The sad world of retail nurseries. The even sadder part is these trees are "pushed" for quick sale and will be damaged for life if left in the small pots for very long.
Actually, if you are going to buy your tree from such a place versus a reputable place like Four Winds, it is best to buy it in the Spring, replant it, and give it a chance to "get real" before Winter.

What a shame. I dont understand the thinking of stores. I understand that they may get some credit or something if they have to pitch plants but what harm does it do to give them away if they are destined for the dump anyways.

mike

Was it a sales clerk that said no to you, or was it the manager? I could see a sales clerk saying no because they might be worried about getting in trouble when a manager might not care, so you might want to try asking the manager if you didn't already.

Another idea, if you just don't want them to go to waste, you could try posting on the forum for your region of the country here to let other plant lovers know where these cheap plants are so others can get a shot at them.
I know you don't live near me, but if I lived by that store I'd definitely grab one of everything at that price!

It's a business decision. If stores give things away for free at any point and customers know this they may not buy items in the future, waiting until they know they can get it for free. Whether that is true or not I don't know. I certainly went around local nurseries recently because I knew they were culling stock and got many items on clearance. Would I have bought those if I knew every year the nursery would just give them away in two weeks and I could show up then?

I think the 5$ offer was fair. I would buy some for friends and donate the ones people didn't want to a charity or just "resell" on CL.

Yer right; and every tree they give away now is one tree they won't sell next year. The bigger issue for me is that it will take a lot of rescue energy to try to make a good tree out of one that has been in the small pot too long; and was probably over "pushed" in the beginning to make it look "salable". I produce a lot of Meyer trees here in Guatemala (8,000 currently in production); and I won't sell a tree that is not perfect, much less would I GIVE you one.

Well, I guess that throwing them all in the dump was a much better option for these trees.lol

Have a great day all.

Mike:-)

Throwing trees in the dump or burning them always hurts me; same for pruning off limbs that would bear fruit next year; my trees, like all my plants are like children to me. The flip side is I would not want my name, or my company name on a tree that is going to suffer in the future; and the owner will tell everyone what problems he had with the tree AND he will tell them that the tree came from my nursery!! Happy Thanksgiving to all, gobble, gobble.

If the nursery intended to sell the discarded citrus for $5.00 each, the plants should not have been placed by the dumpster. I believe most people assume that anything sitting by a dumpster is free to be taken by anyone else who comes along and wants the discarded item... My townhome is close to an apartment complex and on occasion I have rescued plants that have been left by the apartment complex dumpster. One time I spotted a beautiful variegated scheflera plant sitting by the dumpster, took it home, transplanted and trimmed it. Turned out to be one of the nicest houseplants I ever had...

Jerry

I saw the same thing in NYC. Our room overlooked a small florist. In an enclosed area behind the store were orchids, african violets and other tropicals out in the October snow. I looked for a way to get to the area but couldn't find one.

Tanksalot