Im seeing lots of pics of folks buying fruit trees and canes and plants from box stores on social medias.
Last year i bought some things that i wouldnt normally buy from an online nursery. Rural King, Tractor Supply, Costco, Lowes, Home Depot, Menards, Wal-Mart etc. Even Aldi had some plants that i bought.
Im hoping that honeyberry shows up in my state of WV this year… they were in Indiana and Ohio i think but not here.
Post here with your location and what things catch your eye this year. Also prices if possible.
You may also post deals on things such as potting soil or other things. My local Rural King has Happy Frog Potting soil for $19 for 2cu ft.
I’ll let them keep the Happy Frog stuff…I got bagged soil for $1.99 at Rural King in Kentucky last Friday. And $2.99 cypress mulch.
These stores are getting in things earlier than normal…I guess they don’t care if they live or not…since it doesn’t come out of their pockets. (Vendors eat the loss of returned or of plants that die and are discarded at most box stores).
My plants spent -5F outside in pots…but I’d be careful about buying plants that got trucked from Alabama and Tennessee to Pennsylvania or some place…then put on display in the parking lot.
There are displays inside too… i got 3 varieties of strawberrries that i would probably never have bought otherwise. If you dont buy them in the first month that they put them out and get them soaking then they will all die. They come in those packages and are dry as a desert but if you put them up to the light you can see little sprouts on the good ones.
I dont need anymore but when the box stores put out the blackberries and raspberries too early and they get hit with a late frost… you can get them half off usually around April.
The Rural King here in Southern In is setting up their outdoor tree area, so I expect them soon. I called a local nursery and they said check back first of March.
Our local grocery story is selling peach trees with 100-200 chill hours. We typically get between 700-1000 chill hours. Walmart at least has an 800 chill hour peach tree, but it’s Redhaven, which doesn’t have a good reputation here or Belle of Georgia, which apparently produces as soft lightly colored peach. One has to go to a local nursery to get good fruit trees around here.
That being said, I got my seed potatoes from Tractor Supply and am very pleased by them.
About eight years ago I bought what was supposed to be an ultra dwarf Stella cherry at Costco. It’s about ten feet tall now only because pruning kept it down that low. I have questions about that labeling… But it’s a beautiful tree.
Rural King seed rack. Sign says 10/$10 but they are $1 each no matter how many you buy. Hard to beat that deal.
Bigger selection of trees this year and they seem to be much larger in size.
They added ‘Country Sweet’ Peach…i hadnt seen that one before. Lots of cherry tree varieties. Bing, and a few others i wasnt familiar with.
A new variety of blueberry i havent seen ‘Blue Ridge’ googling it. its either a wild variety…or a cultivar with the worlds sweetest berries… confusing name.
Blue Ridge, like Ruebel, is a selected feral blueberry. Small berries. Taste is good, but not really one to plant unless you just like it’s looks or like to collect plants. Gets taller than most highbush.
