AnnaZ said:Anyone in the Kansas City area? I visited heartland nursery and garden center today. Oh, my..........it almost caused my heart to stop!!!!!!! An unlimited purse would have been great but mine was limited. LOL. My intent was to look for a trumpet vine to plant by the power pole we had to relocate to our landscaped area that we removed all that cement that was left after our fire from a year ago. I scored a nice one, about 2 feet tall. A double purple/white datura jumped,in the cart before I could stop it, as did a monsterous EE bulb.....a variety I didn't have, but the name escapes me. That sucker set me back $25.99, but I have good luck with bulbs so it will be ok.

It was almost insulting to me to have purchased so little.....

I am just North of KC. Had you swung by, I would have gave you a 50 cent tour and a Trumpet vine for free.

Walmart and many others do what is called "pass thru". Walmart does not "buy" the plants. In facts Walmart does not spend a penny til the plant passes thru check-out. They went entirely this direction in last 5 - 10 years. That is one reason their plants often look so pathetic - they don't care.

And many times prices are in fact set by the wholesalers who often have staff at a garden center. I know several of them by name at both HD and Lowes. I ask thgem when the prices will drop.

David - please, please don't give me a trumpet vine - lovely as they are, those things are so invasive. Unless planted in a location where sprouts can be mowed, the vine will take over - planted near a garden and you will find trumpet vine coming up many feet away. A trumpet vine will eat a small shed and challenge the sides of a house. Their one redeeming glory (at least, in the south - Al and NC) is that the flowers are lovely and loved by many critters and insects. Maybe a trumpet vine is better behaved in a colder area.

I was reading about the care/culture of trumpet vine, and it said to keep the "invasiveness" down to plant it in a "bottomless" large container in the ground (think 5 gallon pail with no bottom). It said that doing that helps keep the offshoots from springing up. And I will have it where there WILL be mowing to keep anything I don't want cut off.

@Stillwood They are totally invasive here in the north after they get established. I am still battling one I put in my garden where I can not cut, this year am trying a different brush killer. We had a mild winter and it is already showing up, usually it is slow to make an appearance in spring.

I'm thinking by the time it gets to THAT point of being invasive, I'll be dead and it will be someone else's problem.

Are you serious about rescuing reduced or clearance plants? That's where I mainly shop! Most of my plants
are started from seed, but occasionally (more often this spring) if I want instant gratification, I buy but only
at reduced prices. So many plants just need a little TLC to spring back to life.

Anna - in my NC experience the trumpet vine shoots did not come up close to the parent plant only - they emerged long distances away (in an acre garden) - little devils poking up in unexpected places. Since it was a garden and not a mowed lawn, it became a real problem. Each shoot had to be dealt with. I could not kill the parent plant as it was across the back fence in someone's yard. But that would not have solved the shoot problem as the roots would live for years. I think there may be more domesticated varieties that are safer to plant. But the wild Southern trumpet vine is a real character - it will definitely outlive you (much like kudzu).

haven't caught up the whole way with this thread, but I'm glad I have good company cruising those clearance racks! We just had our mid-atlantic spring swap, at my place, and I found a few goodies last week that I shared... I put out a "for sale" table with prices, and they were snapped up. Best bargain was probably a 'Prairie Fire' dogwood, just a 2 gallon pot but over 2 feet tall, no clue why it was reduced to $7... also some $3 azaleas, and big 12-packs of annual dianthus (about equivalent of a dozen 2" pots) for $3... and $18 half-price Chaenomeles Doubletake Pink Storm (3 gallon pots, really nice but past blooming).

Last year, I bought several flats of Hellebores, might have been on the $5 rack but I think they were $3.... planted a dozen in my garden and "sold" the rest to my friends. :-)

I do give away clearance plants that I've tidied up and repotted, but often we local gardening friends just share a good bargain around.

Adding that like others, I find most of my bargains at Lowe's... we have 2 Lowe's stores in town, and one has a far bigger/better garden center than the other. Those clearance racks definitely influence my choice of store whether I'm garden shopping or only looking for a pack of screws.

What Jill said!

$2.00 purchase

Wow, it's gorgeous!

Love that rose!
What are all those dark green things around it? Oh, wait, I forget, rose leaves are not supposed to be yellow and black...lol

LOL, Sally, or full of holes, like the ones in our community garden at my apartment building.

Wow Keith, I have that one. It's pretty new to me. It's been getting settled in, then rain came, balled buds, then it got hot and dry. Seems like it will take all summer for the new ones to settle in. Then fall, they will proudly show themselves again.

Keith that is a very pretty rose.

Keith, is that Scentimental? What a bargain for that beauty!

I agree with Neal. Is it fragrant? Scentimental is.

My thought, too, not sure how common "broken color" roses are. By any name that bargain would smell sweeeet!