I bought a full price bag earlier. My Sam's was sold out long ago. I also love the caladium mix by this same company. Caution, the glads by them that I bought 2 years ago were virus ridden. Not just mine, a friend had the same experience.

Everything that's sold Wal-Mart is tracked by the home office. There are some markdowns that every store receives. Almost every month each store get a certain amount of in-store markdown money. The store manager decides how this money is best spent. If there's holiday coming up that department almost always gets the money. The Assistant Manager over that department then decides which items they will mark down, usually based on sales. Almost a decade in management for Wal-Mart before I got enough sense to get away. I finally found something I love, teaching!!! I can almost pinpoint exactly to the day what will be marked down. That's when I go shopping.

Well, to my surprise some more of those home depot bare roots bloomed this year for the first time. No idea what they are but here are some pics from this year and the blooms are better than last year. Just wish I could find another deal like this one again. First year blooming of this one and I just love it. second year bloom First year bloom of this one Second year bloom on this one. Beautiful large goldish yellow flower and very tall. second year blooming on this one. Very tall and large flower, lots and lots of buds, and colors much more vivid this year. This beauty is more salmon pink than the pic shows. huge flower with tons of blooms, second year bloom and it just keeps on blooming. The other daylily is in the pic is siloam bo peep. (I think that's how you spell it.) First year bloom of this one and I know it is Catherine Woodbury as it is identical to the one my mother had that we transplanted from her garden after she passed away a few years ago. A beautiful daylily and changes color shade from a pinkish color to a lavender color depending on the amount of sunlight it is getting when you look at it. On cloudy days it is more lavender color, the same in the early morning and late in the day. Not bad results for 25 cents and hopes that some of the bare roots would grow. Would love to know if anyone can identify them.

With Black Friday, I thought this was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about all the pricing games retailers played to get customers to buy: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304281004579217863262940166 "retail-industry veterans acknowledge..those bargains will be a carefully engineered illusion. The common assumption is that retailers stock up on goods and then mark down the ones that don't sell, taking a hit to their profits. But that isn't typically how it plays out. Instead, big retailers work backward with their suppliers to set starting prices that, after all the markdowns, will yield the profit margins they want." And, even as the discount customers increased significantly over a decade, the profit margins on the items, even with increased discount, didn't really change for the stores.