellias were infected, the first such infestation in arid Southern California.

The major concern is that the 500-acre nursery does $30 million annually in out-of-state shipments, Frankel said, and many of the plants sent out over the past year may have been infected. That means they may serve as hosts and spread the disease to wildland areas.

Steve Oak, a forest pathologist for the North Carolina office of the U.S. Forest Service, said a great many of Monrovia's plants are shipped to the southeast, including places near the southern Appalachian Mountains, where Northern red oak trees make up 80 percent of the forest canopy in some places.

"We have a pathway that was theoretical before, but is now likely," he said during a break in Wednesday's conference. "The threat is very real."

It is especially troubling in that region because the oaks there replaced the forests of American chestnut trees killed in one of the worst blights in world history.

The chestnut blight, first discovered in 1904, killed some 3.5 billion trees in 50 years, essentially wiping out the entire species.

Steve Lyle, spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said lab samples are being taken and analyzed to determine how extensive the Monrovia infestation is. "Surveying is ongoing at other nurseries in California as well to see if the fungus has spread even further," Lyle said. Katie Bloome, the spokeswoman for Monrovia Growers, said shipments of all plants that are susceptible to sudden oak death have been halted and she is confident the problem can be eradicated.

"We're on top of it," she said.

Meanwhile, forest pathologists from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands outlined during the conference how Phytophthora ramorum has spread from nursery plants to forested areas. It seems to be especially deadly for beech and red oak trees in Europe.

Curiously, the microbe in Europe -- which was recently also found in the Pacific Northwest -- is a different mating type from the one that dominates in the United States. Scientists are desperately trying to keep the two types apart for fear that they will mate and create an even more virulent form of sudden oak death.

Dave Rizzo, an associate professor of plant pathology at UC Davis, said the latest news shows how important it is to stay focused and keep up the fight.

"We've had a couple of years where we haven't had much die-off, probably because of the weather," Rizzo said. "But remember, chestnut blight took 50 years to kill every tree. So we still need to be cautious."

usually the branded products look the best in the nursery, you might want to take a picture because when they get home and planted, they'll never look that good ever.

I also just purchase on the individual plant's appearance. I have found though, that plants grown by the nursery you buy it from do better than plants the nursery had shipped in. here in Mo. we have many small, individually owned and opperated nurseries, some are someone's back yard that the person divides and pots up and sells out of their home. Those plants do best, I guess because they have grown under the same conditions I have. I find some of these through a site called GROWNATIVE! I don't know if that is a Mo. thing or not. Check your state conservation dept. if you are interested in that -lisa