Should You Buy Clearance Trees and Shrubs in Fall? Check the Roots First

Before buying a clearance tree or shrub, inspect its root ball for healthy, firm roots and severe circling or rot. A few correctable roots may be fine, but a deeply root-bound bargain can create years of problems. Yuliasis/Shutterstock

A $60 shrub marked down to $20 can make the garden-center clearance rack very difficult to walk past. Fall discounts on trees and shrubs can be genuine bargains, particularly when retailers simply need to reduce inventory before winter, but a low price doesn’t automatically make a struggling plant worth rescuing. Plants that have spent months in containers may develop circling or severely crowded roots, and Penn State warns that those roots can eventually girdle the trunk and contribute to the death of a tree or shrub. That’s why buying clearance trees and shrubs should start with inspecting what’s below the foliage rather than admiring the percentage printed on the sale sign. Before loading a bargain Japanese maple or hydrangea into your cart, give it this quick health check.

Ask to Slide the Plant Out of Its Container