I noticed our Home Depot's garden dept. going downhill about 2 yrs. ago. I attribute it to online sales.
Perrenials previously sold in smaller pots now in decorative gal. size pots with a hefty price tag. 6-pacs became 8-pacs with a good price jump and less variety offered. (no lobelia !). Little chrysanthemum choices in the fall and fewer bare root roses (1/3 or less than in previous years.) They've increased their selection of vegetables in 4-inch pots.

My DH used to paraphrase HD's old slogan as, "Home Depot, low prices are just IN the beginning."

I've seen it in smaller towns where once the local competition is run out of business by the lower prices, then the prices go up. And why should they bother with stocking the lesser used items? They're not in business for their customer's sake, they're in business for their stock holders stake.

Shop local owned if you can. The few dollars you save at the big box stores become very expensive in the long run.

I had an interesting experience the other day. I've been buying cedar mulch from a local independent garden center for 9.99 a 2 ft cubic bag. Happened to be in one of the big-box stores mentioned above, and saw what I thought was the same stuff (it was the same product label and amount) for $5.99 a bag. Bought it, came home, and discovered there was half the amount of mulch in the big box bag as in the garden center bag. No wonder it was cheaper.

Not too surprised. HD makes deals with manufacturers for a similar item they sell to other retailers, but to get that lower price the ones they sell to HD will be just enough lower quality to be able to price it cheaper, but not so much that the average shopper will notice. It's in their contracts with HD. You are obviously NOT the average shopper! Good catch!

I saw redwood planters at OSH last night. I did not inspect them, I suppose they could be cedar. They looked just like the old style we are all used to.

I'm annoyed that I cannot get Steer Manure anywhere any longer....just Manure 'Blend'. When I asked at HD, I was told by the clerk that I would have to go inland "where there are more cows......"....LOL...

On plastic pots, I too noticed that HD appeared to be discontinuing the sale of larger nursery type pots. Over the weekend I was in a hydroponic supply store and I found a large variety of sturdy black plastic nursery pots, and pots that could be used for orchids at a significant discount to what I used to pay at HD. Worth looking into.

wcgypsy, do you have a Lowe's nearby? In my area, (south OC) the Lowe's still has the steer manure; the HD only has the blend.

hahahahaha...Lowe's is 100 miles away in Medford, don't know if there is one in Grant's Pass, 15 miles closer. The nearest really good nursery is Miller's in McKinleyville, 85 miles away down by Eureka where kristin-carol is lucky enough to be able to go nursery shopping. Costco is in Eureka...I've let my many, many years' old Costco card go. Round Table is in Eureka. Panda Express and Quizno's are in Medford. We have a WalMart and HD here. Fortunately, if you're old enough to be retired, you already have everything you need and you brought it with you.

Trader Joe's...oh my...Trader Joe's...sigh, it's also in Medford.

Unless you have a pick-up, that would be a long way to drive with steer manure as a passenger. ;)

hehehe we usually take the flatbed or box trailer with the jeep...the main problem is that if we go out of town for stuff, I want to get EVERYTHING while I'm there. We told ourselves that we would not get in the habit of going for stuff all the time. You know, if you're at a nursery and you see stuff you want, you can't just know that you can go back and get it next week....if you see something you want, you'd best get it all 'cuz you might not see it again...so then I want to get it ALL...and I want to eat at several places while I'm there....I stopped loading up at Costco because I just don't have that much storage room. The garage is filled as a shop. Men can get really snarky about not getting supplies around here...LOl. We will have to see about an out of town source for steel, etc.....

I don't know why this should be an issue, really....our usual weekend runs used to be from Fallbrook up the coast on PCH to Long Beach...and it is a beautiful drive from here to either Eureka or Medford.....

I noticed home depot has started selling plants in expensive gallon size. Many of the plants are finished flowering. Charging 20 bucks for an annual. Its outrageous. We use to get five six packs for that.

I still go to my old neighborhood nursery. They say growers are being forced out of business.

We can all start supporting small growers and nursery. They may have to charge a dollar more but they'll never switch to selling annuals for 20 bucks each.

Another weird thing I've noticed at my Lowe's. They're selling what look to be 2.5 gallon citrus but when you look closely there are three plants in the pot, probably 3 rooted cuttings, instead of one healthy, grafted tree. I have no clue what market this is supposed to address, the people who want to grow potted citrus in a hanging basket?

It's for the impulse buyer market who thinks it would be cool to grow their own citrus but doesn't want to pay a lot.

Three cuttings in a pot make for a lush "healthy" looking plant very quickly and for very little money for the grower and store.

Then the customer thinks they're just bad at growing things when it dies several months later from overcrowding.

The big box stores don't give a rat's azz about future sales from properly educated gardeners. They are looking for the quick buck.

Kentc, Do you remember the grower or brand it was?

I don't remember ever seeing $20 1 gal. annuals at any of our many Home Depot stores, so I'm curious. Do you remember what they were, Wild Haired Mavens? Were they rare, new introductions? Most of the HD items here are priced rather low, even though the quality can run the scale.

I purchase the vast majority of my plants from several nice nurseries that are nearby, although they would not be what I would consider small. Occasionally the big boxers can surprise with a shipment of nice hard-to-find items. For instance, I grabbed a wooly blue curls a few weeks ago.

I don't remember, the next time I'm there I'll look at the tags. Like gyr, I sometimes find some surprising plants tucked away on the shelves at Lowe's, so I generally walk through the aisles when I'm there and inspect everything. Last spring I found a chaste tree, vitex agnus-castus. It was tagged as a smaller growing variety, I'd have to search through my files to find the name. I bought it and it's now leafing out and growing. I'll see how big it gets.

I'm used to being in SoCal with a lot of really good nurseries within range...and now, in Crescent City...I have HD and one small other nursery that does not get anything that really interests me....and HD also does get occasionally things that surprise me. I grabbed a 5 gallon brunfelsia / Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow there. I did not expect that...they also regularly carry cistus, though just a few varieties and I've found some good grasses there also. In SoCal / Temecula area, Lowe's used to have some unexpected good surprises there also.

My Chaste Trees are just now leafing out up here also.

My home depot had 1 gallon pineapple in fruit for $20. They had gomprera in the one gallon for 16.99 plus tax it's 20 bucks. Neither of these are rare here.

The pineapple plant has a small fruit because they forced it before the plant is big enough to support a decent pineapple and all bromiliads die after fruiting.

We treat gomprera as an annual For $20. California verbena was $22 plus tax. Again its often treated as a annual. Lavender French is $20. The only thing rare is the hard earned $20.

Reference point my local nusery still offers a four inch for 4-6 dollars. The local nursery has been saling rare 4 inch pots for 4-6 bucks for over twenty years. The owners son now works there.

Most of our mom and pop nursery went out of business cause they couldn't sell six for 2.5. They could make a handsome profit at $4. If people would have continued to shop local we would still be able to afford a flower garden.

Home depot use to offer six packs of gomprera in flower for $2.5 on sale, now that they ran everyone out of business with fake low prices now they want $20. They're advertising all the overpriced plants as rare. They are still common at the local nursery

Most things are in gallon size. Recently saw a herb garden in a pot for $20 it's $10 at trader joes.

Other things like one gallon marigolds for $10, they go on sale for $6. The six pack choices are getting smaller, all the fun annuals are gallon size. They are mostly finished at purchase so you have to buy more next month.

i get three cubic feet of organic soil for $10, and they still offer a seed starter for $5 (all the others are $20). One cubic foot of miracle grow is $10. So the writings on the wall.

They use to have an annual seed sale, clearance plants, and Friday garden sales. It's all gone.

This happened to local paint stores long ago. We use to have stanleys paint $10 gallon and great service. when hd artificially lowered prices to kill the competition. Now berr paint at hd is $20. Kmart has always sold $5 gallon of paint and they still do.

Also I picked up those overcrowded trees at Lowe's for $15. I gave away a lot of them. They shoved a lot of rooted cutting in a pot. If you have room for six trees it's great. But if you think it's one nice size plant it's a let down when you attempt to plant that cutting and find out it's too small to go in the garden this year.

Hmmm...interesting. We've thought that the HD here is higher priced than HD's elsewhere, but....in comparison to your prices, I think the prices here may be lower. It's the same issue as with other big box stores against smaller businesses. I wanted dodonea purpureas...HD had them, but only 5 5-gallon in stock @$20. I got the 5 and waited for them to get more (didn't happen, so I did pick up some one gallons later to fill in spaces). The new nursery in Brookings got the 5 gallon dodoneas...but...straight off the Monrovia truck @$40 for 5 gallon. Much as I would like to support the new, smaller business, I'm retired and retirement does NOT pay well.

Thanks for filling in the details--it helps me understand what is going on outside my little corner. The stiff competition here must keep the prices much, much lower. I couldn't, and wouldn't, pay those outrageous prices. Even mail-order would be less expensive, and it really has to be something I want and cannot get anywhere else to go that route. Or I'd be planning weekend drives to distant nurseries to stock up on plants.

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Monrovia--ugh. I like their broad inventory; hate their prices and inaccurate information. They are hurting financially though, so I hope they don't bite the dust. Our neighbor's dodoneas reseed all over our yard and the pulling of the resulting seedlings is an unwelcome task. I would happily pay $40...if the neighbors would allow me to yank them out!

I like the dodoneas for their rapid growth. We're not used to having close neighbors and on this property, we have a house close next door and the dodoneas are useful in that situation...I'm 69 years old, I want that house to be camouflaged before I die....LOL..I like plants that reseed if they're useful and I like a wild, naturalized look so it's okay with me. The previous property was getting established enough to be inviting a lot of naturalizing......eucalyptus citriodora, dodoneas, echiums, rhus, myoporum, the romneya had spread like crazy, etc and all were useful to me...the only thing I had an issue with was a large Mother Ash just across our property line.....I did let 6-7 grow to height and they were beautiful, but geez, the constant weeding of the seedlings. I cursed that tree a lot until one morning I saw lots of little birds eating the seeds......

oh yes...long drives for nursery runs...my two best friends and I would load up with a picnic lunch and head for Mary Lou's up on Edwards and the 405, or Chris Wotruba's Perennial Adventure down in La Mesa / Mt Helix...miss those days. Really, 85 miles from here to McKinleyville to hit the excellent Miller's nursery is not so bad if I just didn't spend every penny once I got there.....

Situations in which fast growing dodoneas are useful.....there are 5 larger dodoneas, interspersed with smaller dodoneas, buddleja, azara microphylla, several NOID Aussies and a hawthorn in the rear corner. Bed in front of the dodoneas, still having sod dug out, filled with mixes of cistus, prostanthera, perovskia, etc

I can believe that might be true about using cheap soil mixes, but I've had no problems with plants bought from HD in the last two years here...one gallon or five, they've done fine. I'm sowing a lot of seed also, but that's because I don't have the selection here to choose from.

I had a chance to look at those citrus at Lowe's today. The tag is the same one that is on all Lowe's citrus, a Lowe's tag. I didn't see any other indication of who the grower is. I was remembering wrong about the pot size. It is an octagonal plastic pot with a faux metallic finish and it is only 3.5 liters. There is no graft line on any of the stems, just rooted cuttings, $18.95.

Kentc, I know of the octagonal pots you are talking about. I've bought several before and they come in different varieties. If I remember correctly, it is from a wholesaler in Nipomo.

The ones I've got are grafted varieties though and include Fukushu Kumquat. But there could an explanation for what you saw. Perhaps they are Meyer Lemons which are easily rooted. Perhaps they are flukes that made it through to the store when they should not have. It's possible the grafts failed and the understock is throwing out shoots from below the soil line. Or maybe the graft is just really low. I think these are marketed as dwarf citrus trees.

Edit: I think the wholesaler is actually Duarte Citrus. Sometimes it has both the Lowes and DC tag.

Wild Hare Mavens,
Are those pineapple sold as a full-sized fruiting cultivar? Or is it an ornamental houseplant in a semi-fancy pot? Usually, I see small ones in the greenhouse/indoors section. These are actually a small-fruit pineapple cultivar and are sold as a curiosity more than an edible plant.

Most of those citrus potted up with several ones are Meyers and sometimes Key limes. Both are really easy to grow from cuttings and when done this way are not grafted. It's done on purpose and are not flukes.

They show up in the stores during the spring rush and are usually in 1-gallon or 8" pots. They're not from Duarte, which is a good company that sells nice grafted citrus. I think it's just a side product of another company.

Citrus will do OK on their own roots if kept in a pot always, but not with 3-5 cuttings in a pot. They need to be separated and planted each in their own pot. But then you have 3 to 5 baby trees to take care of.

No, these are not flukes, there are more than a dozen of them, all the same. 3 non grafted shoots planted in a triangle in each one. They are citrus for the masses, kind of like the mini roses you see for sale in the supermarket, bushy, lush, but when you look carefully you see that the pot has 3-6 tiny rooted cuttings to give it the lush look.

btw- In not finding large cheap pots I did buy 20 gallon rubbermaid for $15. Only because this particular plant's "bottom" would be behind driftwood. The fronds of the tree fern would be the only thing people see.

Now,for decorative uses? not.

Ridiculous that its the best HD and Lowes could offer.

I have had good results with the "Smart Planet" line of plants at Home Depot. These are drought tolerant, fairly uncommon plants in 2 gallon containers. Plants that I have are Pride of Madeira (echium candicans), euphorbias, mexican marigold, penstemons, kangaroo paw and a few others I don't remember. The plants are all healthy and not root bound (unlike all of the other plants at HD)

Our local HDs have 1.5-2 gal "Smart Plants" that generally cost between $12-19 for most items. Most are less pot bound, but often they are in a peat mix that retains too much moisture and is not ideal for the plant. If I am buying these from HD, I like to buy them as close to the delivery day as possible, because HD doesn't always care for them as they should (too much water or shade). I pick and choose which ones to buy--sometimes it is more cost effective to buy an undersized one gal. plant elsewhere, or the same item can be found in a 5 gal. for the same cost. But I do appreciate the more difficult-to-find "Smart Plant" offerings--they are usually much healthier than the forgotten ones I sometimes dig out of the back (overflow) lots of most nurseries.

I've been on the Orchid lookout...and it seems like HD has really dropped variety for mostly Moth orchids and Moths painted iridescent colors!...add insult to injury.

I was at HD this morning and saw a variation on the 3 citrus trees in the decorative pot. They had the same small plants in a triangle but it was 3 dragon trees, dracaena draco.

stanofh, you have yet to see the faux moth orchids mixed in, in plastic and all. I kid you not, I thought it was just my eyes, because who would have thought of such a cruel joke. See the HD in Alhambra for those that don't believe me.

Fake plants among the real? Oh, that is so bad. Oddly enough, I have no problem believing HD would do that. I think the pastel-painted cacti and succulents are the worst though. They even paint the haworthias now. Who buys those things???

Lol, I just bought the three lemons in a Container. They have been in Lowe's for a year and are bearing fruit. Usually, if I dont get plants fresh off the truck they look yucky. This plant is bullet proof.

Why do you all keep shopping at HD? Btw, my Walmart has steer manure and today I saw a Cistus there. I really want to add more Cistus but I am trying to keep to a policy of not buying anything unless I know exactly where I am going to plant it.

@emmarene "exactly where I am going to plant it".....wait, please, I can't stop laughing......

Cistus are just the absolute best...love cistus.

Just thinking that I'm going to WM and pick up some potting soil, will check on whether or not they have steer manure....in hopes.

I use a lot of nassella tenuissima / Mexican Feather Grass and yes, I do get a lot of seedlings to use elsewhere. I do think I've reached the point of being able to just weed them now, have potted maybe 100 in the last several weeks. I think of them the same as anything else that reseeds a lot, I would rather weed the seedlings than do without the plant. Since I'd last read that HD and Armstrong nurseries had "vowed" not to sell the plant due to its invasiveness, I noticed last week that WM must see potential there as they are now selling it....LOL...

I found only the 'Manure Blend' just now at our Crescent City WM...sigh...I bought it once a couple of years ago, thought it was garbage...

Emarene, Wal-Mart is going out of business in Los Angeles. I use to be able to walk there but three stores have closed in a year. We don't find out the stores out if business until we drive all the way there, so forget about that.

We have Sears, and HD within walking distance. So now I go to Sears. Target, Lowe's and Kmart are close too.

It's true, a bunch of the smaller WMs are shutting down across the country. Ours will stay open because there is so little else here...WM and HD are main suppliers here.