About to get on my soapbox so be forewarned.
This comes up in various posts on a regular basis: The condition of the plants at the big box stores. ie.,
Home Depot, Lowes, Target,....just to name those are near me.
The plants are on consignment from the growers. If you notice HD in particular will have the same species (wrong description?) of plant in several different areas. The growers lease so many feet of retail space.....they have their own employees making rounds to try to keep them watered and in order.
If they are only there once a week it is easy to see what happens. The plants are culled and put into a trash area to be picked up the next time their company makes a delivery of fresh stock. The retailers loose nothing......with me, they loose a lot of goodwill. The growers get paid only what shows on the register sku. If you aren't there when the truck delivers, the plants are so stressed they never perform as they would otherwise.
Last year I gave the manager of the nearest HD a real good talking to and he got ugly and asked me if I wanted a job watering. He was soon fired for other incompatencies. Have had at least 3 other managers and the problems are the same. Lowe's is only slightly better. and Target is a hit and miss with live plants.
If we all continue to vote with our dollars there will never, ever be anything different. With our numbers growing everyday we are a bunch to be reckond with. Not suggesting we use the Dave's Gardner name. That is not ethical and would put Dave in peril of a lawsuit. We, as individuals, can make a difference by making our voices heard. If they hear the same complaint enough times from enough numbers.....well...
There. Got that off my chest. Now, Terri, if you would kindly delete this.
Plants that are being mistreated
I feel the same way - I will only buy plants for me or the school if they are at the finial sale rack...
Not only are the plants not cared for the stock there I have learned over my few years is poor stock genetic wise.
Headed to church and don't have but a second, but I gotta say I agree wholeheartedly. I buy from the final racks cuz I just can't stand to see the torture.
The plants are usually two or three cuttings potted in one pot to make the plant full. However, I must say that it makes for a bargain if you get a sick plant with three cuttings in it that you nurse back to good health and wind up with three healthy plants.
If you are careful to buy what you know you can work with to breathe life back into it sometimes, you come out okay.
Mitch, remember the hibiscus that I photographed that was marked "peach". That was a real beauty and no slough as far as quality. It must have gotten in there accidentally. I came out really well with all the mistakes on that day.
I would much prefer to get good plants and pay full price and I too have spoken to managers.
Charlene
Right - go anywhere and pay the real price would be so much better. The big box stores should be banned from ever ever ever selling plants....
I second that. You notice that HD has closed all of the so-called Landscape stores.
I heard... never got to see one but I heard that they had better plants at one time.
Me too. I only buy the clearance plants at Lowe's...if I can find any that aren't dead or dying. The HD nearest me never has any anymore. Guess they are just tossed automatically, so I don't even bother to check.
HD has the vendor/grower pick them up. They don't sell them anymore.
Yep..>I agree.
The only time I buy is usually a rescue mission. I bought my Austrailian fern tree slated for the garbage...was stuffed in a corner and looking pathetic. I took it home, and I'd have to say we're both happy with the out come.
So, while I won't even look most of the time, I won't hestitate to rescue a mistreated plant as if it were a mistreated puppy!
Rj
I have a funny story that goes along with this thread. I'll try and shorten it as much as I can. Earlier in the summer I had gone to Lowe's and bought a bag of pine bark mulch for my elderly neighbor. It's a good sized bag and there wasn't anyone around to help me load it. The mulch was so nice that I returned a few days later and bought 5 bags for myself. Couldn't find a sole to load it in my car so I did it myself. I'm 57 and have terrible knees plus it was so hot that afternoon. By the time I got it in my car I was really hot and irritable. So, I whipped up to the front door and went in and asked to speak to the mgr. of the garden dept. A nice lady in cust. service said she was a mgr. and could she help me? I thanked her but insisted on seeing the garden dept. mgr. After a short wait, this tall lanky kid with a big ol' smile named Jason came up and asked me what could he do for me? I said well, you're about to lose a good customer if you don't have someone to load those bags of mulch for me the next time I come up here. We talked a little, he explained they were short on help bla,bla,bla. I was pretty PO'd but told him they only had one more chance with me to keep my business. So...a couple of nights later my husband and I ran back in for something and I went to the garden area to look around. They had 3-4 racks of plants with a sign that said, "make us an offer". Well, guess I was feeling a little cocky that night and told the cashier I'd give them $10 for a rack. She said they'd been getting more than that for the others but she'd call her mgr. Sure enough, she called and said "Jason, there's a lady here that says she'll give $10 for one of those racks of plants." Then I couldn't here the rest of what she said but I told her to tell Jason that it was the lady that chewed him out the other day because she had to load her own mulch. When she told him he said, "let her have those plants for $10 and make sure there is someone there to load them for her" He came out and visited with me, we shook hands and had a good laugh! I wrote the mgr. of the store and told him what a valued employee they had in Jason. Of course they have since moved him into the lumber department and I seldom see him anymore. Oh, one thing I forgot. She had to ring up each plant and the total was almost $400! I didn't lose a single plant. It took me a while to get them all planted but I always check the "trauma center" as I call it for bargains! Here's some of what I remember:
4 one gal. hydrangeas
3 Boston Fern's
4 hanging baskets lantana
a dozen or so Russian sage and Salvia
1 gal. ornamental grass
Shirley
This message was edited Oct 11, 2007 7:16 PM
Now that made me smile!
I've had some so-so luck with those poor desperate looking plants on the final sales racks at Lowe's. I can't stand to walk by them and see them in such terrible shape. And isn't it rewarding to find something so sad and unhealthy, and nurse it back to health? I know I feel it...and I walk by my many salvias with a big ole smile...because I literally rescued them. :)
Melanie
Yes, definately so! Strangely I would have missed out entirely on learning about the rescued plant and what it likes..and the reward of the process.
Thanks for taking this thread on a positive bent. I was just so angry when I started it that I had a bad attitude.
I think we saw the good attitude you had in there!
$400 worth of plants for $10? I need to go plant shopping with you, Shirley!
I always find something in the sun that should be in the shade or vice versa. Now I know its the growers who do this. I guess this is why you dont see too many helpers at HD and its probaly their poor customer service that causing them to shut down.... what a way to treat the plants!
a few of our members goes "dumpster diving" as it's called and come out with quite a haul..:)
So they go to HD for dumpster diving? I've been trying find out where they go.
There were whole threads on the subject and apparently they go into the dumpsters at home depot and Lowes. This may have been altered due to dumpster diving - I've no idea...
From the archives
"Seed Snatchin" and dumpster diving
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/604651/