Dear garden center employee,
In the corner of your store there is a display
of bubble top containers with fake flowers on the
top. Please understand this is not a cup of fake
flowers and is actually an aquatic (water, folks) plant.
When spring moves along and the little cups begin
to feel light and empty, they may very well be. Because
the plant has died. Sigh.
I tried to tell the clerk, I tried to tell the greenhouse
attendant. I was not rude, nor did I come off sounding
like a know it all. Surely we realize you may not know
the waterlilies like water, we all have to start somewhere.
The rolling of the eyes is typically a sign, just as hubby
said. They don't care.
Alas, you will allow them to dry a slow death, then toss them
out and claim credit, when you could have watered them.
Ah, thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
:-)
Box store waterlilies - a slow, painful death.
Hi Wuvie and pixy,
I see we are not along in our thoughts of those mindless idiots!! Well, this is for anyone who FELT SORRY FOR THOSE LITTLE TRAPPED POND LILIES! I did cave in and bought several thinking they just might be alive, WRONG! Well, one was barely and the other one was DEAD! The one that was barely, was so far gone it died too! I read on DG someone had the same problem and wrote to the company on the pkg. and at that time did not hear anything! Well, I am known far and wide for my Patricia Letters!! I found the source addy on the plg. and just let them know that I was disgusted at not only the dead pond lilies, but the total lack of intrest of the walmart employees! AND, that they were wasting their time and product on a company that does not care in the least if it lives or dies as they know they will get their credit!
The following spring I got a letter from them then shortly after that they sent me a box with 2 pond lilies!! BUT, one was already dead!!!! I was told that even tho the pond products are cheaper, that they are very inferior . AND most of them die anyway :( That they ARE GROWN FOR PLACES LIKE WALMART TO SELL :(
2 years ago when my pond and I were newly engaged, I bought some lilies at walmart because I couldn't wait to get lilies. Being suspicious of Walmart in particular, and big box stores in general, I sat myself down on the floor and opened each and every little box before choosing the ones I would buy. Believe me when I say that I got the biggest and healthiest of them. But it was early in the season. They had not been sitting on the shelf for weeks. Also, our weather here isn't hot until summer so they didn't suffer from heat. The walmart employees were curious, but they didn't bother me. The lilies did fine, but the other stuff didn't last more than one season. I think I got some arrowhead, and some miniature cattails. Now I'm a better informed consumer.
Pixy, I was right there with you sitting on the floor.
The garden guy was waiting to hose the section down,
but I made certain to open every single package and
inspect. I learned my lesson after being bit the first time.
Nothing I hate more than having to return dead items.
:-)
They are also great for selling IRIS that are DRY AND BRITTLE! I explained to the greenhouse manager and the store manager that those iris were BEYOND hope. They were DEAD...nothing! Both just said yes we will pull them. Well one day later, one week later and one month later the same poor plants were still there.
The other sad thing is for the plants such as clemetis or phlox to be growing long and spiny green out of the box, that of course has never received water.
I no longer will buy any plant from the marts at all. I will not support or go to Walmart because since we received a super Walmart they are rude, no knowledge in general and does not matter that they have 30+ registers you are LUCKY if one or two are open...no matter how many customers they have wishing to check out.
Thank you for letting also vent
D
Iris,
Funny you should mention the Iris. The same day I pointed
the Iris out to my husband, even holding up a package of
them for him to see. He asked "What is that??"
I replied that it was once an Iris.
A friend that works at Lowes gave me some bulbs and iris that Lowes threw out last fall, the iris were soooo dry and brown. I let them soak in a bucket of water for over a week and I was starting to see little root buds forming so I planted them and we will see what they do. I think if you buy the plants when they first come in to WM, while they are still dormant, you might be ok but any later in the season and you just as well forget it. I purchased 2 lilacs in Feb. so we'll see how they do.
It's a constant battle in my soul whether I should buy plants at places like walmart when we have so many independent nurserymen here trying to survive. I don't like to see smaller businesses have to compete with the likes of Walmart, lowes, etc, but you really can't beat the prices when they have what you want, especially if you need several of one item. I justify myself by buying all of my special things at the local nurseries, and buying the more common things that are easy to find at the big box stores.
After years of battling citizens and local town governments, Walmart finally won a spot on a road that used to have bearable traffic. They put in what they termed a 'superstore', but it's not so super. It's actually small and has almost nothing in terms of a garden center. I'm not sure what the point was of putting in this store. It isn't as though we need another store around here. Within 1/2 mile there is a wonderful Fred Meyer with a great garden department, and on the other end of the road there is a big Target store. It's a total waste of space and added to extra traffic signals on the road.
On the other hand, out in the boondocks toward Mt. Ranier a friend of mine has a part time job at a new superwalmart that is huge. She works in the gardening dept. and says that this one is the largest Walmart garden center in Washington and Oregon combined. They are going to get some really good stuff, and she is a gardener so she is seeing to it that the other folks are not only educated about the plants, but that the plants are well tended. I might feel better buying from that place.
Oh, Pixy, I know just what you mean about that certain store.
Ours is pathetic.
Soup? Small cans only. Limited choices, small town basics.
Specialty foods, forget it. Understandably, we live in the wrong
location for our taste in food. The basics here are meat and
taters and rice and beans, beer and cigarettes, and it shows.
The garden center always has the basics as well, though I
was surprised to see Toothache Plant last week.
Sigh.
Indeed! Thankfully we can drive up to Tulsa where the
grocery world is at our feet.
They have everything you could possibly want to eat and then
some. Sushi bars, (not my style, but an example of the food availability)
vegetarian shops, sprouts, all the good stuff one can't find anywhere
else.
Wild Oats Market. Sigh.
WUVIE, wave to my son who lives in Tulsa. What is it with Okies and sushi? When son came home for Christmas he wanted to go to a sushi restaurant. We are not real big on sushi around here and had a hard time finding one. Fish are NOT meant to be eaten raw, thank you.
Re: That certain store. We got our first superstore just down the road. They can't 1/4 fill the parking lot even at Christmas. It was pretty disapointing as a store. Seems the times they are a changing. One decade you are the big cheese in retailing and the next decade your'e getting a little ripe. The garden center is laughable - masses of cheap common stuff one watering away from death. Pixydish's friend is the exception for certain store's average garden center employee. The ones I came across would probably not know which end was the top and which was the roots on that marvelous Bradfor Pear they were selling. Sheesh!
Hi Snapple!
I'll wave to both your son and mine in Tulsa! :-)
He's the sushi nut in the family. We tease him about
his taste in food. It will be fine until he marries and has
kids, then he won't be able to dine the way he enjoys so
much in his youth.
Raw fish. Ugh!
Oh yes, she is definitely the exception. And I have yet to drive all the way out there and see the goods. I've never seen her garden, so I don't know if what is 'cool stuff' to her is just common stuff to me.
Maybe I'm just getting 'mature', but big stores simply overwhelm me anyway. There are way too many choices and way too much visual stimulation. I find myself avoiding them more and more simply because they stress me out.
You know what, pixydish, you don't get so much 'mature' as your tastes become more discriminating. Certain Store is not noted for discriminating, tube socks and TP maybe, but not anything discriminating. If you're like me a plant has to earn its place in what little precious space I have to garden. Common, is, well, common. Call me a plant snob I guess. I'm right there with you in not enjoying the treck through a big box store. Give me a short list and a couple of specialty shops. Much more pleasant. No sensory overload.
My mother-in-law lives in Mount Vernon WA. She had lived on Whidbey Island. I got to visit her there once. What a beautiful place you live in. Gardening is what I do to calm the soul. It doesn't make perfect sense if you factor in poor soil, bad weather, bugs and diseases does it? LOL
Snapple45
I am with you, I garden to relieve stress. Just put me out in the dirt and let me play with my fish and I am happy. If I don't want to be bothered I leave the cell phone in the house. We live 10 miles from town so noone just drops in. It's great. We did get across the road neighbors last week though. We haven't had any for about 8-10 years now. It will be an adjustment. Our closest neighbor before that was about 1/3 of a mile in any direction. Bummer!!! I don't like neighbors. My dogs have guarded that place for all this time and now they have to stay home, the neighbors have a dog also. I try to keep my dogs home but sometimes they slip off and go over there, we go get them.
Snapple, Mt. Vernon and Whidbey island are really a far cry from where I live. Both areas are much more rural and both are lovely! I would love to live on Whidbey island, especially. I live just south of Tacoma. It was a nice small city when we moved here 20 years ago. Now the traffic is insane all the time, day or night, and the stores are always crowded. It's still beautiful, but it's really much more city living than it used to be. I am very fortunate. I have 3/4 acre in a neighborhood with lot sizes that are protected by the city zoning ordinance (thanks to the many old timers who live in this neighborhood and have plenty of money and clout with the city council). In other areas of my town they are building houses so close together that you can see in each other's windows. And there is absolutely no yard at all. These houses are being sold for 400,000$ and more. It's pathetic!!
We used to think we would retire here, but no more. It's just too crowded and I continue to have a fantasy about being able to enjoy my yard on a Sunday afternoon without the sound of leaf blowers, lawn mowers, and every other gas engine noise maker you can imagine, destroying the peace.
dylan, it's a bummer about having new neighbors when you are used to having the place to yourself. Maybe your dogs and theirs will learn to get along.
We were lucky in '91 we moved from Southern Calif to the Williamette Valley OR. We had a standard 1/3 acre lot still nice but not enough late. When honey retired we knew we did not want to live in the city and the crowding of SC so off we started looking to the north, just came coming further north. We have 10 acres, and in an area of grandfathered in farm land...so it can not be divided. Worst thing is that later we move in one of the kids in a mobile to help with the work on the farm...then we die they get the house for all the field work...I can image moving back into town too crowded too close together. Too noisy. You all get the picture. I remember Tacoma of years gone by also and it is a shame...
D
Sorry to get off track, but on the mention of Tacoma, I have
to share a story.
When I was divorced, I met a nice looking guy.
He wined me, dined me, always treated me like a
lady, wrote me such wonderful notes and such.
Even went to the park on a few occasions with my son.
After he left town, I called him to say hello.
A woman answered. (Cough.) Excuse me? Who is this?
"This is his wife, who is this?"
My mouth hit the floor.
Well, if were talking men and the state of WA I've got a good one. My sister-in-law, wonderful, church going gal, good wife and Mom. She lives in M. Vernon WA. Her first husband, a West Point graduate,left her for another woman. She got herself together, went back to work, raised her kids and some years later met a nice gentleman in her church group. She came home one day to find most of her antique dining room furniture missing and a note on the kitchen counter. You guessed it. He had left her. The kicker - he had left her for another man. Wait. It gets better. Before the divorce was final this louse up and died of a heart attack. He left his half of the marital house to his new boyfriend.
FYI - The boyfriend did not get any of the house. The will was thrown out of court.
My sister-in-law, through all of this somehow managed to retain a sense of humor. When I called to tell her how sorry I was to hear about this awful turn of events she laughed and said there just was no Hallmark card for the occaision.
Holy cow, now that one takes the cake. And the furniture! LOL
Good to hear she came out of it relatively unscathed. Whew!
WUVIE
Was your guy named Lance by chance? My BIL always ran around on my sister. Finally after 28 years she divorced his cheating A**. I thought it very funny that she served him divorce papers on their 28th anniversary. We were always hoping she would leave him after the 4 kids were grown and she did.
Like big sis always says, "if he'll run with you, he'll run on you." It never pays to be the other worman.
PeggyP
Oh, wait, wait, ladies, not for one moment did I know or even think he
might be married. I was completely misled and had no way of knowing.
Just had to clarify that one, I'm not one of those kind of women.
LOL.
Never thought you were WUVIE. And anyway, the saying isn't ALWAYS true. But I can't reveal how I know. ;>)
Oh, phew, thank you for posting that, Pixy!
(wiping sweat from my brow)
This morning I was telling hubby I may have ruined my DG reputation.
LOL. Thanks for clarifying that one. :-)
Once when I was a teenager a guy I knew introduced me to a guy he knew and we set a date for the next day, the guy called to break our date and I jokingly said, "what, you're married, and he said yes I am". I couldn't understand why he even made the date, he loved his wife and all that, yeah right, I don't have much patience for cheating spouses.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
Washington is a beautiful state. I don't care for the cloudy, gloomy stuff but the greenery is great. I took my 82 yr old grandma and my mom there about 8 years ago to see my sister and it is so pretty. My sister lived in some little town about an hour north of Vancouver WA. We went to see Mt St Helens, that was impressive. I remember when it blew in 1980 and the devastation was still very apparent then, about 20 years later. Mother Nature is pretty danged awesome in her power.
I told my sister I would love to come back and hike Mt St Helens before we get too old or out of shape.
Mom & I went for a walk one morning and came across some huge wild blackberries, they were as big as my dewberries and Grandma made us all a pie with them. There are no chiggers in WA, that was great. The kids didn't know what chiggers were, Becky's kids had never seen lightening bugs (firefly), I guess they don't grow in WA. Beautiful state I would like to see again one of these days.
PeggyP
Whidbey Island is one of THE most beautiful places on earth I think. I've traveled a little (China, Europe, South America) and two places always come back to mind first, Arches National Park In Utah and Whidbey Island. Lot easier to garden on Whidbey Island than the dry canyons of Utah. The island had magnificent tree sized rhododendrons.
The grass is always greener I guess! LOL WUVIE, glad I clarified my incredible stupid slip of the keyboard. I would never deliberately post something that insulting. Thanks for so readily forgiving me!
True we don't have chiggers, but we don't have lightening bugs either. I miss seeing those. WE also don't have poisonous snakes on this side of the mountains. And gardening here is certainly easier than in Utah. although southern Utah is one of the most beautiful places on this earth. I love it there.
Those blackberries you picked were likely the invasive himalyan blackberries that grow all over. They do make good pies. But they don't make good neighbors. They are really hard to get rid of once you have them. But we enjoy going to the park to pick them in the summer.
This year seems to me to be the coldest and wettest spring we've had in a long time. Don't know if it's just my imagination or not. But my plants are not very happy with it. This is the downside to Washington on this side of the mountains. It's not that we get that much rain, although winter can be really wet, it's that we simply have low cloud cover almost every day. And that makes for a cold that is moist and bone chilling. Every few years it seems like it will never end, and I can remember some years that summer never actually arrived. It was cold and wet the entire year. It can get mighty depressing those years. That's when a trip to southern Utah is a real treat!
Be sure to visit Washington before the population get so large you can't move! LOL!
Some of my fondest memories are of living in Missouri when I was a child - at Ft. Leonard Wood. I still remember family outings to the Ozarks, to the lakes, collecting rocks, exploring caves, etc. We had a great time there and it is so beautiful!
I guess we all take for granted the area we live in. My sister lived in Kalama WA when we visited her. We went to see the ocean while we were there and it was soooo cold, we only stayed about 20 mins., this was the first week in Aug. I have some wonderful pictures of Grandma and all of us sitting on this huge tree root. We don't have very many places that is moist and cool all the time here. We live about 90 miles west of Ft Wood. You can get your share of chigger & ticks there. I tried to take pictures of the lightening bugs last year for Becky's kids and couldn't get them to come out. Darn. The lightening bugs were about 2 ft off the ground and there were hundreds of them, it was really pretty.
I was going to return the dead iris we got at WM, but when we started to pull it from the pond it was full of frog eggs! Not willing to deprive them of their little incubator, we left it alone.
Good for the froggys! Too bad WM doesn't really "Go Green" like they claim they do. If they did they wouldn't waste so much energy in producing, packing, shipping, stocking, then discarding sub par plant material. That can probably be said for most big box stores, but WM is the one with the big "Go Green" PR campaign.
Yes, it makes me laugh, but in a sad way, that WM markets themselves to 'green' shoppers. But frog eggs are totally worth keeping the iris for! I wish I had frog eggs in the pond but I've tried twice to introduce them to no avail. My DH says he has heard frogs across the street from us, so maybe they will find their way to my pond. The ducks certainly have.
I have never seen waterlilies or any pond plants for sale at Wally World. But I did buy 4 different types of waterlilies at HD last year. I got them when they first showed up on display at the store so they were in good shape at that time. Months later those left on display for sale were probably all rotted or dried up.
I bought 4 different Hardy Waterlilies. Here is a photo of the very first bloom from those batch of waterlilies. I bought Sulphurea (yellow), Fabiola (pink), Attraction (red), and Sioux (orange) and all have healthy lily pad growth currently and started growing within the first week I planted them and sunk them in the water container. Very teeny plants when I purchased them. (And I do mean TINY!) They survived the mild winter here where we got almost to freezing a couple nights. I have them in separate pots in a small HD water pond. (Which is more like a large round "ugly" water container, not a pond.) Here's a photo showing the 4 different waterlilies and the yellow (Sulphurea) bloom.
My suggestion is to buy them when they first show up at the store, otherwise you will probably be disappointed with a dead or dying plant after the first couple weeks on display for sale at HD or WM.
