Saturday, March 16, 2013

My Foliage Follow-up trip to Lowes


I wasn't going to post for Foliage Follow-up this month, just too busy! Then our door lock failed and I made an emergency trip to Lowes. I’d seen these plants last weekend when we were there for another project but was too busy to stop. This time they called to me from all the way inside the store! The next thing I knew I was out in the garden center admiring them.

These are plants I would expect to see at a Lowes south, not here in Portland, Oregon. “Drought tolerant” is a good quality in plants, even here. After all we can go weeks (or last year…months) without water in the summer. But drought tolerant succulents that aren’t hardy in our zone, that’s another thing entirely.

Was there any mention of that? No. Yes if you flipped over the tag there was zone information in (tiny) print at the bottom, but does everyone know what zone their garden is in? I doubt it. When these plants are sold right next to the (hardy) sempervivium and sedum how many novice gardeners are going to think they are "the same?"

So you’ve got cool plants, for under $10, but no labeling telling the unknowledgeable that they’re gonna die come winter. I think this is a problem. Do you agree or am I being cranky?

Oh and that yucca I bought last year at Home Depot, the one labeled as Yucca filamentosa which really is Yucca gloriosa variegata.

Well now Lowes has them, still labeled Yucca filamentosa and selling for $7.98.

Not wanting to end up all Foliage Follow-up Debbie-downer on you I found a couple of things from my garden to share. First of all it just doesn't get any better than this for new spring foliage, Veratrum Californicum.

Beautiful, no?

I was starting to worry about the Podophyllum but here they are starting to stick their heads out of the ground (I'm not sure which one this is).

And overnight the Syneilesis (Shredded Umbrella Plant) are also starting to emerge! Every day this week I've been searching for them, afraid we stepped on them with the removal of the hydrangea project. Yesterday not a thing, this morning I looked out the window and there they were!

For more Foliage Follow-up visit Pam at Digging for links to other blogs participating this month, there's bound to be lots of happy new spring green!

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

37 comments:

  1. Wow! Cool to see such amazing plants at lowes. I agree uncool labelling. But then to the not so inclined to hardy plants folk, maybe this will prove a valuable lesson in zonal denial? Unfortunately that can bring out the frugal neigh sayers who will subsequently not plant anything remotely tender ever again thereby causing serious harm and misery to people such as myself. But that's a steal on those yucca! I'd grab 6 or 7 for sure!!!

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    1. Can you believe I haven't yet bought one of those yuccas? I needed to come home and look at mine to see how it's doing. It's got a mild case of yacne...

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    2. Oh no!!! The yacne this year has been bad. All my gloriosa are pretty good, but I have spots on bright star and agaves have sad lower arms.

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  2. No, not cranky. They should have some regional info at these places. I think the paper paste-on label says "protect from frost" but you have to read the fine print. Perhaps there is more detail if you scan your smartphone.

    It's the same here where Lowe's sells sempervivum and other plants without telling buyers that they will die in summer heat.

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    1. Exactly! The same issue only in reverse...doesn't make for happy customers.

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  3. I have never seen such a strange range of plants at our local Lowes, except maybe in the houseplant section. Love that pleated foliage on the Veratrum californicum.

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    1. The veratrum melts in the august heat but by then the hostas have taken over that area and it doesn't matter...I love it for the show it puts on every spring!

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  4. sandy lawrenceMarch 16, 2013

    Yeah, I think we all learn by trial and error, even if we do know what our hardiness zone is. The Lowe's here does have a bottom hardy temp on succulent labels, so that serves for people who don't know their zone, and it's not hard to read. I actually find the temp info more helpful than zone, or at least in addition to zone, because zones have micro-climates. I agree with Shirley. What we have to watch here in TX is not to take the "full sun" label seriously and to supply a cool spot in triple digit temps.

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    1. Oh yes...full sun in Portland, OR is MUCH different than full sun anywhere in Texas!

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  5. Maybe you're cranky, but you're still right about them displaying non-hardy plants next to hardy ones. (I actually posted the same sort of comment today!)

    That emerging Podophyllum leaf is awesome -- could be a plastic leave melting! :)

    The Yucca mis-ID saga makes me wonder just how many of these plants large nurseries produce. Thousands? Tens of thousands?

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    1. Indeed the podophyllum leaf has a fake-ness to it. Yesterday several more were pushing out and seeing all this ultra shiny green dots in the brown soil was very St Patrick's Day!

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  6. I love those pleated leaves on the veratrum! (That shredded umbrella plants are cool goes without saying. :-)

    Totally agree about the uncool labeling. Even if they have the zone in small print on the back, that does nothing. ESPECIALLY if they're displayed next to hardy plants that look like them.

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    1. I'm thinking I probably need a few more of those shredded umbrella plants too...

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  7. Yep, I agree entirely, there should be prominent information as to their hardiness in your area. Some very cool plants there though.

    Love that Veratrum Californicum! what a beauty

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    1. Can you believe I didn't buy any of them?

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  8. Nice tour through Big-Box Portlandia / San Diego! Here, the same places appear to mix the trucks to Denver, Des Moines (maybe same thing), Phoenix, and Houston. Sagos, sotols, maples, and palms...I bet there are yards here with all those in the same bed! But one must say, our local nurseries here are similar except 1 or 2...their plants all look healthy. But where's the guidance?

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    1. I'll have to go back in a couple of weeks to see if many of them have sold...

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  9. Quite an interesting collection of plants for sale in PDX. I would have been quite surprised to see them myself. Pretty pictures, though! Cheers, Jenni

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    1. Would you have bought any of them Jenni?

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  10. Isn't it nice when a plant you worry you may have damaged accidentally whilst dormant turns up in the spring and will be fine?

    Not cranky at all btw, valid points there!

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    1. Yes indeed! We stomped around on the soil so much I was afraid the little guys won't be able to push there heads through. Luckily I seem to have remembered their location pretty well and steered clear.

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  11. We've lived long enough to earn the right to be cranky! I just took pictures of many of the same plants (plus a surprise just for you!) at our Lowes. However, all the tender stuff in the Lowes that I visited was in the house plant section.

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    1. Yes...if these had been in the houseplant section I wouldn't have thought twice, or with a helpful sign.

      I can't wait to see what the surprise is...I wonder if it's a garden gnome sitting on an agave?

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  12. I suspect that someone at Lowes decided that selling zonally inappropriate plants with infinitesimal disclosure would prompt replacement purchases and thus be good for business (as opposed to consumers). But maybe I just spent too many years in business to be charitable...

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  13. Home Depot has some small succulents and cacti in the front of the garden center, and more of the little pots inside with the houseplants. I agree that putting them next to the hardy succulents is a bit deceptive.

    That Yucca gloriosa variegata is lovely. I just spent my spring money at the Desert Botanical spring sale, or I might be tempted to get one or two. Nice price.

    The big box stores are always a case of 'buyer beware' - I find it amusing that they continue to talk up their one year warranty. Must be a lot of lazy folks out there, because when I look at the plants they sell in Phoenix, that warranty would really hurt if everyone took advantage of it! So many plants that won't grow/certainly won't thrive here.

    Still, I keep looking. I like the little pots of cacti and succulents, and I like trying plants that look interesting. My kill rate is pretty high, but I buy pots priced under $10 so I just shrug it off and buy something else.

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    1. And what did you score at the DBC spring sale? Pray tell!

      Good point about the warranty. I've never used it and I know I've lost a few plants from the big boxes!

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  14. That's amazing about your Syneilesis: I experienced exactly the same thing today after a week of checking for them! Crazy little fluff heads forcing their way up out of the ground. As far as the Lowe's labeling (and lack thereof), I hate to say it but caveat emptor (buyer beware) is the name of the game and not just in the big boxes, sadly.

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    1. I suppose you have a good point Jane. I still remember how happy I was to see prominent signage at Portland Nursery a year or two ago. It just seemed so "right"...

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  15. Haha...the Lowes by my house just got the exact same shipment in. I sort of have an unwritten rule that big chain stores aren't allowed to carry any cool plants that I don't already have so I bought the aloe and a few of the echeverias.

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    1. Oh man, I like that rule. I should adopt it.

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  16. Here the big box stores sell fully leafed out perennials and annuals in April-weeks before they would be safe to plant out. Buyer beware I guess. They do sell the succulents in the house plant department though.

    Syneilesis are tough plants-almost impossible to kill. I'm looking forward to the return of mine.

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    1. Oh never say impossible, Mother Nature sees that as a challenge!

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  17. Thanks for posting. YES, you are so right about the poor labeling and how it can turn people off gardening when their plants die and they don't know why. Succulents in particular seem to be least accurately labeled -- if they're even labeled at all. This can even be the case in a good independent nursery. I wonder why?

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  18. And the one here sells Hostas. Priceless.

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  19. Syneilesis is one of my favorite plants. The new growth as it emerges from the ground in late winter and early spring is just fabulous.

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  20. Wow, that 'Adam's Needle' yucca looks very much like the 'Spanish Dagger' yucca I picked up at Home Depot a week ago! They had somewhat striated leaves with a touch of pink at the edge. Now I'm wondering if these 'Spanish Daggers' are really Yucca gloriosa variegata?

    It cracked me up seeing the cacti at Home Depot on my last visit. I noticed they had neon colored flowers on them and some had a bright pink hue. Upon further inspection, I saw a drippy bit of glue and realized that someone had hot-glued these fake flowers onto the cacti! Also, I do believe someone spray painted pink on a couple of them. Can you imagine? :^p

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