Clearance Plants

T. Michael Smith
T. Michael Smith Posts: 10 ✭✭✭

My wife finds my frugality annoying and amusing, and I have rubbed off on her.

I am a clearance shelf professional. One place it really plays out is plants. In the past month in clearance I have picked up 2 Raspberry Bushes, 2 Blackberry Bushes, 3 Blueberry Bushes, 2 Hibiscus bushes, 1 Hibiscus Tree, a tray of Brussels Sprout's, and some almost dead buttercrunch lettuce. Almost everything looked root bound and neglected. Everything is thriving where I planted it. I saved between 50%-75% off everything. You should still be able to find some clearance Items located in some special spot in Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, or your local Ace or True Value. If you have Dr. Appointments that have you going to town at least once a week. Make friends out of the garden center sales people or the Vendors that supply them. They can even save you plants they would have thrown away. Take advantage of our waste. Otherwise it ends up in a landfill. They also throw nursery pots away with the plants. You could get a lot of pots for your greenhouse free. They also have scrap lumber for free of 90% off. You can get your homestead or farm thriving on a budget.

Hope this was helpful to you.

Comments

  • pamelamackenzie
    pamelamackenzie Posts: 143 ✭✭✭
    edited October 2019

    Some people dislike big box stores and won't buy their plants. However, if it can survive the the parking lot of Walmart (where they make a temporary spring plant area), I figure it can survive me.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Around here, relevant stores sell back any unFit lumber, & what I got for Free, is now on its way to 'woodchip' land. Am beginning to think "well, turn our green House, into a Greenhouse; but family objects "Are u crazy?" Rhetorical question.

    Thrift stores, incldg. Habitat-4-Humanity are like a 2nd home.

    SEEDS are a life-saver be they eaten out of hand, or allowed to SPROUT (Broccoli) etc, or grown for later nutrition.

    Nursery pots... let me count - yup got them all for Free.

    70% of plants bought are "root-bound & neglected, & 9 shades of dead": Funny thing, most do Resurrect... from heavenly Compost tea & love. Another 20% were/are well cared-for gifts, & 10% are whatever.

    Conventional ? doctors are only okay... so long as they Order the exact tests I tell them are necessary & we want, so hopefully insurance pays for the tests. No treatments & sure as heck No pharma/poisons. Pray for no emergencies. We avoid 99% of doctors for the constant threat-to-humanity & maiming/killing plaque they are.

    re Budget ? - yup, squeeze each penny hard, harder...; & more often than not, do without. Life goes on.

    What we have needed 9 years, & continue needing is some kind soul to DIG the about 24 holes for our suffering foodForest plants before they all die, as I can't muster the physical strength for that, sad to say.

  • findbeth-1
    findbeth-1 Posts: 4

    @rainbow Check with your local community college, if there is one close, see if they have a department that might need a project area...

    Or even check with your local high school science teachers, see if they have students willing to help. You may have to share some of the growth, but you might get the digging done.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @findbeth-1 - Thanks for those suggestions.

    Needs to wait a bit as we had a Hometheft yesterday, including someone stealing the heavy-duty Jumper cables, & then the Van was left open... for too long, before the neighbors call the Police who came to the door, & that's when we found out what happened. - Roadside service is not always quick so now am Late going to work today ! Always something, - No wonder I continue suffering from non-stop run-away Anxiety. Yikes !

  • chimboodle04
    chimboodle04 Posts: 286 ✭✭✭

    @rainbow another similar place to check is if you have a local career and tech highschool - my mom taught floral and landscaping classes at ours for years and would welcome the opportunity to take kids to a local site for some hands on application learning - just another option :)

  • maimover
    maimover Posts: 359 ✭✭✭

    This year I’ve pitted all of my outside herbs in an attempt to keep them going through the winter. Also purchased a lavender and purple coneflower that needed some love and are doing pretty good now so here’s hoping for successful over wintering ...

  • kbmbillups1
    kbmbillups1 Posts: 1,390 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I love clearance plants! A couple weeks ago I bought 2 large purple cone flower pots that were marked way down at Kroger and all they needed was some water! I love these flowers b/c they mass multiply after a couple years. Last week I bought a 3 pack of chard and a 9 pack of broccoli plants for .50 each at my favorite plant outlet!!! They needed water and some leaves pinched off so they could grow back. So far so good!

  • Hassena
    Hassena Posts: 345 ✭✭✭

    Clearance plants can often be revived. We buy the clearances ones and soak them in water for a few days. Most of the make it.

    We also purchase bulk plants through our county extension office bare root sales. You have to order in Jan/Feb for an April pick up date. We bout 100 strawberries plants for $20. They were small, but grew fast and we harvested our second year. :)

  • EarlKelly
    EarlKelly Posts: 230 ✭✭✭

    Love going in this time of year for the clearance plants. The big box stores are getting ready for the big spring rush. I have found some really great deals. I revive them then donate them for our master gardener spring time sale. Our major fund raiser for the year. Love the challenge of bringing back the plants. Check them out and have fun.

  • burekcrew86
    burekcrew86 Posts: 248 ✭✭✭

    I bought some clearance apple and pear trees a few years ago at a big box store. I wasn’t sure if they were going to make it but they both have thrived and are doing great.

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,290 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Outside on the porch of one of the homes we purchased were two pots of what looked like dead primroses. I unbound the roots and planted them watered them and wow what beautiful colors! I thought if I can save 2 almost dead primroses I can save anything. The tomato plants in the Walmart closest to me are often diseased. So it is necessary to check the leaves very closely.

  • gardneto76
    gardneto76 Posts: 528 ✭✭✭✭

    You guys must have all the luck. I have yet to find any clearance plants at the HD By me, or at the local nursery. I asked one day and they told me, “never at this time of year”. What is the secret?

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I refer to the plant clearance shelf as the "Death Shelf." I had a large chain hardware store employee commend me for buying the plants after I mentioned that I was buying them to save them. She was glad I was saving them. When asked, she said employees were not allowed to take them and that the unbought plants ended up in the garbage.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I bought a lot of clearance house plants to help keep the air fresh and liven up the house. Fantastic plants for maybe a buck a piece. Some are tropical and some "fluffy frilly plants" that I can probably kill off efficiently. My house is not know for being plant friendly so I have to work on that.

    One thing I have to do is use my recycled plants and make them look pretty.

  • VermontCathy
    VermontCathy Posts: 1,987 ✭✭✭✭✭

    These are all great ideas! I wouldn't normally look to big box stores for plants since they may not be in the best shape, if you get them cheap enough, it's worth the small risk.

    It's too late to find these things here now that we are getting nights down in the 25F temp range, but I'll certainly look again next fall.

  • monica197
    monica197 Posts: 332 ✭✭✭✭✭

    What a great find!

  • Tave
    Tave Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Wow! Just the potting soil would be worth something. Even if the plant is diseased, you can bake it to disinfect it.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I normally do not buy big box store plants as they tend to have weeds and have been blasted with chemicals but you can clean them up and get rid of the toxins in time. So if they are cheap enough I will do this. It takes about two year to detox a plant totally.

    I prefer heirloom plants and trading plants with friends over store bought but...

    And as @Tave mentioned, just the potting soil is worth a lot. I chop comfrey in the soils to help clean it up and compost it. I got about two truckloads of soil one year and over 500 pots. (the pots I used for a plant sale)

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,290 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I do not usually purchase plants from the big box stores as they are not healthy. Probably the chemicals-I had never thought about that before.

    One of the houses we bought had glorious flowers in the backyard. I did find 2 small pots with dead primroses in them. I found 2 larger pots and got my first lesson in rootbound pots. So I cut off half of the plant and sliced into all four sides just a bit and voila! I had primroses for years. A little love, water and sunshine are part of the tricks.

    I did find 2 very old tomato plants at a store and since I wanted to use them for the winter I brought them inside and using straight pins pinned them to the lightweight curtains in a south window. They did produce small tomatoes and they lived from August through January.

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 989 ✭✭✭✭

    Cool tips! Thanks for sharing. And I think that's so much better than them just getting thrown away.