Part of it is just sheer BS. Too cheap to have a legit tag that indicates the actual plant. Even worse with many of those generic "perennial" tags is the lack of hardiness info. On many cases I KNOW what the plant is and KNOW it is not hardy in our zone. I always ask for a Supervisor and tell them "this plant is gonna die here". Lowes is good about it here. They are also great on their 1 yr guarantee.
My local HD sucks. Many of their plants have these generic tags that are USELESS.
It is like pulling teeth to get them to honor their 1 year guarantee. Once I took a plant back and they started grilling me. Then they called some other guy over and he gave me a hard time. I indicated that I was a Master Gardener, Master Naturalist, a horticulturist for over 40 years and ran a business at the farmers market selling plants. After a Supervisor was brought over and also grilled me, I told them they were clueless and told em where to put the plant. They finally gave me my refund. I buy few things there.
Sorry bout the rant.
