That sounds like it's time for a change of game plans.

Picked up several of these plants for $1 at Lowes and put them in a hanging basket. They looked great for the summer, I brought them in for the winter, looked great the next summer, and now they're spending their second winter indoors. Not bad for an annual!

Nope, not bad at all for an annual, tender perennial in some areas. It's a pretty plant. Be sure to take cuttings as a back up in case of the inevitable, or save some seeds.

Took me a while to catch up here as I haven't gotten anything good for a while. Last week I had some time to kill between appointments/jobs. Lowe's, but being December I didn't expect a lot. Had trouble finding the discount rack, but when I did, what a surprise! I found roses on their $3.00 rack in 3 gallon pots. I took one, then went back and got 2 more. Got 8 pansies for $1.00 each. We are in Indian Summer now (do they have that in North Florida?) None of these plants seemed stressed at all.

The roses were tagged as Montezuma (2) and Christian Dior. I looked them up and they seem to be correct, except one of the Montezuma's doesn't have the same leaf structure as the correct one. But I don't care, a rose is still a rose. I'll see what comes when it blooms.

I have pretty good luck bringing the plants back to life, but even if they don't survive, 50 cent or a dollar for a pot of black gold to amend my sand with is worth the price.

A rose by any other name..
And you are so right, clearance plants come with nice slightly used potting mix and a pot- some quite decorative

I went to Home Depot yesterday to try to convince the manager to let me take the remaining amaryllis off his hands. No deal. He said he makes out better by throwing them in the dumpster than marking them down below 50%.

So, I took what was left in the glass vases at 50%, making 8 in all. And all at 50%. So, I now have 5 Red Lion and 3 red somethings, along with 8 nice glass vase/pots, about 7 pounds of black pebbles and 4 pounds of white gravel. In all, it ran me about $70, but I figure the bulbs alone would be $7 each, leaving $24 for the 8 vases and rocks. All things considered, while not as good as I wanted, it still wasn't bad. Now... where am I going to put 8 more amaryllis?

Great deal, Rick. Congratulations!

Great deal! Isn't it crazy that these stores can get more many from claiming a loss than they can from discounting and actually SELLING a product?

Rick, you need to dumpster dive.

James it does not work that way. The plants are owned by vendors and become the stores after they are sold. For example if the vendor gets 60 percent of sale on 10 dollar plant if sold at 50 percent off- 5 dollars the vendor still gets 6 dollars so the store would loss money on the sale. When you do see plants on sale at Home Depot it is because the vendor marked them down the workers at the store are not allowed to. Most Lowes around here own their plants and can price them however they want to

AnnaZ said:Rick, you need to dumpster dive.

You can find lots of garden-related stuff in the dumpsters!

I'd be very careful with dumpster diving, somehow I feel the big box stores wouldn't take it likely, and maybe even have those HUGE dumpsters you cant even get into.
However- I have gotten a couple (non plant) treasures- actual coffee from the S-Bucks, plastic ornaments from Dollartree

I've been itching to go to Lowes..

sallyg said:I'd be very careful with dumpster diving, somehow I feel the big box stores wouldn't take it likely, and maybe even have those HUGE dumpsters you cant even get into.
However- I have gotten a couple (non plant) treasures- actual coffee from the S-Bucks, plastic ornaments from Dollartree

I've been itching to go to Lowes..

Just carry a clipboard and say you are with corporate. It works every time.

Actually, it depends on the plants as to whether they are vendor-owned or store-owned. In this case, all of the amaryllis were store owned. When the local manager gets tired of seeing them, they are thrown into the trash compacter for the dumpster. Things such as bulbs, shrubs and trees tend to be store owned, that's why they get marked down. Vendor-owned stuff, such as live plants, don't get marked down. Usually, the store manager ignores them, let's them die and then ships them back to the vendor for credit,

Anna... I'm an accomplished dumpster diver going back decades! Years ago, we used to have a warehouse for our antiques & collectibles business. It was standard routine to check the dumpster daily. We pulled some really great stuff out.... dining room furniture, oak railings, advertising materials, beer, etc.

Between dollar stores and dumpster dives, I've saved tons of money over the years.

Back when I was a teenager, I worked at Woolworth's. Every spring, I would bring home the leftover potted plants from Easter and Mother's Day. My mom ended up with a rather large collection of tulips and lilies. Until, that is, my dad decided it was time to rearrange the yard.

I was really hoping to get my hands on the amaryllis kits. For those not familiar, each box contains an amaryllis bulb, a 'cheap' plastic pot (good enough for starting things in) and a compressed soil disk like the Jiffy peat pellets. All three things would have found a new use and the cardboard boxes would have been recycled. Now, it's all going to end up in a landfill somewhere.

Rick I work at a store and bulbs trees and shrubs are all pay per scan and owned by vendors. And the vendors do the mark downs on them. Same thing with the indoor plants just different vendors.

Yep, the difference between Home Depot and Lowe's is quite clear. HD never has a distressed rack so I don't waste my time there.

Off the plant subject, but on to the dumpster diving subject....we do repaints at student housing apartments here in Gainesville, it happens every August. We have gained wicker furniture, end tables, patio furniture, clothing, kitchen appliances, area rugs and so many other things.

Parents set their young people up with all they need to live, and when they leave, they see no value in keeping any of these things.

It's where I found my last boyfriend.

RickM said:I went to Home Depot yesterday to try to convince the manager to let me take the remaining amaryllis off his hands. No deal. He said he makes out better by throwing them in the dumpster than marking them down below 50%.

It might be good that he doesn't have his own business. Throw them away and they get to write off the wholesale price they paid...actually recovering a small percentage of that lesser price. Half price beats that hands down.

NJBob said:James it does not work that way. The plants are owned by vendors and become the stores after they are sold. For example if the vendor gets 60 percent of sale on 10 dollar plant if sold at 50 percent off- 5 dollars the vendor still gets 6 dollars so the store would loss money on the sale. When you do see plants on sale at Home Depot it is because the vendor marked them down the workers at the store are not allowed to. Most Lowes around here own their plants and can price them however they want to

I stand corrected. I didn't think about factoring in a horrible business agreement. That explains why multiple mislabelled plants and prices weren't corrected (after notifying on multiple trips) for months prior to frost at a local HD!