How to pick flowers so you don't get scammed? Practical tips to share

What follows are some common little tricks for buying flowers at a flower market or flower shop. For online shopping, it purely comes down to your own judgment, plus a bit of luck. Flower lovers who buy flowers often will know this from experience, and of course some get scammed without even knowing it.

Of course, what the editor wants to talk about is potted plants, not those bouquets used to give to your girlfriend. If you want to buy a healthy potted plant that is easy to keep alive, you need to look carefully and put in more effort.

1. Choosing bare-root plants

Many plants bought online are bare-root, which means they have no soil around them. This is the case with the roses and similar plants that flower lovers buy. However, beginners are advised to buy ones with a soil ball around the roots, as they survive more easily, such as jasmine, gardenia, and Aglaia odorata. If they are bare-root, they easily wither, meaning they cannot establish themselves after potting.

With bare-root plants, you can tell at a glance whether the roots have aged. Don't take any that have aged, and ones that are too tender are also hard to keep alive.

As for those with a soil ball, you need to check whether the soil ball is tightly clinging to the roots. If it is loose, then the seller just wrapped it on, so don't buy it! If the roots are blackened or withered, don't buy it either.

2. Know your plants

Actually, I really want a piece of software that can identify all kinds of plants. Although I can usually look through plant books to identify them myself, if I see a plant I like but don't recognize, then I can only ask the editor! Of course, you can also ask fellow flower lovers.

Another method is to ask the seller for the plant's name, then look up the information online yourself. If you simply can't find the name at all, then the seller doesn't know it either and just made up a name.

3. Identifying plants

Some flower lovers ask: I don't know these plants at all, but I want to pretend I know what I'm talking about, so what should I do?

My friend, let me teach you a method: you can use Baidu image recognition, Taobao's "find the same item" recognition, or Google image recognition.

These are generally not shared with outsiders. If you all knew them, how would the editor happily show off? Baidu image recognition is very simple, and works on either the web page or the app (as shown below). Note: the recognition rate isn't very high, and it purely depends on how well you took the photo.

Taobao's "find the same item" recognition is also very useful. Although I don't buy things, I can use it to identify flowers and plants! Take a photo at the flower shop, take it well, and it can identify the common ones. As for Google image recognition, that is also very powerful, with a very high recognition accuracy. Their technology is impressive! (The image below is a leaf recognition app; it can distinguish the leaves of common green plants, but not wild grasses.)

Just to vent a bit: many plant identification apps nowadays have big limitations. If a flower lover could develop one, that would be great too. (Best if it has powerful recognition and convenient communication.)

4. Look at the condition of the potting soil

Some vendors like to pass off inferior goods as good, especially those roadside flower sellers who are highly mobile. You buy today, and tomorrow they're gone. Would they still care whether your plant does well?

So look carefully at whether the plant's potting soil is new. If it is new, don't buy it (it was just planted, so it's hard to keep alive).

Of course, you can use your hand to lightly feel whether the roots and stems have grown firmly. If it wobbles easily, then the roots haven't grown well. Note that this method only works for woody plants. If it is a herbaceous or succulent plant, then you can only look carefully.

5. Whether the plant is fake

Flower lovers often buy things like the Gymnocalycium mihanovichii (as shown below), which looks brightly colored and very pretty. If you buy one that has been grafted with a toothpick, then it will run into trouble after about a month of growing. If you observe carefully, you can still notice it.

If you are buying a more expensive plant or flower variety, it is best to ask some experienced flower lovers whether it is a fake.

What I fear most is the kind where dyed plants are used to replace expensive plants. For example, some orchids, rainbow roses, or "blue enchantress" roses. If you smell a dyed one carefully, it will have a paint smell.

(A dyed "blue enchantress" rose will have a paint smell)

6. Dyed plants

Some plants don't originally bloom, but they look as if they are blooming, such as the "golden branch and jade leaf" below. Do you think that's a flower? It's actually a chemically treated variegation, injected with chemicals. Of course, it's not pure color. Others, such as the "blue enchantress" rose, also use white roses as fakes.

(Chemically treated variegation)

7. Look at the plant's root system

If a potted plant's roots have filled the pot, it is basically hard to keep. You buy a pot that looks very lush and very robust, but not long after, the leaves drop with a crash, turn yellow, and wither. Why is that?

Because the potted plant has too many roots, there are no nutrients left in the pot, and both drainage and aeration are poor, so naturally it cannot grow. The way to judge is to lift the pot slightly and you can see it.

Some potted plants grow especially neatly, just like bonsai. If the plant has obvious binding marks, then don't rush to buy it either. It may be that the seller used copper wire or iron wire to bind and shape it. These potted plants naturally look good for the time being, but they are not good for long-term growth, and the difficulty of care is a bit higher.

9. How to tell diseased flowers

Some plants themselves carry pests or diseases, so you need to observe carefully whether the plant has disease spots.

(African violet)

If you are buying flowers in spring, pay attention to whether the plant shows signs of frost damage. If a bit of frost damage is not handled properly, it will rot.

10. Be cautious about buying greenhouse flowers

(Geranium)

Also note that if it is not the plant's blooming season, yet you can still buy one in bloom, then it is generally a greenhouse flower. After buying it, it will only grow for a while, and problems easily arise. If it doesn't adapt well to the environment, it easily dies.

11. Fake flowers mixed in among plants

Buying a potted plant and getting fake flowers, do you think only a fool would do that?

(Saffron crocus)

The most embarrassing thing I've heard is that a flower lover said he bought a pot of pothos with pretty flowers blooming on it. At the time I was dumbfounded. Does pothos bloom? It turned out to be fake flowers, and they were decorated so seamlessly. That craftsmanship was unmatched!

Some plants don't bloom, or their flowers aren't that pretty, so you need to check carefully whether the flowers have been grafted on.