Lowe's VS. Home Depot

So I went looking for bargains yesterday. Nope, still too early.
I went to Lowe's 1st. Got 2 small superstition irises for about $5. They had several babies on each root, really small, tho. They also had calla lilies, been wanting to get those. I think it was 2 for $4.96 or something like that. I just got the irises.
Went across the street to the Home Depot. They had THREE BIG Superstition Iris for the same price as Lowe's. They also had calla lilies, 5 for $5. So I got those. I thought about returning the iris to the other store but what a pain so I kept them.
I wish someone would have told me what a big difference it would be, would've saved me some time, so I thought maybe my experience would help someone else.

Nah, it varies from chain to chain and store to store and day-to-day. Just because you got a better deal at HD today doesn't mean you will consistently.

True dat,
A couple years ago I do recall getting a cart full of 10 cent herbs from Lowe's...haven't since tho. I guess I need to go at the exact right moment!

I do the same thing you do Witch. I try one and then I try the other. I tend to prefer the Lowe's by me though, just because they take better care of the plants, so when they mark them down, I am actually getting something that will make it. The HD really lets their plants go and most the time I find that the sale items are already dead.

It also seems to be if the store is new or not. The HD and Lowes right by my house are both really new, but the HD is newer. Well I can already see the Lowes nursery department beginning to decline but HD is the most beautiful one I have ever seen! I'm sure they will start the backslide soon too though. Same seems to be true as for the employees being helpful. That aspect is still good at both stores though. I was at Lowes and almost fell over from a heart attack when someone actually stopped and asked ME if I needed help! Normally I have to hunt someone down- one time at a different HD they paged someone to help me and it still took 45 minutes to get them to come over. When the guy finally came over he actually said "well if they told me how cute you were I would have gotten here faster" then laughed like he thought he was funny. So then I was more irritated. Jerks. As for bargains, I found big urn planters on sale at the Lowes by my office for $6. Soooo, I bought all of them. Yes, all of them. Poor little guy working the nursery had to heave them all into my truck for me. Anyway, the same urns at the Lowes by my house are still full price at $30. Go figure.

I also found the biggest prettiest Elephant Ear bulbs I've ever seen at Wal-mart!

I never know which I'll find a deal at let alone that I'll find what I've been looking for. At times one store will have lots of plants on clearance and the other will not. I often have to visit all three Lowe's or 2 HD's I have in my area if I have the time to look for great deals, etc.

There's no Lowe's nearby us but I regularly stop by the HDepot and OSH garden centers here. When plants first come in they're just as good as the more expensive nurseries and much cheaper. Out here there are a lot of very good local nurseries so the big box stores try much harder to compete. I've gotten beautiful roses, oleander standards, etc., for much less $$$s. The more uncommon plants, of course, have to come from the nurseries. I do some mail order but not a lot.

As said before, it all depends. The Lowes I worked at kept pushing producers for production, which resulted in smaller and smaller plants. After that, plant quality depended on the managers and employees. When I and another employee were there, the plants looked great. After we left, carts full of disheveled sale plants started appearing.