Whether they are a bargain or not will remain to be seen. Once upon a time, like 30 years ago, I might have been tempted by a "steal" like that, but no more. Experience IS really the best teacher.

Yes, I bought a half price Heaven on Earth at Lowe's earlier this year. It was covered with bs and looked awful, but I fed it and sprayed it a few times and now it has lots of healthy new leaves and has had some gorgeous blooms. I buy marked down plants pretty often ( not roses) and most of them recover and do well. I think I saw some nearly dead minis at Lowes but unlike yours they didn't have much to recover with. I bought a beautiful supermarket mini and divided it into four or five plants. Lowes has been getting rid of a lot of plants this year due to the heat and drought...I guess people aren't planting much and the plants they have have suffered. After the Easter freeze there was also a ton of damaged plants..I bought a bunch...and most of them also did fine.
Hope yours does well,
Linda

YES....I have done the same thing myself, plenty of times. One year Home Depot had a bunch of own-root Austins who were beyond pitiful and near death, marked down to 2.50 apiece, so I snatched up a few. People must of thought I knew nothing about roses, as they stared at my sad purchases. I had faith in my "green thumb" and with some severe pruning, re-planting and alfalfa tea cocktails, they grew leaves, bloomed and prospered.

I also saved a Charles de Mills from Home Depot which was marked as Belle de Crecy and nearly leafless. The pot was bone dry and if it weren't for the green canes, the rose appeared dead. I grow a lot of gallicas, so I know they are tough. I took it home, gave it lots of TLC, and in its second year it looked like this in June......

{{gwi:336341}}

So, enjoy your purchase....sometimes its fun to take a chance!

Celeste

Yep, been there done that, and no regrets.

If you know what you're doing, and have no expectations, why not?

I don't recommend it for beginners but Hoov I know you're no beginner.

You have to know how to judge the condition of the plant, whether it's revivable, what it'll need, what you're willing to do, how disappointed you'll be if it dies anyway.

I've bought $2 roses before, sure, and I'd do it again! Enjoy your rose!

Wow Celeste, gorgeous. Good eye!

I bought three plants of Radio Times, @ $2. each, because I thought the name sounded like a name David Austin would use. My plants grew and thrived, and are now among my favorite roses. Radio Times is indeed an Austin introduction, hailed by it's fans as one of his best, and virtually unobtainable in the USA.

Yep, all the time. I'm a sucker for a bargain. Sometimes they make it and sometimes they don't. But like you said, that's less than a soda or a cup of joe. I have a gorgeous Peace and an equally gorgeous Blue Girl that both came as leafless unlabeled sticks from K-Mart years ago (like at least 10). The Peace has won ribbons at our local flower show.

Celestial- that's a stunner! Great shopping!
Lowe's here takes very poor care of their plants. They got a shipment of Harvest Moon coneflowers in this summer and in 2 wks the poor things looked terrible! I felt so sorry for them. Just total lack of water. But that is just one example. Not only the drought was tough on the plants here, there was a windstorm early in the summer and it really damaged the ones at Lowe's. I've bought quite a few of the reduced ones (no roses though- mostly they don't sell any I would be interested in). Amazingly, a few were actually in good shape. (People don't realize how long it takes to actually water a potted plant, as opposed to just spraying water on the foliage.) Well, couldn't resist putting in my 2 cents. Brandy

Our Lowe's only has HT's so I usually can't find any bargains.

Carla