I have the wave petunias from wally world. they all did fine - except one. I had to change its location (it could have been the shadow of eucalyptus prevented growth). Now it is flowering as expected. I like wally world because they bring new items (similarly for no particular reason discontinue some of my favorite ones). The price is always right. I paid $3.88 for a sixpack of waves. People who take care of plants are not expected to posess skills or knowledge beyond watering the plants (severe memory lapses are tolerated....many plants end up in the garbage bin). So dont expect expert advise....they are not master gardners. They can stock, water, move flats, get you the price and in rare cases help you to load your goodies. Big box stores are not out there to pick your pockets. Knowledgable customer always benifits. There is no hard and fast rule about local, mom & pop or master gardener's product will always be better. Win some, lose some - such is life.

I'm not an astilbe expert, but here's my take on this ... and I assume others may not agree. If the foliage is crisp and brown - really brown, not just brown leaf tips - it's not photosynthesising and can be removed, just to make the plants look tidier. If they're watered, the should produce new foliage. I'd leave any green stems, and just remove the parts that are truly dead. Brown crispy leaves don't generally turn green again, so if the plants are going to grow it will be by starting fresh.

I bought a crispy wave fern probably close to a year ago and I put it right at my window and it grew a ton of new leaves then stopped. Around March it grew 2 more leaves but then stopped again (I’ve since moved it away from the window as it developed a lot of brown spots and I learnt it doesn’t like too much light). I see a lot of little buds that would usually turn into leaves, but none have actually popped up! Any ideas? I was thinking maybe a new pot? But there is about 2.5 inches between the end of the pot and the base of the plant on one side so that seems like decent amount of room to me? Please help!

A pot sitting directly on wood tells me that you have insufficient drainage. Roots sitting in water will rot.