Somebody Stop Me!!! If you Can!!!

It was just a simple little trip to Lowes for some more organic humus. That's all. That's all I needed. But they posted these big signs everywhere: "All tropicals on this table, 50% off," "This whole rack for $15," "This whole rack for $30" etc. They know how to lure me in, don't they?

I checked out the tropicals and found a huge elephant ear, shiny dark green on top of the leaf, shiny purplish black on the underside, and a black stem--Plumbae Nigra, I think. I've been wanting one. A SMALL one on ebay is $7 plus shipping (another $7). Well, here was a 3 gal on clearance for $7.50!! I scarfed it up. You know I can't resist ee's. It's about 3 ft tall!

Then I found the $30 rack loaded with 2 gal pots of Disco Belle hibiscus (a few pink and white variegated ones, and a ton of Red ones)--40 pots in all for $30. So yes, I scarfed up the whole rack.

I could only get 10 bags of humus because I had to have room for all this other stuff. When the workers who were going to load me discovered I'm in a van, they suggested I come back in a truck. Huh uh. I've done this before! They were absolutely shocked to see that we got it all in.

While we were loading, a little old lady came along looking at the hibiscus and wanted to know how much they were. I said, I just bought them all. She asked if they had anymore in the store. I said, I don't think so. I just bought the whole rack. She really wanted one, and I asked her if a red one would work for her. She said, OH YES! So I handed her one. She asked "How much?" I said, just take it, I got a great deal on them. No problem.

40 hibiscus! Well, 39 now! Some of them are blooming so I can see what color they are. I think I'll plant a couple of red ones at Mom's. She's been wanting a red hibiscus. And Terry, my brother next door, wants one or two. I get the pink ones of course. They're very pale pink and white variegated, huge blooms. I love them! These were regularly 7.49 and I got them for about 80 cents each.

So, since no one elbowed me out of the way, I scarfed up the best deals at Lowes! You're just gonna have to get there faster than I do! I might just grow me a hibiscus farm. I've got a great start now! LOL

Don't ya wish you were here?

NancyAnn

Wow - my Lowe's here has nothing going on like that, unless I'm just there on the wrong days.

Good for you - & how nice of you to gift that elderly lady.

That's a great buy girl!
I love it when a plan comes togeather.
sidney

Oh My... thats why I send someone for my soil and stuff! I know if I enter that store... I am going to justify my purchases. lol Just who can pass up a good plant sale like that? :)
Sylvia

Not me, Sylvia, definitely not me! I'm already anxious to go back on Mon for more "soil". LOL

I live about 5 minutes from Lowes, so I'm there several times a week. I even check the Lowes in other towns I visit. I got a great deal at a Lowes in TN a few weeks ago. I picked up a Hilo Beauty elephant ear (priced at $20) and a canna (2.50) and then found the 25 cent rack full of dragon's blood sedum. So I gathered up 5 flats of 4" pots of sedum (12 pots per flat). When I got to the register, I told the young girl that most of the stuff I got came off the 25 cent rack. She said, "I know, but I'm just going to let you have it all for $6." I said, Really? Well OK! So she rang me up and the total was $6. I asked, "Did you get this elephant ear and this canna?" She said, "Yes, I just let you have everything for $6." Well, I didn't argue and I got outta there fast! When I looked at my sales receipt, she had charged me 69 cents for the ee and 69 for the canna and 69 for each flat. WOW!

You just gotta love Lowes. Lowes knows exactly what I want and exactly how cheap I am. LOL

N.

Stop it Nancy Ann ...just Stop it! You are going to get me in trouble!

Were they the black EE?

Sylvia

Nope, it's Hilo Beauty--a green with cream spots. Beautiful! The best deal I've ever gotten on an ee. LOL

I got 4 Wentii ee's at Lowes a few weeks ago for $6 for the lot.

Right now they've clearanced all the tropicals to half price at the Lowe's here. But they'll go lower. People don't wanna buy tropicals this late. But I will, when they mark them lower. If I wait, I can get them for a couple dollars instead half of $20.

Wanna come here and go shopping? I MIGHT share. LOL

N.

Tommorrow is Saturday....I might just mosy on over to Lows and try not to spend more than six dollars. lol

wow.... I don't think my Lowes has put anything on sale like that! I will have to ask them why not! lol Put the pressure on....

Just went to Lowes here - no tropicals on sale yet! they had trees 10% off but nothing else. I asked about broken bags and they said they had a man who picked them all up already so there are none to offer to the public - arggggg They still have a large selection so they might have to go down soon - when I asked they told me they dont mark the tropicals down for a "while yet" dont know what that means but sure wish I was up there to pick up a few! Maybe it is the warmth here that makes them hold out longer? They did have DLs on sale for 2.50 you ould get unmarked orange or red Dls, oh well now I have to go back again... ... ...

Most of the trees are 75% off here, Mitch, excluding what I really want--jap maples and crape myrtles.

Gail came and got me today and we made a side trip to Lowe's. I found two huge pots of peacock ginger (two different varieties) on clearance for $7 (regularly $20). Yep, I got them. LOL The bananas and cannas are on sale too, but I have all the varieties they have. Besides, I know they'll be cheaper in a week or two, so I won't spend too much now.

I bet it is the warmer weather that makes them hold out down there. Winter sets in later for you so they figure they can get a few more suckers to pay full price. Here, they know better. LOL

N.

I was on my way to Lowes today to pick up some starter pots and to see what I could see...but it was too darn hot to travel the distance....so i ended up at the Home Depot. ...little starter pot cost 47 cents each... end up spending 51.00.HD had those huge Glazed Pots for 15.00....I paid 30.00 each for my first two ... had to get two more. I purposely bought the pot that had the 'Sale sign" on it.... so i am hoping they wont sell the rest before I get back there wednesday! LOL HD did have Trees 25% off..nothing exciting though. I remember when Lowes first hit Texas ..they were not ready for this heat...all thier trees were marked down to 2.50. I bought 2 plum, a Bradford pear, a Peach and my Mimosa which is still living todayand 10 ft tall... Having only a courtyard ... I had so many trees in pots! lol
Sylvia

Sedrick you never have little Mimosa babies hanging around? My wife would love one - I am sure we can work out a trade...

I got a crepe myrtle for 2.00 at HD last year - a bright red one. No such luck this year. Got to keep trying!

Mitch ...interesting that you would ask. I dont have any such thing from my tree. A online friend called it a "trash tree" but I have never seen any babies. now that you mention it, I have not seen any flowers this year. I wonder if that is because it was severly cut back year before?
Sylvia

Maybe so - my wifes childhood home had them all around it. They never made a mess there and she loved the color, one of these days I am going to find her one!

Well, I am in a huff..... All excited, I went to HD and Lowes this weekend - is there a cool sale at my stores? NOOOOOOOOO..... Probably b/c they all had to send supplies to AR after ButterflyChaser took everything... LOL Oh well. Still ended up walking out of there with plants.....

Like I said, Maggie, you gotta either get there before I do, or you gotta be able to elbow and knee me outta your way. I'm a hefty ole gal with a few tricks up my sleeve, and I haven't yet found a person who can wrestle a plant away from me. LOL See, I'm so good that I even stole 'em from you way out there in VA. That's just how good I am! LOL

Now I don't know about where you are, but our HD does not clearance a thing. But Lowes will place its clearance racks at different locations. Sometimes they're in front of the register in the garden center; sometimes they're in the back of the garden center. And occasionally, they're in the front of the main store. So keep your eyes peeled. Also, they may not have a clearance rack today but they may have one tomorrow and it may be gone the next day. You just have to keep checking back.

And if you never see one, then you'll know I beat ya to it! LOL

N.

I went back to HD yesterday to get two more of those pots, decided not to wait until wednesday. I dont know if it was good idea of taking that Sale sign off the floor. they didint believe me when I told them I just paid 15.00 for them Sat. They had to run around looking for the manager cause the SKU # got wet in the rain and the Scanner could not pick up the markdown price.
Anyway they had bunch of stuff all brown like Cannas and stuff. I asked if they were going to be marked down. She said they didnt do that...they get marked out of stock and put in the trash! What up with that?
I asked her if they know what Lowes do...she yes but their policy is to put them in the trash! Can you imagine trashing Cannas because they turned brown? I wish Lowes was closer to me. :(
Sylvia
Mitch someone is supposed to send me some Crepe Myrtle from MD.... I dont have anyplace to plant them other that a pot....I might share with you ... unless they are red of course...just kidding. lol

Thanks Sedrick, is you dont have a place for them.

Yep sad thing but Home Depot holds firm to that, they get credit if they turn part of them back in (the numbers or barode or something) they get the credit back but if they sell them they lose the cash they paid. So for them at the moment this is the best way for them to keep their cash flow or so they claim...

What HD doesn't get is that if they had clearance sales, they'd get some of us in there for those and we'd end up buying other stuff not on sale. HD gets very little business from me because they have no sales. I'm in Lowes about every two or three days, whether I need anything or not. And it's very very rare that I leave empty handed. I always see something--on sale or not--that I need. HD could be getting all this money that Lowes gets from me.

N.

NancyAnn,

You go girl! I have a Queen Crape Myrtle that's setting seeds now. Want some when they get ready? Our grown one is light pink and taller than the 2nd story.

Leslie

And the Lowe's adventure continues! You guys will be so jealous when you hear about my new deals. Lowes had 2 gal pots of Tropicanna and Tropicanna Gold on clearance for $3 each. I bought several, and then I came home to email Gail about the deals so she could go get some. Then I decided to go back for more. I bought a few more. And while checking out, the clerk mentioned they were in the process of marking more stuff down. She called the sales manager over who was doing the mark downs and after chatting with her a while, I got out-of-this-word deals!

She marked the rest of the cannas down to 1.50 a pot if I'd take all of them, so I did. She marked huge pots of elephant ears down (6 varieties!!) to $1 a pot (regularly $15 to $25!) if I would take them all--25 were left. And I took them all. I got some more peacock gingers and some kind of golden philodendrons for $2.00 a pot. I got basjoo bananas for $3 each. And they were throwign out some annuals and let me have all the pots, even nice hanging pots, for free.

Gail got an entire rack of blooming annuals (pentas, gaillardias, impatients, etc) and tropical hibiscus for $10 for the whole thing!

Yes, we love our Lowes! But don't even think about coming here. We've cleaned ours out of the good stuff. My van was completely full!!! Gail's car was completely full.

I'm just tickled about the ee's. I got Black Magic, Illustris, Wentii, Amazonica, some kind of bronze leafed xanthosoma, and some kind of green leafed dwarf variety with small leaves that have a silver streak in the center. Gotta research and find it's name. It's very prolific.

So now I know what is going to fill up my atrium. Some of this stuff I can plant right in the atrium floor and it will be hardy in there even if I don't heat the room. Wooohoooooo!!! I love lowes!!!

NancyAnn

Nancy Ann I am just Black with envy! If you go back there again and see more Black EE...please get me some...I will pay you cost, shipping an handling!
...you just cant come in here posting all this to the message board without bringing tears to someone's eyes. lol
Sylvia

Sedrick, I'm afraid I bought all they have. I have elephant ear collecting friends locally and have already given several ee's away to three different friends today. We all swap and they just gave me about 10 new varieties I didn't have. So I'm just thrilled again with my lowe's purchases for scoring me more of what I love.

Do you have a Lowes near you? I'm going thru TN on Sat and going to stop there at a couple of Lowes I know and see if I can scarf up some more plants. The last time I was in TN, the lowes there had a different kind of ee than what I can get here. So if they're clearanced, I might scarf all those up too. I'm hopelessly addicted! Gonna fill up my atrium! LOL

Come on up and let's go shopping! LOL

N.

Man, I am gonna cry! Your Lowes appears to carry a lot more variety than mine, too! I don't think I've ever seen a banana here, and only one kind of ee. I'm going to my corner to pout now....

I hear ya maggie! me too! :(
Sylvia

Same here . . . Sylvia I think we need to stage a revolt in the DFW Lowes for selection...

Wow, y'all get cheated, and I've become spoiled! I go over into TN regularly and hit the lowes there and they have different stuff than what I can get at my lowes. It's always an adventure!

Today, I get to unload my van of the freebies I got from friends about 4 hrs away yesterday. (got a speeding ticket, so I don't guess the plants were "really" free. LOL) My van is totally full! I have alll kinds of succulents I've never even seen before (gasterias, sanseveria, sempervirens, hawarthias, euphorbias, and I don't even know what else!), as well as cacti and about 10 varieties of elephant ears I didn't have, along with a bunch of perennials.

One of my friends made a hypertufa elephant ear leaf with a hose stuck thru it so it can be a fountain. And she gave it to me! She also gave me a wing back wicker chair she found on the side of the road. It's good and sturdy, just needs paint. I'll paint it to match my wicker on my porch. My van is sooooo full. It will take all morning to get everything out. But that trip was better than a Lowe's trip! LOL

I can see now that you all just need to head over here for the plant swap and we'll check out Lowes and see what we need to fight over. I got nice firm elbows ready to elbow you outta the way. (And don't think I'm kidding! It can get pretty ugly. LOL)

N.

Nancy I got a girlfriend just like you. hits all the resale and swap shops. hoards everything....and can use anything and everything she can find....and wont get up off nothing! LOL Recently she bought a house ....and decided she wanted to star gardening....so every sat she comes over to my place to see what she can get. Now she is all over so Texas looking for stuff and getting good stuff too...dont know a darn thing about gardening! went to Waco and found some Purple and some White Cannas! where she got those? I dont know!..and she wont give me any! lol
.....we still love her though
Sylvia

Sylvia, are you sure she got cannas? There are no purple cannas. Hybridizers have been trying to make them for years, but they haven't succeeded yet. There are purple-leafed (more burgundy really) cannas, but no purple blooms.

Also, all the white cannas are really pale yellow that fade in the sun to near white. Are you sure she got cannas? Maybe she got some gingers?

NancyAnn

No...I am not sure! I asked her how did she know...she said the lady told her. Anyway I asked about the colors on a Canna thread ...we went thru all kind of Canna Houses....never saw a purple, but we did see a lot of white, One of which I am going to order...its called Blanche.
Sylvia

Nancy ... I went to Lowes yesterday! they didnt have too many EE's and they were still at regular price. I did buy a couple of Dwarf grasses at a dollar per half gallon and a huge Agapanthus for 2.50. ...met the manager whom gave me the rundown on clearance items ... so I guess I will be going back every sat. lol I did buy a beautiful hanging basket with the coconut lining that was 25% off and a beautiful glazed pot for my Praying Hands hosta. Tell me about your Atrium. My girlfriend has a atrium thats sits in the middle of her house ... glass enclosed. It use to be beautiful ...she had the glass roof repaired and everything died since then. It use to look like a rain forest in there. What actually retains the moisture? why is nothing grows in there anymore? do you have any idea?
Sylvia

Hey Sylvia,

I don't know why nothing lives in your friend's atrium. Atrium is just a fancy greenhouse--one you can actually sit in with friends. A friend of mine has an atrium in the center of her house, with a dirt floor. She keeps it heated in the winter. It's surrounded by four walls of the house and has a glass roof. She plants some things in the ground, like tropical trees, and keeps others in pots, hanging on the walls, on tables, etc. And she has a little bistro table and chairs in it so we can sit and chat. Her stuff grows well, but then she is meticulous with feeding and watering.

I wonder if perhaps your friend's atrium gets too hot in the summer? Maybe everything has burned up?

My atrium will one day be enclosed with French doors all around. It has a plexiglass roof. And I even installed a small pond in one corner to keep my tropical water lilies and water lettuce and hyacinths. I bought a small submersible pump too to keep the water at a nice warm temp so the water lettuce doesn't turn to mush.

I'm looking for a small table and chairs to sit in there too. It will be beautiful one day.

I check lowe's several times a week. They are always clearancing here. And what they have today may be gone tomorrow. So I'm in there about 3 times a week this time of year. You're a bit warmer than I am, so I'm sure they clearance a little later. Of course I visited Lowes in TN this weekend and they had nothing but impatients clearanced. I have the best Lowes around. LOL

N.

You luck girl you,I'm envious.lol.Jody

I work retail at one of the "mart's, begins with a W:)" and markdowns are based on the region you are in. Just like with planting zones there are retail zones. Stores up north get fall and winter stuff in several weeks before us southern areas. The same applies to markdowns...the longer the weather holds on average, the longer it takes to recieve price changes on seasonal items from Home Office. Each location also has a monthly markdown budget as well and has to divided it between matching competitors prices, home office markdowns, damaged items, customer returns and writing off stolen items. If a particular store has a large budget for a particular month the store manager can approve an "instore ad" with prices you will only find at that particular location and is subject to end at any time. I do hate it when I watch racks of plants going to our trash compactor.
I get my best deals at a locally owned nursery. From mid spring to late fall they move their perennials to a 50% off area as their bloom time ends and they begin to go dormant.
My most recent purchases have been Coreopsis Limerock Beauty, Geum Cooky, Gaillardia Fanfare and several Phlox including David. All I have to do is plunk them in the garden and wait until next year. I love finding sales!

Nancy Ann I went to my Lowes this morning and made a killing! I spent 16.00 and about 12.00 was regular price stuff! I got that new 'Black &Blue Salvia and four other perrenial salvias for 50 cents each...three annuals(didnt know that until I got home).two others I cant ID...will show pics here too. ....and here's the kicker...there was this one lonely pot way up on the top rack I could not reach. so I walked around but could not get that pot out my mind....went to the back looking for shade cloth...I saw two men over there and had them climb up there to get it for me...you wont believe what was in that pot! The most boulbus Peony I ever seen! ...and the clerk marked it down to fifty cents too. I had three plants that were so expensive ...they had to call the manager to ok them. lol
Mitch if you are here...they had Canna mark down to 1.00! I cant even remember what else I bought.
Nancy Ann you got me going to Lowes every sunday after Mass. lol
See if you guys can Id these two for me please.
Sylvia
#1

a better look at #1

#2 seen this before too.

This is too funny. I just made a post in Perennials that has almost the same title... LOL

Sedrick, I'm not sure but your first two pics could be a Ruellia. The last one looks like a sedum. Both are perennials for us and drought tolerant as well, if that's what they are.

Congrats on your great finds!

NancyAnn