Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Clearance: un-loved plants

We had to make a trip to Home Depot last weekend. When faced with the prospect of looking at hardware with my husband, or wandering to the nursery department to visit the plants, my choice was clear. Sadly I came face to face with this… A very sad rack of almost dead, under-watered and under-loved plants. Just look at this sad little Musa Basjoo. Marked down to only $3! Sure he isn’t much to look at right now but we all know what’s lurking inside…just waiting to be released, a beautiful banana grove! I didn’t need another Banana, but for $3 how could I not give this little guy a loving home?
I will leave the politics of big-box nurseries vs. local mom and pops to another post, or another blogger. Any of you that have followed me, and my plant shopping adventures, know where I spend most of my money. Still - I occasionally check out what the big guys have to offer. As for this visit I am going to make up a story that the recent heat wave (combined with the fact that we’ve had no measurable rainfall for 28 days) took this store by surprise, and that is why there were so many crispy plants. So sad.
These heartbreaking Cornflowers were also calling out to me. I love them, but if they were in my garden I would have to pull off the petals, to accentuate the cone. Since that might be flower abuse, and I don’t want to be guilty of such a hideous crime, I left them behind. Never mind that I regularly cut the blooms off my Hosta because they distract from the foliage.

7 comments:

  1. Hi DG~~ I cut my hosta flowers too. And I too visit Home Depot just to see what kind of abuse is lurking behind the orange apron. I recently found that new trendy tender Euphorbia with the mass of tiny white flowers...can't recall the name. 1 dollar. ... That poor banana. I'm glad it has a new home and will receive the love it so rightly deserves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lucky banana to come home with you! Reprieve from the dumpster, I'm sure. For three bucks, I would have found a spot and started my tropical garden to go along with my new danger garden. :) We all know you are not taking business away from Cistus and other indies. Just scooping up a few bargains on impulse buys and pracicing plant rescue. Oh, my coneflowers look crispy too, I guess I didn't water them enough! I might steal your idea and take the petals off, they'll look much nicer. I wonder if the bees will find them still, without the purple to lure them in?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bargain banana! It doesn't even look too bad in the picture, I bet it'll rebound just fine. This dumb weather, everything looked terrible in my garden, but we are getting such a good rain tonight. Perfect timing before I'm gone and can't water for a week. Everything should look refreshed tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You softie - better not visit the Humane Society in that frame of mind! I would have loved to scoop up that banana for 3 bucks: you absolutely did the right thing giving it a home. When I get back from vacation I might need to scour the garden dept. at my Lowes and HD, too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Seems like I saw a variety of coneflowers without ray petals - just cones - in a catalog. Can't remember where. Isn't it funny how sales work their magic on us?!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good for you, honing in on just what needed to be taken home. Nice save.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Grace...Euphorbia Diamond Frost? Glad to know I'm in good company with my hosta trimming habits!

    Karen, interesting question about the bees, I'll have to run it by the husband he's good at that sort of question. You mean you don't yet have a banana?! Uhm....

    Megan, there were a couple dead clingy leaves but your right, it's really not bad. Even pushing out a new leaf! It rained so hard at my house that it flattened the tall Miscanthus sinensis in the front yard and even broke a couple of tomato stems. It sure smelled good though.

    Jane, funny you mention the Humane Society. We got an email from Pacific Pug Rescue saying that they had a record number of Pugs needing a home, could we help? Yikes. We are talking about it. I don't know if I'm cut out to be a 2 dog mom. Hope you are having a great vacation!

    VW, I received the Fall Plant Delights catalogue last night and they had the coneflowers without ray petals, fun timing! I might have to place an order. And ya, I am a sucker for any type of sale, but a sale on a living thing is especially tough to pass up!

    K&V, thank you!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Comment moderation is on (because you know: spam), I will approve and post your comment as soon as possible!