I love to get bargains. Whether it works out or not in the long run, it is fun.

I stopped by a Lowes 2 weeks ago, and they didn't have anything on clearance yet. I won't get back there until Sept :(
I did hit my local Walmart and got 2 perennials for .25¢ each; one was a gaura and the other I can't recall at the moment. If I'd known they were going to ring up at that price, I would've wiped them out. I'm still beating myself up for not turning around and going back inside.

Oh, dear. Today was payday, I better stay away from Lowes.

Today I decided I needed some fall plants, so I hit Home Depot first. Only walked out of there with 2 pansies, at $2.98 each. No markdowns that I noticed, anywhere.

Right next door is Lowes. I normally have good luck there, although when I stopped there in September, I only bought 1 plant, an Ironweed, that was marked down to $5. No great bargains. So today, I picked up 2 mums and 2 pansies. The cashier tells me all plants located outside are 50% off. That shocked me, considering this is basically mum season. But, I simply had to turn around and hit the perennials, since I had eyed a few. So I dropped my mums into the truck & went back inside.

First up; Agastache "Blue Fortune". They were all covered with bumblebees & honey bees, and it upset me to have to bother them, but I had to have one. Now October isn't the time to mess with bees; they get all flippy and don't act like their normal docile selves. I've noticed this in the past as well. They don't sting me, but they show aggression, which definitely isn't the norm. Anyway, it was marked $7.98, so for almost $4, I figured I'd find a spot for it. I also found 2 Lobelia cardinalis and something else I can't recall at the moment. Well, they all rang up at $2.49, so I told her to ring up 2 more Agastaches. As soon as I got them home, a carpenter bee darted over to the plant, and shortly after there were plenty of bumblebees all over them. I really could've gone crazy there, but thankfully I controlled myself.

DH just shook his head back & forth when I got home.

That was the one in North Bergen, in case anyone from NJ is interested. I just might hit up the one in Paterson next week, hehehe...

I read a Lowes clearance story on here the other night, and feeling inspired, I headed to Lowes the next day. Disappointment. They had practically nothing left of the perennials, and what they did have were practically all missing their labels. Some people have all the luck ;-)

The Lowes in my area now are into the 50% off all shrubs and trees mode too. Great bargains, but alot of it had already been picked over by the time I got there. What's left is mostly shrubs with only foliage in front, bare trunks in back and still $11. Altho, to be fair, there were other shrubs in better shape. The clerk told me to talk with the manager and he'd probably give me better deals on stuff like that. I ended up with two Choke Cherries for $5 ea. that are on the smallish size but looked healthy enough. Nice potted arobvitaes about 2' tall for $8 ea., but I really wanted taller ones. And I missed out on a rack of dogwoods for $5 ea., all those were snatched up. Decent looking Limelight Hydrangeas, too. I really should have bought one of them for 1/2 off $29.

Still a good selection of perennials for $3.49 (or $3.33?) ea.

Tracey, I can't believe you got Lobelia Cardinalis at Lowe's.

Two stores around here don't even carry anything native let alone something like Lobelia.

They don't have any markdowns either...just cleared out leftover perennials and they're full of mums and picked over shrubs.

I have a suspicion the 2 Lowe's around here get their stuff on consignment because I've seen vendors taking ratty plants out on carts from which they've just unloaded new stock.

If they had a Spicebush I would go for it but now such luck.

Congrats on your haul, girl.

schoolhouse,

I got ten 4 to 5 ft arborvitaes for $3 each 2 weeks ago. :)
Then twenty-two 3ft Tropicanna Black for 10 cents each 3 weeks ago. :)

I check the Lowes here all the time and Sunday afternoon bought three black and blue salvias -in great shape-in gallon pots for .50 each and small pots of Salvia superba in a dark violet. A deeper blue than Blue Hill. Those were .25 each.
They had tons of them and they were all mislabeled as Salvia Splendens which they were most definitely not.
All the plants were very full, healthy and in bud.

The thing is, I don't really need any of them!

I was just at a local supermarket with an aunt (I normally don't shop there), and they had a rack of bulbs packaged in small boxes. All the boxes say "Dutch Bulbs" on them and there is quite a variety. One box contained what they're calling "Wild Tulip Mixture" with 10 bulbs in it. They are what I see in catalogs as Species Tulips, mixed colors; but the price was only $2.49. I thought that was a deal. I got two.

I scored a bunch of perennials at the local Lowe's as well. The plants hadn't been marked down but when I asked the attendant when they were marking them down, he said I could have any gallon perennial for 50 cents. So after 4 agastache blue fortune, 3 autumn ferns, 3 sedum autumn fire and 3 coreopsis zagreb, I am only 6.50 poorer. For anyone in the area, this is the Lowe's on Rt 70 in Cherry Hill.

Its on Rt 73N, next to Bally Total Fitness.

Newbie; Lowe's seems to be stocking more plants tagged as "natives". Finally, things are looking up for at least one big chain store ;)

Man they have the Christmas stuff out already. How ridiculous is that???

I'll be sick of Christmas before it even gets here.....

I love bargains!
I have 3 Lowe's within driving distance for me and I try to visit all three because they don't have the exact same plants at every store. One of the managers told me a few years ago that about 80% of their stuff is an automatic shipment and he could select the rest so it might depend on what kind of plants the manager is interested in or what they think will sell well in your area. That might explain why some have natives and others don't. I can't remember seeing any at ours that were labeled native.

Thought I'd go to Lowes just BROWSE. Came home with three Chocolate Joe Pye Weed for $.42 each! Two small China Boy Holly shrubs for $1.75 ea., no China Girls left to go with them tho. Ugh. I was in agony over the other clearance shrubs but don't have a spot for them, but $1.75 - $4.00 each? Oh, me. All perennials and shrubs 75% off now. I know I'm squeaking by the cut-off point for planting perennials, but I couldn't help it.

Only one China Boy, the other is a Blue Prince. Just noticed the tag when I was planting them awhile ago.