A Plants Life

       You'd be surprised how much care is given to a plant before you bring it home from the market or nursery. It may seem like healthy, colorful plants sprout easily at your favorite garden center but in reality they've taken a curious route before they ever make it there. 

     Many plants go through a complex breeding program before a retail establishment gets them. For instance, a conifer or juniper will take three to four years from the time a cutting is made to the time it even makes it to a one gallon sized container. 

---

         Many houseplants like that Pothos hanging in your patio most likely went through a scientific cloning process started in a petri dish of producing individual plants from molecules with identical or virtually identical DNA, either naturally or artificially.  This, in turn, makes them like super plants with little change of them getting insect and diseases (kind of scary, isn’t it?).  Anyway, 3 years later you end up buying it. 

---

               In the first year outdoor ornamental trees and
​shrubs go through staking, weeding, irrigation, pest management, regular fertilizing, pruning and frequent inspections for disease and insect problems. Of course every effort to protect these plants from frost, heat exhaustion and all other environmental conditions are taken.  So the next time you see a plant in a nursery, don't scoff at the price, it's been through a lot. ​​

---