keithp2012 said:

Wow that's nice! I've tried that and they told me they can't do that.

That's what I'm afraid of. They would rather toss plants than sell them a lower price.

IbisFla said:I've been pretty lucky with my local Lowe's, where I've picked up healthy plants that are marked down because a new shipment came in and they have to move some stock. And sometimes, it's plants that have already bloomed and they're not as attractive without the flowers. Or the plant just needs to be repotted. The fun for me is sifting through the clearance rack and finding that hidden jewel

My sentiments exactly. I've found several "diamonds in the rough". I posted the story about the man asking me about the dead plants that I was buying one winter for $1 each on another thread . They were hostas that had been frost bitten. They were going dormant and leafed out and bloomed beautifully the following spring. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I may need to start being more selective myself, especially if they are indoor plants. DH will tolerate only so many plants in the house during the winter. Yesterday I stopped by Lowes and they had those cactus with the colored tops that can't survive on their own sitting on an outdoor rack sitting in pots with no drainage holes and 1/2 to 1 inch of water marked down to $2 apiece. I took as many as I could out of the water filled outer pots and set them aside. Then I told the clerk that they will rot and fall over in a few days, as they can't handle cold and wet.I didn't buy any of those soggy cactus. They might have continued declining and die on me. It was not worth it.

I never thought to take before pictures of the bad looking rescues.

I rescued 23 Mothers Day Phalaenopsis Orchids from Walmart last year in June. I've still got 18 left, one bloomed on Dec 26th and most of the others have flower stalks. One has a very large stalk with other stalks on it that makes it look like branches on a tree.

plantmanager said:I'll try that, Cheryl. Our thrift shop is the same way. One day I saw an employee of Goodwill chucking hardbound books and paperbacks in a big trash container. I asked about it and wondered if I could buy them, and she said no! It was against their rules, and they had to toss them.

That's disgraceful and one of the reasons I won't contribute to Goodwill anymore (that and the CEO's salaries) -- Salvation Army yes. How could they throw perfectly good books out.

At the big stores it works kind of like this , if the store owns the plants they can discount them to any price they want to. Where I work the vendors own the plants and we not supposed to discount them, the vendors have to mark them down.

orchidgal said:

That's disgraceful and one of the reasons I won't contribute to Goodwill anymore (that and the CEO's salaries) -- Salvation Army yes. How could they throw perfectly good books out.

I've rescued many orchids from the "death rack" at Lowe's and had them live and re-bloom for me. They can't sell them once they finish blooming because, you know, orchids are not really gorgeous plants without those flowers . . Often they're sitting, drying out in the blazing Florida sun, but if you get them soon enough they recover. They're usually marked down to under $5 which is a great price considering they're $25 or so in bloom.

Home Depot doesn't seem to discount any plants, I guess they're the ones that send the dead and dying and those that are not blooming back to the growers. What a waste!

I'm pretty sure Home Depot uses the 'vendor owned' method so everything has to be returned or tossed. Phalaenopsis are a good item to rescue. My first orchid was a clearance Phal from Aldi But most Phals I see that are past bloom, are still over ten bucks so that's pricey to me.

(I just like to give some perspective to the trashed books question: I work at a library. There are way too many old books in circulation than anyone can possibly want. People donate to us lots of really crappy old paperbacks, browned, stained, damaged etc. We can't sell or use them. They go in the recycle bin. And even the most popular new authors (James Patterson) we have too many to use. We may buy 150 copies of those when new, and after six months or so everyone has read them and we then have 100 more than we need. Multiply that by every popular author. We do our best to sell them or give them to an organization that can pass them along. )

I asked at HD about orchids past their prime. Nope, can't sell them to you cheaper, have to go back to the grower, and it sounded like THEY trash them. I said to the guy "you mean you won't SELL me one for a couple of bucks and make something on them.............you'd send them back and get nothing?" Yup, guess that's the way it works........at least at THAT HD. Lowes hasn't had any "death row" orchids for quite some time, at least not when I have been there, but I don't stop there a lot, as it's in a town 50 miles from me.

I've never thought about asking at the Lowe's I go to. I've got more of a rapport with the local Walmart since I'm up at the garden section at least once a week to change out propane tanks in the winter. I'll have to check with Lowe's next time I drive down there to see what they say. Maybe if I'm nice I can get them to call me when they have some to reduce.

Jeremy at DG wrote a really funny article that included rescuing plants.

You guys are tempting me with all this talk...

AnnaZ said: I said to the guy "you mean you won't SELL me one for a couple of bucks and make something on them.............you'd send them back and get nothing?" .

I can almost guarantee, if they have to send them back to the nursery then they are getting credit on them.

I read somewhere on the Internet that sometimes big box stores sell plants "on consignment". That person said they only pay the growers for plants SOLD, and get to throw them away when they feel like it, paying the grower nothing.

I assume they prefer abusing and then killing plants to reducing the price because it costs them nothing. And they think we are a captive audience and "have to" buy something from THEM no matter the price, as if there are no competitors and we can't grow our own from seeds.

Yeah, but it's a waste of shipping and plants, and also makes me want to shop for plants at Lowe's in preference to HD. The clearance rack is a loss leader for me - gets me into the store so I buy all my other garden stuff there as well.

I have shopped from off the bottom of the market (any market, even the internet) for as long as I have shopped.

I will only pay the market price once I am persuaded I've hunted the bottom.

I just bought three dead succulents at Lowes for 50 cents each for the nice ceramic pots.

That's too funny.

I have been known to buy a dead clearance plant for the pot.

I'll try to explain, if they own the plants like most Lowe's I know they can price them at whatever they want. Better making some money on the plant then none. If they are vendor owed like most H D's I know they are pay by scan which means the store gets a piece of the profits after they are sold. Employees of the store are not supposed to discount the plants as part of the agreement with the vendors if they do it all comes out of their share and they would lose money on the plant. The vendor is the one who makes the choice if the plant gets discounted , returned or disposed of. Really no reason to return Annuals and even if discounted no one buys them past flower. Perennials usually get discounted unless they look really bad. Shrubs get discounted or sent back to the nursery they came from.

I've scored some great pots on very sad looking plants, too. I'm always excited to get an orchid that's been potted in a wad of soggy sphagnum moss in a glass vase with no holes in it.

Save the drowning orchid by extracting it tout d'suite and re-potting. I now have a set of those cute glass cube vases.