I still remember a few years ago, at the “Orange” store, seeing what was very clearly a Shumard oak labeled as a “Red sunset maple”.
I talked with someone in TSC last year and then another person at the “orange store”. Both said the same thing. They said that they dont control when they get their shipments of plants, and that the scheduling was done at the corporate level. The people scheduling plants to be delivered and sold in the north, are comfortable and warm in a more southerly location.
I complained that every plant they had was way too far advanced to survive our cold Western NY springs, and I was told that they received hundreds of complaints but that the plants still arrive 6 to 8 weeks too early.
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My lovely “orange store” has a bunch of fruit trees finally. None are budded and all outdoors actually, this one seems to know better than keep them indoors.
But the damn things are $90 each! Every single one they sell, even common ones, are $89.99
I carried my ass to the reliable local nurseries and grabbed a 5’ red love calypso for all of $34 instead rofl
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yeah, depot here seems to have raised prices 50% or more since last year. I don’t think they’ve moved many yet
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Both orange and blue stores are selling blueberries here. There really needs to be a disclaimer with them so that people understand how to plant them. The soil in these parts is not conducive to growing blueberries for a multitude of reasons. Most of these plants will fail within a year or two due to the alkaline soil. Crazy to look at the stock they have and realize that most of it will soon be going into the trash.
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Yeah, at orange store last weekend,lots of boxed plants/rooted stick inside. Only a few days later, shoots out of all of them. Fig, lilac, blueberry, kiwi, grape, next to the potatoes and houseplants. I was considering a blueberry to pollinate my starts, everything has to be in a pot in the basement for months anyway. Nothing there is going to survive another month in the store.
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I have access to local nurseries selling apple trees in pots for $15.
And another for $24.
*Not that I need any since I’ve grafted over 200 of my own in the last 4 years.
Speaking of Big Box…supposed to be a Menards going up in Central KY…never seen one before in my life.
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Ooooh, i miss Menards. for what you need a big box store for, they were great back in NE. Down here Big Blue put out their first round of trees 3 weeks ago, making sure they were outside and exposed when we had record lows (zone 8a, but we got down to -5F). I was walking through today, and they still have all of it sitting out. I feel bad for anyone who buys it. The live oaks were clearly damaged by the cold and look like they are not going to bounce back, same with some of the other evergreens that they had. With about 20 potted Fig trees there as well, I don’t think they will be leafing out this spring.
Hopefully my local nursery has some good options this year and kept their stock in the green houses. I have been hesitant to go look.
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Here is my contribution Lidl the german chain plant covers and cold frames. While the cold frame are potentially useful the plant covers wont be till the fall. So I am forced to buy off of that now before I even buy plants that need them.
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I buy American every time I can. But I guess German might be preferrable to Chinese.
At least most of the plant material for sale at big box stores isn’t imported.
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Not much benefit to buying European. Most European manufacturing is highly automated, because labor costs are even higher than the U.S. I toured the Heineken brewery in the Netherlands, and the place is a giant ghost factory. Every part of their process is automated, even the robot that shrink-wraps the pallets. I have no reason to believe European robots make better crap than Chinese robots. I would be concerned about counterfeit steel from China, if high-quality steel is needed, but not plastic.
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Menards was my second home for many years (lumber/plumbing/flooring/etc). At least a few years back…Home Depot on a typical workday was about empty you’d go to Menards and the parking lot was full
Nothing in yet here. I’m guessing sometime this month we’ll see fruit trees if it stays mild. One year they had a couple pallets of Contender peaches…full of blossoms…nice looking trees. They were gone within a week. I think they were under $30 a tree back when i was looking.
Somebody on a wildlife habitat forum posted photos of these labels from ‘that apple tree’ (no variety name anywhere; QR code scan went nowhere), purchased at a Florida Home Depot (but hardy to -30F!)
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More worried about the day laborers reading the tag than what the variety I guess.
These big stores should re-think their way of doing business on the garden end. Probably hire a good nursery manager, and pay for the expertise, and give him/her the authority to run that end of the store!
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It demoralizes the good ones to have stupid decisions made in Georgia or North Carolina for the entire chain of stores.
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A slightly different sort of big box fail, but I ordered a big bag of perlite on Feb 11 from the orange one, with an estimated delivery of Feb 22… But as of today it still hasn’t even shipped, and I’m struggling to find any number I can call to inquire about it.
Edit: finally called and all they could do was cancel it, won’t get the refund for 3-5 business days, though. So basically a month from the order date and just going to get it locally instead. Like I should’ve to start with.
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I think they all put stock out early because of a race for sales between each other. You see this with other seasonal sales/holidays like Christmas items, valentines, etc
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Re getting a bag of perlite, I’ve had excellent results with horticultural supplies from Morton Products. http://www.mortonproducts.com/ Yes they ship, it is expensive, but if you need something to propagate plants, they usually have it. I am within driving distance so usually make a spring trip to pick up trays and such.
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I knew Morton’s did greenhouses, but surprised to see how expanded their line is.
I’d picked up some amendments along with some containers from here with the free shipping over $99. Local availability in Massachusetts was terrible. Perlite
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