Good stuff to help that young couple with your garden knwledge

I have done the same several times and it feels good to be of help.

I think there is reason perhaps to sell the plants such as you mentioned, so you can use them as an annual or maybe overwinter them in some possible ways indoors. They do overwinter quite easily in a cool place

Newbies should ALWAYS go to a local nursery for their first plantings. They will learn so much. And they should practice KISS until they learn from experience.

In my zone 5 area, all the big stores try to muscle in on the growing season. For some crazy reason, this year Fleet
Farm had the most healthy and luscious plants around. They must have gotten a new buyer. Plus, every thing was hardy to our zone, or marked as annuals. Our old KMart switched to Sears, and I miss the Martha Stewart brand of flowers.
Pondy

Big chains are funny places. During a "career transition" (company downsized) I applied for seasonal employment at the garden centers of 3 major retail chains. My background is in large scale retail (Director of Customer Service) and I come from a nursery farm family. I didn't even get called for interviews. Eh. I ended up working for a family run nursery and had a blast.