Garden centre plants will flourish in your outdoor space if you carry out one crucial step with their roots before planting. If you lack the patience to cultivate plants from tiny seeds, you’ve probably visited your local garden centre to purchase flowers ready to go straight into the ground.
These plants are a brilliant way to get your garden started, providing immediate colour while still having plenty of room to develop and become more impressive over time. However, without proper care, it’s all too easy for garden centre plants to fall short of their potential. This can lead to restricted growth, fewer flowers, and in some cases, the danger of them perishing prematurely.
The majority of issues garden centre plants encounter stem from their root systems struggling to properly expand into the larger pot or flowerbed you’ve transferred them to. When you initially purchase them, they’re squeezed into compact pots, and their extensive roots become visible when you remove them for replanting.
But according to one gardener on social media, completing one vital step before replanting your flowers can help ensure the plants will flourish – and it only takes a few moments.
Dan, who regularly shares affordable gardening tips on his TikTok account, said that if you buy plants from a garden centre or supermarket, you should gently agitate the soil around the roots before you plant them.
He said: “Take it out of the container, and then see the roots? What I do is I just give them a little tease around the edges, maybe open up the bottom just a little bit. What we’re doing is we’re opening up the roots.
“If you were to plant it [without doing this], there can be a tendency for the roots just to wrap around the compost and not spread out. To give the plant the best chance it needs, you want the roots to spread out into the soil. So that’s why you do that.”
In his video, Dan simply removed the plant from its pot before carefully loosening the edges of the soil so that some of the roots were freed from their compacted position. He also gently pressed the base of the soil to help untangle the roots — a technique that requires little to no gardening know-how whatsoever.
Those commenting on his post were genuinely surprised by the tip, with several admitting they had always considered doing something similar but feared they might “damage the roots”.
Dan responded: “They’ll be fine after this, they are far more hardy than you may think!”
Plants purchased from a garden centre or supermarket should stand a solid chance of thriving in your garden, having already surpassed the fragile seedling stage.
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To ensure your plants put down strong roots and establish themselves successfully, bear the following advice in mind:
- Hydrate before planting: Don’t plant your flowers straight into the soil with no water. Submerge the plant’s rootball in room temperature water for 15-30 minutes until the bubbles stop, as this helps to ensure the roots have plenty of hydration before being planted.
- Dig the right hole: You should dig a hole twice the diameter of the rootball, but exactly the same depth. Do not plant too deeply, as this can smother the stem, while planting too high can cause the roots to dry out.
- Tease the roots: As Dan explained in his video, gently loosen the roots with your fingers or a hand fork if they are tightly wound or matted. This helps them grow outward into your soil instead of continuing to curl around themselves.
- Water deeply: After planting, water the area generously to help settle the soil and eliminate air pockets around the rootball.