What do you do when the plants for sale locally...

...aren't hardy in your zone?

A new home improvement center opened in our town. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of quality plants. Oakleaf hydrangeas, several types of oaks, a dozen different types of junipers, a few different viburnums, abelias...nothing like the rows of Bradfords, privet, azalea, and barberry we see at Wally World.

But I also saw Live Oak and lorapetalum, unfortunately not hardy for us. I politely pointed this out to the saleslady who wasn't even really sure which trees were oaks...in one ear and out the other. The plants are clearly labelled, so I guess it's buyer beware.

SB

Is it a national chain? Maybe they have a centralized purchasing department that doesn't differentiate between climate zones? Or maybe they have a hot new live oak selection that will grow in Manitoba!

Guy S.

We have a Marvin's home center in our little town. Every year they put out some sugar maples and northern red oaks. Geeeezz! i'm in 8b.

One of the reasons I make a point to visit the national chains (i.e. Wal-Mart, Lowe's, etc.) in early spring is to see what unusual offering they might have. I was at a Lowe's in a Minneapolis suburb earlier this week and they had a perfect Aesculus flava. This was about a 7'-8' plant in a 7gal. container for $44. I never see this tree offered at any nursery, even those known for carrying the unusual. I didn't buy it because I didn't think I could get it in the car without beating it up. More to SB's point, they also had several z5 Bradford Pears and a few z6 Pyracanthas. I've never worked for a national chain like this, but my guess is they have regional buyers and the stock is sent out to all stores in that region without a thought as to hardiness. This is why there will always (I hope) be a place for the locally owned nursery operation.

It is a regional chain, in basically every state between Utah and Mississippi. Most of their stores are south of us, so I'm sure the plants went to a distribution center and were then sent out to every store.

My question is a rhetorical one, I guess...I'm just venting a little bit...but it's kind of a waste.

They did have Chinese Chestnut Castanea mollissima, kind of any interesting tree, and apparently hardy here. Anybody grow one? Are they generally seedling grown? I would need two, as apparently they are self sterile. SB

I see it all the time at the big box stores, HD is worse than the others here at least. I haven't seen too much with their tree & shrub selection (except rhododendrons which they carry a lot that aren't rated for here), but their perennials are brutal. To me it seems wrong to label a plant as a perennial when it won't be in your particular zone. Some have labels indicating zone info, some don't. The ones that don't are what get me mad as there is no possible way for the average consumer to look up a plant or even ask anyone with a shred of knowledge at the store. It seems like the stores get some say in what plant material they carry as some have better selections than others.

I still buy a lot of the common stuff (and sometimes a rare find) from them anyways, but I think I know what I am doing at least in regards to hardiness and what works in our area.

I always look, but rarely buy, at the big box stores - and rarely see anything in the way of trees that I would consider planting.
Was pleasantly surprised to see some very nice 3-gal, 3-4-ft container-grown bur oaks at K-Mart(!!!) last year - but they also had some 6-footers with printed, bar-coded labels 'Water oak, Q.nigra', that were unmistakably Shumard oak.

SB - were those live oaks Q.virginiana, Q.fusiformis( it might survive in Fulton), or the 'northern' live oak Q.turbinella? Q.turbinella would probably be hardy enough for you there, but every photo I've ever seen of that one was more of a shrub than a 'tree'.

Home Depot sells Shumard oaks with tags that say Southern Red Oak. I think of southern red oak as quercus falcata, not quercus shumardii.