Mother Lode on the "Rescue Me Aisle" @ Lowe's

Hello fellow plant lovers,

Earlier this week, Connie and I went to Lowe's. We really like to shop the plants at Lowe's because they are the only place in town that actually marks their plants down when they no longer are worth the money they originally asked. There is usually someone going through the plants and moving them to what Connie and I call the "Rescue Me Aisle". We've found many a nice plant there over the past few years for 25 - 50 cents. I've even gone so far as to pay half price on some of the plants that I felt were still worth it. Last month I found several orchids for $5 each. I gave them to Connie to put in her greenhouse. That's a whole 'nother story though.

We were watching the plants being moved to the Rescue Me Aisle and were picking some of them up, just as soon as she walked away to get more. The lady told us they'd be half price. We put a half a dozen or so plants into the buggy.

When we got to the register, they said that the guy that puts his "dab of spray paint" (not the person that pulls the plants) hadn't dabbed any of the plants yet (AND he'd gone to lunch) so she couldn't sell them to us for half price. We left Lowe's with some hibiscus and the gardening supplies that we went for and a whole lot of disappointment that we weren't going to get the plants we wanted at half price. Truth be told, we didn't have very many nice words to say about the dabbing dude! HAHAHAHA We know that it's a checks and balances thing for Lowe's, but still.....

OK, so yesterday, we're sitting talking and decide to make another trip to Lowe's to see if they've marked the plants down yet, and to see if there were any left that we wanted.

There were 3 racks of plants that had all seen better days. We knew though that with a little loving and tender care, they'd be beautiful once again. Used to be, they had a color chart (of sorts) on each rack, showing what each color of paint dab would be priced. There was no chart so I asked one of the "little guys" with a Lowe's vest walking by how much for a big hanging basket of petunias. He said they are all half price. Usually the hanging baskets are $4.98 when marked down. Well, I'm sorry but that plant didn't look like it was worth $5 to me, so I put it back. Lord that makes me sound cheap!

I continued to look through the racks. I must have gone around each rack 3-4 times trying to decide if I REALLY needed more plants (like a hole in the head!). It was hot and I was about to tell Connie that it was time to get outta the heat and go to Goodwill instead. (It is right down the road, and since we were close, we wouldn't want to pass up an opportunity to go! HAHAHAHA) Suddenly, there was another rack of plants that hadn't been there before. The lady that pushed them over said, "Any plant on these racks is 25 cents." I looked at her and asked, "All of these racks?" She said, "YES!" GASP!! A QUARTER???? Oh My!

Connie and I started loading up plants into the buggy. When I saw that the buggy was getting full, kidding around, I told her to get her OWN buggy. She left for a few minutes and came back with one of those two shelf rolling carts. So, since I always get carried away when something like this happens, whereas Connie contains herself, I transferred my plants to the new cart. She's more "controlled" in her colors, etc. than I am. She's an enabler though because she kept showing me things I hadn't seen and they were things that I wanted! HAHAHAHAHA Oh, remember the big basket of petunias? It went home with Connie! HAHAHA

When I couldn't find room for one more pot on that cart, we headed to the register. You'll have to read to the end of this to see how much I paid for my "mother lode"! I will post some individual photos of the plants, etc. next.

This is what I brought home yesterday. Mostly Perennials, so they will come back again and again.

Included are:

Container planters with unknown plants 2
Some type of Purple Nemesia 1
Lantana Camara Confetti 2
Vera Jameson Sedum 2
Furman's Red Salvia 4
Forest Fire Red Salvia 1
Purple Autumn Sage 1
Calla Lily - White 1
Sea Pink 3
Verbena 1
Plumbago 1
Ornamental Pepper 1
Trailing Purple Petunia with tiny blooms all over 1
White/Pink Vinca 1
Vinca Nirvana Series 1
Bat Face Cuphea 2
Unknown Cuphea 1
Rudbeckia Goldstrum 1
Potentilla Dede de Oro 1

Fortunately, most of these plants had tags with them. Some though didn't have any tags, but for a measley quarter, I figured I could find out here what they are.

YEAH!!!!! What a deal!!!

I've got BIG PLANS for these plants!


Janet

I left them in the wheelbarrows last night after watering them really good.

Then I started cleaning them up at about 10:30 this morning. By noon, I had some really lovely plants! Some would need a little more special care, but all in all, I was tickled pink with my mother lode of plants.

Edited to add: This was just before I began cleaning and pruning them this morning.


This message was edited Jun 23, 2007 3:36 PM

This is what I ended up with.

The basket at the bottom is cuttings that I will try to root. These were OK pieces that either broke or fell off in transporting them.

Wheelbarrow # 1

Wheelbarrow # 2

The cuttings. Hey, what have I got to lose here! HAHAHAHA

OK, and here are some of the plants.

More

And yet more

Vinca

More Vinca

Bat Face Cuphea

A mixture of plants.

White Calla Lily

Pontentilla Dede de Oro
and Vinca

Sea Pink - Grassy stuff!

Vera Jameson Sedum

There are a whole lot more, but I won't bore you with the rest of them.

I am about to tackle an area in my front yard that gets full sunlight most of the day. There is a wicked tree stump that has been bumfuzzling me on my landscaping plans. Well I have decided that these rescue me plants will go into a pond form (that I've drilled with holes in the bottom for drainage) and will sit on that wicked ^%*&%^%( stump that I've looked at for the past 2 years. :-)

I've got some weed cloth that I will put down under the whole business. Then I'll put cedar mulch on the weed cloth. The plants in that area (coleus and hibiscus) are all in pots and will either go in the ground or will go on top of the cedar mulch that I place there. The coleus will most likely be places around the pond form to hide it's plainness. :-)

So, I guess I'd best be getting busy. Thanks for listening to my excitement. I've had a lot of fun already, and they aren't even in place yet!

Janet

Oh! I almost forgot! My total bill at the register??????

$7.58

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

Well, I moved the plants whre I ***think*** I might want them. I want them to acclimate themselves to the area before I make the plunge and plant them there. I feel like I'm adding fish to the pond! HAHAHAHAHA

I have a whole lot of coleus and also hibiscus, already in containers in the back yard that I haven't brought around to the front yet. I'm thinking they will go into the pond.... or I may switch it entirely and put them on the outside and the perennials on the inside of the pond form.

So far, this is "idea" #1.

I'm open to suggestions.

Great plants, Janet! And, you sure can't beat those prices. Our Lowe's over in Rosenberg does this sometimes and it's a zoo but well worth the little trip.

Thanks Kristi. I am still just as tickled over this find as I can be. Connie got several plants too. She spent less than $3.00.

When we left there, we decided we'd saved enough money to make the trip to Goodwill down the road. Afterall, we were "right there"! HAHAHAHA Lordy I wonder how many times we've used that one!

Naaa it not that I have more control...I just have a whole lot less yard than you do Janet. If I had a huuge yard I'd been going berserk too.

I've decided to put most of mine in the tire planter I found on the side of the road. They are nearly all in the purple/pink family and have similar requirements.

That will look very nice Connie. What all did you get, besides the purple petunias? I was so focused on what I bought that I didn't see your treasures.

Good LORDY!!! Like I needed to know that Lowe's sales things for 25 cents!! Like I have room! LOL

I thought I lucked out when Ace hardware had 4 6-packs for $5!! LOL That is where I got all my stuff pretty much! LOL But it is not looking every good now! I made a post named "My Flower Bed" asking for help so I will not go into it again! LOL

But now that I know Lowe's has stuff for 25 cents I am not so worried about loosing stuff! Maybe I can find stuff to replace it! LOL

Does Lowe's do this with winter plants as well?

Oh and the pound bed looks very nice!

Hi TxFlower,

Thank you. So far, I like it. Tomorrow I will get the bed ready with the cloth and the mulch. I bought 15 bags the other day so there will be plenty of mulch. The more I think about it, the more I am against planting anything into the ground. I'm trying to think of "deadheading" etc. as I map the plants out. I'd like to put in a little pathway with maybe some stepping stones around the pond form.

With prices like that, we can find all kinds of reasons to have to stop by Lowe's. Afterall, it's close to Goodwill. HAHAHAHAHA Can you tell we are Goodwill-aholics??? Connie and I don't leave home without our Get Outta Goodwill Free Cards. (Customer Value Cards that get stamps with each purchase. Once filled, you get 15.00 in msde.)

I saw your thread and couldn't think of anything to add after Josephine posted. She's always a wise lady with excellent advice. From the looks of it, you will have a gorgeous garden when it fills out. It shows that you've put a lot of thought into your planning.

Patience has never been my strong suit. Though I do work on it. I'm an instant gratification kind of gal. That's why this is so super for me. I had told hubby when we talked about what to put there, that I wanted an explosion of colors to pop against the white house. He's soooooooooooo conservative. I'm more "chaotic". I think my little area will be pretty when it finally gets finished. I'm trying to plan in some things that will hold their interest through the few cold days we get here, until the perennials come back in the spring.

I don't know if Lowe's has their winter plants on sale or not. It's usually just whatever doesn't look so swell. I am not much interested in buying any winter plants here because we just don't have a winter. HAHAHAHAHA Generally, I put my garden/yard to bed in November and don't start thinking about it again until February. One lady there said they do this several times a week during the heat of the summer. They want to get full buck for their plant, but at the prices, if they don't look perfect, no one wants to buy them. What a shame that some folks have no vision of what a little TLC will do for a plant.

I'm learning to garden more thrifty from the folks here at Dave's. Trying to learn which plants give more "bang for the buck"! HAHAHAHAHA Before joining Dave's, I had absolutely no idea there were sooooooooooooooo many different plants out there.

I received an email from my aunt this evening. I'd pretty much copied and pasted the thread in an email to my folks, adding my own "email size" photos, to save having to re-write that lengthy story. This is what she wrote me back:

"Now I just can't believe you got all those for that measly little $7.58. I don't know if your mom told you or not about me being at Lowes and the lady in front of me got all these plants that were absolutely dead as far as I was concerned, and the bill came to $155.00 I almost fell over. Janet they were the worst looking things I have ever seen, but I knew they were on the discount counter, but when she said to the lady $155.00 I almost fell over. Your plants were beautiful, and I can not for the life of me see how that woman would have ever gotten those plants to come back to life. They were actually all brown where it was suppose to be green. Not a green sprig. I am very proud of you all for getting all those at that price. "

This is the other side of that same little fence that runs in front of the front door area.

These are in the ground already. I should have put the weed cloth down before I planted them, but I got impatient. I may see if they've taken hold and pull them back out, if not. At least the holes will already be there! HAHAHAHA I dug them out when the ground was so muddy!

Janet

And this is what's on the other side of the fence.

I am going to have to set up a sprinkler with a timer so I don't drag the hose and break something, statue OR plant.

Okay...hate to "one up" ya, but look what I GOT at Lowe's last week for 19.99. This entire 3-tiered rack of plants --all great--and I gave away 2 flats before I got home...couldn't fit them into my SUV!!
The plants were about 5 to 7 cents each! I posted a thread about this last week, and several people went to Lowe's and didn't find the same deal, but it looks like you did well! :)

WOW!!! Excellent deal Connie! Those are really pretty plants. Love that color combination. From the looks of it, those would have just fit into the area I'm working on.

Thanks...AND, kinda concidental that there are 2 Connies here, huh?

LOL I just love the fact that you all found those great deals at Lowe's! LOL

Well I am the same way Unique! LOl I LOVE color and want a BIG wow facter now! LOL I have it all planed in my head and want it EXACTLY that way! LOL But I know life happens! And good old mother nature will do her thing!

I have to say it makes me sick to my stomach that things have not taken off and are looking good by now! I started to go shop for something to replace at least eh Celosia and just chuck it! And you should know I do not through away anything unless it is dead as a door nail and I know I will not ever get it back to life! LOL

It is rather strange having 2 Connie's in the thread. HAHAHAHA

Txflower, when did you plant the celosia? And did you plant seeds or starter plants? I cannot remember. I planted my seeds back in March, if I remember right and they are just now starting to "do their thing". They've not had as much sun as I wanted them to. I have "rampant" cannas and also planted cleome seedlings that I started close by. I didn't remember when I planted them that they'd be monsters! HAHAHAHA I haven't seen any blooms on those yet, but they are now about 4 1/2 - 5 ft. tall.


When I got settled down to quit in the yard for the day yesterday, my neighbor (that has moved about 25 miles up the country) stopped by and told me they were moving the "little building" from behind his house. They sold the house and wanted that building to use for his office space. He spent about $6000 building it back there. He hired a guy to use his WAYBIGO machine (with the front and back loaders) to move it to where another guy could load it up to haul on Wednesday.

Anyhow, my hubby was helping them move the building and I was visiting with the wife. She had a rinky dink greenhouse in the back that they were leaving behind. She asked me if I wanted anything that was in there. I walked over and looked inside. Many weeds had grown up through the floor in the past months that they've been gone. There around the perimiter, laying on the ground was devil's ivy that had massive leaves. I walked to my house and got my cutters and brought home about 8-10 nice long pieces. They will border the inside of my little white fence out front. There was also a small Red Turk's Cap that had rooted in there. The rest was stuff that I already had, so I left it alone. Oh, she also has a nice bushy wisteria in her front yard. I took a couple of pods and cut out the seeds to plant. I also took a nice size piece to try and start some cuttings. I've never started wisteria before, though I've always wanted some. If anyone knows of any PROPER method, please let me know. I want to get some before the opportunity is gone (so to speak).

I did some more "finagling" today at Home Depot while I was getting something to help with mosquitos. I won't tell you what I bought just yet because I need to do some work on it. But I will tell you that I got a heckuva deal on something REEEEEEALLY cool! I plan on taking photos of the before and after so I don't want to post anything yet. I can hardly contain my excitement! HAHAHAHAHA

Janet

I got nine plants. I've put about half in that tire planter I found on the side of the road. The purple petunias hanging basket, a pale pink portulaca, pink vinca, purple million bells all went in the tire. Still to plant is a double profuse bloomer impatien, and the yellow flowering shrub thing (what's it called Janet?) and this strange plant I don't know what is.

The tire...

Oh Man Connie! That is PERFECT!

You should have explained WHY you put it there. Since you didn't, I will! HAHAHAHA

Connie lives on a one way street. By the photo, the traffic travels from left to right. Just to the left of that photo is a telephone pole with at least a 15 ft. crepe myrtle. Both the pole and the tree are on the VERY EDGE of Connie's driveway. Connie has a window tinting shop behind her house. There is traffic throughout the week that comes into her drive. Coming in isn't bad at all, but backing out is a bugger. You have to strain your neck behind you, to the right, to back into 2 lanes of traffic. In the past few years (and this is NOT an exaggeration!) at least 10 people have backed into that telephone pole.

She's asked the telephone people to move the pole. There are other things hooked up there though so it would involve more than just moving the pole. And they won't move it for free. Connie would have to pay.

She's tried everything to keep it from happening, but you just can't look BOTH ways as you back up. We discussed making a PERSON from plywood, standing with bold colored clothing, a scream on their face and holding arms up, to try and catch their attention. She found one of those triangle thingys that truckers use and attached it to the pole. It helps.

Then the guy across the street was putting out some curb stops for Big Trash. Connie asked him if he'd park on there next to the sidewalk hoping that if they hit the curb stop, they wouldn't hit the pole. I've run over it with my front tire before in my truck and believe me, it's no fun either! HAHAHAHA But it's still better than smacking that telephone pole.

Now she's got the rubber tire in front of that, so that it won't damage anyone's vehicle.

Now you can see why I'm so excited! HAHAHAHAHA

Thanks Janet. Now...SURELY no one will be able to hit that pole ! They may run over my planter. LOL And it is more like 20 people hitting that pole. Especially since the widening of the driveway. It actually curves when you get to the front. There's probably even more that haven't confessed to hitting it.
One guy had dropped of his car that morning and was going to trade it for his wifes at lunchtime for me to tint both. When they left after dropping off the first vehicle, she was driving and backed into the pole. He came back up the driveway to tell me Forget the noon appointment. If she couldn't see in the daytime to back up he sure knew better than to have her windows tinted. LOL

LOL Poor Pole! LOL

Well I planted plants for all of my things Unique in May, probably more to the middle of May. I wanted to show of since my Dad and Grandmother where coming for Micaylie's Kinder Graduation! LOL

They still look almost exactly the same. I have been told it is because I did not till the new soil into the old! Talk bout shotting myslef in the foot! LOL

I am thinking of reworking the soil in between the rows of flowers and maybe around them, but I am not sure that is a good idea. The rows may not be that bad but still!!

I have also thought about digging it all up and redoing the soil and then putting it back but I know things don't like being dug up so....

I have been told to mulch as well but I know a few of these flower reseed themselvs, and the Hawaiian Royal roots itself when it touches the dirt so....

Anyway! It is better then looking at weeds I guess! LOL But man do I grow some BEAUTIFUL weeds! LOL

Janet,

Can't wait to see your "before and after" pics!

Back at this post, http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3654041, I told you all about moving the little building at my neighbor's house. I'd love to show you all some photos I took last night of just what a tight squeeze the area was to bring that building out of.

In this photo, there is a fence right next to the little building on the left.