When it comes to getting started with your garden, you 
e two choices; planting seeds, or buying entire plants. Both e their own benefits. If you plant seeds and care for them every day, you will find it is a much more rewarding experience when you e a full, h
thy plant. However, this method is a lot more risky. I can’t tell you how many seeds I’ve planted and never seen any trace of whatsoever. If you choose to buy the plant from a nursery and inst
it in your garden, it reduces a lot of the work involved in making it hthy. However, I e found in the past that many incompetent nursery workers will absolutely ruin the future of the plant by putting certain chemicals or fertilizers in. I e adapted to this incompetence by learning to choose the hthiest plant of the bunch. Here I will discuss some of the techniques I use in my screening process for plants.
It may sound superficial, but the one thing you need to check for on your prospective plants is how nice they look. As far as plants go, you can truly judge a book by its cover. If a plant 
been treated hthily and no diseases or pests, you can almost always tell by how nice it looks. If a plant grown up in improper soil, or harmful bugs living in it, you can tell from the holey leaves and wilted stems.
If you’re browsing the nursery shelves looking for your dream plant, you want to exclude anything that currently flowers. Plants are less traumatized by the transplant if they do not currently e any flowers. It’s best to find ones that just consist of buds. However if you e to choose from are flowering plants, then you should do the unthinkable and sever of them. It will be worth it for the future hth of the plant. I’ve found that transplanting a plant while it is blooming results in ing a dead plant ninety percent of the time.
Always check the 
ts before you plop down the money to purce the plant. Of course if the ts are in absolutely terrible condition you will be able to tell by looking at the rest of the plant. But if the ts are just slightly out of shape, then you probably won’t be able to tell just by looking at it. Inspect the ts very closely for any signs of brownness, rottenness, or softness. The ts should always be a firm, perfectly well formed infrastructure that holds the soil together. One can easily tell if the ts are before or past their prime, depending on the t to soil ratio. If there are a ridiculous amount of ts with little soil, or a bunch of soil with few ts, you should not buy that plant.
If you find any abnormalities with the plant, whether it be the shape of the ts or any irregular features with the leaves, you should ask the nursery employees. While usuy these things can be the sign of an unhthy plant, occasiony there will be a logical explanation for it. Always give the nursery a chance before writing them off as horrendous. After , they are (usuy) professionals who e been ding with plants for years.
So if you decide to take the easy route and get a plant from a nursery, you just e to remember that the hth of the plants been left up to someone you don’t know. Usuy they do a good job, but you should always check for yourself. Also take every precaution you can to avoid transplant shock in the plant (when it trouble adjusting to its new location, and therefore hth problems in the future). Usuy the process goes smoothly, but you can never be too sure.
