Re: Pistacia lentiscus problems?

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I have to agree with Joe.  In most of my talks with new or fairly inexperienced gardeners, one of the things I advise is to GENTLY pull pots away from the plants if there are roots protruding from the bottom drain holes and to reject those with densely circling roots.  I recently made a mess on the floor of the Community Center where I was giving a talk and demonstrating how to do this without damaging the plant!  Many folks are not near to really fine garden centers, and even fewer are near nurserymen who actually GROW their own stock like Anthony.  I would love to take Anthony on a tour of what we call “Big Box” garden centers, or even of some of the smaller chain nurseries who buy their stock from truly MASSIVE growers; he might be more sympathetic.  Perhaps he has never seen the likes of a Hines or Monrovia wholesale grower where the plants stretch for miles and do not receive the kind of personal attention that insures really healthy stock.  And alas, the problem is often that garden centers do not sell stock promptly, and do not have the capability to pot them up to the next size when they do not sell in their season.  People who want to garden, and only have these places available to them, are at a distinct disadvantage, and we simply advise them to make sure they spend their money wisely. 

 

I think we also have a bit of a cultural disconnect here.  I recall trying to squeeze and smell fruit in a small storefront shop in France, and the shopkeeper practically bit my head off!  He told me to point, and he would put what I wanted in a bag!  Here, even at the smallest fruit stand, we wouldn’t consider buying produce without examining it, and even requesting a taste, which the stand owner (or even grocery clerk) will always cheerfully supply!  No produce seller, even at Farmer’s Markets, worth his salt is without a pocket knife for quick samples.  We Americans are really a “show me” kind of people, and not just in Missouri where that is there state motto!

 

Cheerfully,

Karrie Reid