Wow, rockman, I would say those are certainly success stories!! Was the hibiscus already trained into a standard? If you got that plant for almost free, that's a steal.
The jasmine is exquisite, too.

Emily

Yes. The hibiscus was already trained like that. That is what attracted me to it to begin with. But is was dying in the store (too much water and no sun!). And I discovered that even the Home Depot will accept an offer for a much lower selling price if the plant is clearly not looking very good--and you happen to ask a sympathetic manager.

Four HD Rugosa roses that were all but dead in 2 gallon pots last year, purchased for $2 each, are now nearly 4', full and bushy in the ground, and repeat blooming. The moral of big boxes -- check the roots!!

Though my HD hibiscus isn't toped like yours, one I got several years ago for $3 is an unusual tangerine with red splashes and never ceases to thrill. It had been delivered during a blizzard and left for dead in an unheated greenhouse.

I love a good success story ....

Martie

That is a lovely jasimine. I have one small anemic looking one, but the flowers are still so fragrant.
Even though we like to slam the big box stores here on the forum, I still shop there-of course I support most of the local nurseries as well :) My best success was 2 years ago at the HD in Merrimack. I went with my DH at the end of the season to get something. They had a sign out front that all live goods were $.17 each. yes, that is seventeen CENTS! They had about a half dozen tri-colored beech trees that I had seen all season for $119 in the group. I saw a guy cart off a few and asked him if they were $.17 as well and he said he thought so. I got a carriage load of smaller perennials (like rose campion) and left with my DH. I made it as far as home and greed overcame. I went back by myself and bought 3 of the beeches, as well as about 5 large viburnums and more small perennials.

I spent about $6 bucks for the 2 loads. It was so late in the season, that I didn't get around to planting them, so I grouped them all together and surrounded the pots in straw bales for the winter. I put them in last spring with the thought that if even 1 plant made it, I was ahead of the game. Not only did 1 plant make it, all of them except one unidentified shrub made it and are doing fantastic. The viburnums were especially nice this spring, loaded with blooms.

I have been on the look out for similar deals ever since but no luck. I did notice that HD was not getting in much at the end of last season-maybe they smartened up so they would not be stuck with so much stock in the fall. I was there for a new mailbox last night and noticed that their stock of plants was very small compared to several weeks ago. However, they had some wonderful 20" planters for $20 each, so a pair of them and several large bags of potting soil made it in the truck along with the mailbox.

Somebody stop me!

I shop at nurseries during the season, but I love the end of season at HD and lowes.
Last fall at lowes they had perrenials for 50 cents - I got 5 different kinds of hosta, several pink bellflowers, and 3 different veronica. All survived the winter and are doing wonderfully. The year before I got 3 shrubs at hd for about $1 each - a spirea, and a couple I don't remember the names of but sad looking little guys. After planting and a little attention, they all did great.

BTW, a friend told me that if the plants don't make it they still guarantee them for a year (IIRC)even if you got them on clearance

This is how three leafless Endless Summer hydrangeas bought from HD in November of 2005 for $1 each look now,
{{gwi:1082769}}

Okay, I'd love to cash in on some deals like this, and probably have enough knowledge now to nurse some stragglers back to health. What exactly constitutes "end of the season"? Do these sales typically start now? August? Early September? And how late can I plant? I would think September would be the latest I'd want to plant perennials so they could get established, but do the rest of you plant successfully even later than that?

TIA,
Kim

Kim, ot depends on your location. George (aka ego) is near the coast; we have longer, warmer autumns here before the ground freezes (if it does freeze) so his November-planted hydrangeas had some time to get established. You need to watch the new plants until they go dormant, making sure they have the best possible chance to get themselves "anchored" in the soil before the frost/thaw cycle has a chance to "heave" them out of the ground.

I was hoping to find some "dog days" sales going on at local nurseries but haven't stumbled upon anything great as of yet. I'm taking a trip to Broken Arrow next Saturday to look at shrubs and trees, but I'm pretty sure they don't do heavy discounting. I was at the Hartford HD yesterday and absolutely nothing was on sale, so the end of the season blow-out has definitely not begun around here!

And ego, your endless summers put the lone one I tried this year to shame. Poor thing must be getting too much sun (afternoon sun location) because the flowers are all burnt. Time to find a new spot.

Kim: Stop, look, burrow, stop, look, duck under benches, stop, look, move things around. That's how you find the great deals. I just scored a relatively unusual tree peony (had to go to the forum for ID) for 1/2 price by moving all the herbaceous peonies away, going in about five pots deep, and glimpsing different foliage. Snagged stockings notwithstanding, it made my day.

To know if a plant has a chance of taking, look at the roots. No nursery, not even HD or Lowes, will care if you pop the plant out of the pot. The roots should be a creamy or white color, shouldn't be more root bound that once or twice around the pot (trim before planting) and should NOT have ANY critters in the soil.

Hostas, Dicentra, etc. that are beginning to look funky now still have good roots in those pots! The nurseries know that without good looking tops they won't sell for full price but We Know Better. LOL Think of what the plants in your garden look like -- potted plants may be a few weeks ahead so Check the Roots.

Look everywhere and every day. Just a five minute stop at the supermarket may elicit a gem on the markdown table. An in and out at Ocean State Job Lot this morning found all roses marked down to seventy-five cents. How can one go wrong?

And, for $1, if you plant three in November and only one lives, you've still gotten yourself a good Yankee bargain :-)

Martie

I actually got my good deals early this year!
With all the rain we had in May and June, the Home Depot closest to me (Avon) put nearly ALL of their perennials at 50% off - even the perfectly healthy ones! With the weather, nothing was moving so they marked them down.

Oh YEAH baby! You name it - they had it for a whopping $2.00 for a one gallon plant! I went back THREE TIMES and loaded up.

But it was only that HD. I went to another to see what THEY had and there was nothing. When I asked - I was informed that not every store has the same sales on plants and don't even use the same vendors. Go figure.

Just be careful picking up hostas on sale, because of the hosta virus that's around. Adding a plant that's a "good deal" but is infected to an otherwise healthy collection would be a poor bargain in the long run.

Martie - you're right about having to check out the dark corners - I picked up a couple of tree peonies that way - at $7 each. Whoop de do - still makes me cheerful to think about it, 10 years later.

Thank you for the excellent advice, all!

A-shopping I will go, a-shopping I will go, heigh ho the derry-o...

Rockman and others thanks for posting your success stories and photos. I am one who is kind of down on the bulbs, tubers, rhizomes sold by Home Depot but this year I did try some caladiums 'John Peed' and had very good luck. (In years past had no luck as all were dried out, shrivelled up, etc.) All of the caladiums are doing great but one was mislabled so I got a different variety. oops! I guess the risk you take. I did return a package of tuberous begonias 'pictoee' tubers because I found the exact variety at Lexington Gardens for less money and the tubers were at least 3 times larger. I guess you just have to shop around and know the prices/sizes of things so you can see if it is a good deal. And examine everything carefully. And expect that sometimes the packaged bulbs may not be true as advertized. But it is nice to see a success story!

Love the jasmine and the hibiscus! Is it usual for a hisbiscus standard to have a braided trunk? It is so interesting.

I've always been told to hit HOme Depot etc., on the day they get their shipment (Tuesday for the Saugus HD)--the plants are fresh from the grower and look great.

Thanks for the tips on looking at the roots. What is the hosta virus going around? HD has hostas now at $5 for a big pot.

I've found lots of treasures at Big Box places, and am not ashamed to admit it. Home Depot was where I first found Lewisia, a native alpine from the West Coast. I've also found unusual species of lady's mantle, hard-to-find hosta varieties, insect-eating plants (pitcher plants and Venus flytraps) and ornamental shrubs that you'd have to order from a specialty on-line nursery.

Last year I scooped up 3 or 4 different cultivars of blueberry, and they are fruiting beautifully this season. And I got a Hibiscus moscheutus at half price. It is making loads of flowerbuds and is going to be quite a show in a couple weeks.

The secret is the deals the local stores work out with regional growers and specialty nurseries. I read the tags and have found that many are small - even "boutique" - growers. Others are big West Coast or Southern producers, but you're just as likely to find stuff from a specialty grower.

Rockman those are some beautiful plants! What a score! I do like to check out the "big Box" stores toward the end of summer, late August into late September, my biggest problem is not that the plants aren't healthy it's that they're frequently mismarked so a type of oh say Blackeyed Susan that the tag sayes tops out at 2' actually is another cultivar that tops out at 5' But you can't beat the prices, so I keep shopping when the bargains are out
Happy gardening
Sami

spunky...To learn more of the HVX, hosta virus X, go to the hosta forum and do a search. So much information, but very depressing for hosta lovers. It's getting so that I have not bought a hosta from a nursery in two years. Except from hallston gardens, where the owner is something like a virus expert. He does his best to keep his hostas free of viruses. I've heard nothing but good things about his nursery. I placed my order a few weeks ago, but asked for a mid August delivery date, due to our heat and vacation.

Sami, good point. My worst mistake like that was buying a dozen holly for a privacy screen, labelled as a 12' variety, that won't get above 3' - I've had them for more than 10 years now and they're not getting any taller.

Never mind rudbeckia labelled as the wrong variety, how about shrubs labelled as perennials and small trees labelled as annuals. You really have to know what you're buying, anywhere, but especially at the box stores. Of course those errors can work to your advantage if you know what you're buying.