I wish I would have said something, but I doubt it would do anything. They are a grocery store after all. They also sell painted echeverias (which are very popular here for some reason) so I doubt they really would take my concerns to heart.

Sigh.

How about the fake flowers on a short wire that they stick into cacti to make customers think they're in bloom? And recently I'm seeing cacti and succulents spray-painted red, blue, green etc. Wholesalers will do anything to make a dime.

Russ

Even worse is when those straw flowers are glued on! I can't believe people buy those. Some of the cacti sold here have glued on googly eyes. I admit they are pretty amsuing.

I have seen the flowers glued on, I'm no tree hugger but in my opinion these sales tactics by wholesalers at the expense of something living is bizarre to me. I'd never buy any of these plants, if they weren't able to sell them they'd drop the idea.

I recently saw some Echeveria painted in Homedepot. I don't know how they could survive like that.

Me either. As long as some of the plant was spared from the paint it will probably be okay, at least in the short term. Maybe the paint is water-based and will wash off with a few waterings, but as long as the paint remains it blocks photosynthesis and plugs stomatas the leaf needs for transpiration. I guess these are considered throw-away plants, bizarrely 'pretty' for as long as they can survive.

I have a friend who used to sell wine to grocery stores (among other clients). He taught me to always tell management when I wanted something they didn't stock ("I'm looking for your YellowTail wine but can't seem to find it" for example);. He also said store management cares what customers have to say and they often have significant decision-making over what to order for their particular store. So when you see these travesties, please take the time to speak up. Even if the store manager does nothing to fix the problem, at least you'll feel better for having done your part. Thank you for reading my rant, lol.

Hint:. I have found the visual impact of leaving a full cart of groceries in the manager's hands as you walk out empty-handed because you are so upset/disappointed about the issue garners his/her full attention.

I was at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Saturday & am horrified to report that on sale in their gift shop are the braided Sans. cylindricas.

Short, maybe 6" tall, a 3-strand braid, selling for $8.99 each. Several of the pots had a single stray pup coming up at the side of the pot. Sales person said these are supplied by an outside vendor, not grown by the BBG greenhouses. They must have had 2 flats of at least 10-12 each. So sad, I was sort of embarrassed, even if only to myself.

If you know what parts were painted green. It may still be a valuable plant. I would take the paint into consideration but if price is right and it is mostly yellow, Can't go wrong. If painted yellow in the leaves, that another problem altogether. There are ways to induce variegation into plants now and it is easily done. I don't know how. Maybe use of gamma rays in Caesium-137. I had some where I worked but no way to get to it. They could put variegation into any plant on the market now. I don't think it stays that way thru the pups later produced. One side maybe but not the other side.

I'm pretty sure many years ago Juan Chahinian was working with chemical exposure on sansevierias to produce variegated forms. Not sure which chemicals, but I imagine most of them are carcinogenic which I wouldn't have wanted to handle. It seemed that as soon as a new sans was discovered, it wasn't too long before there appeared variegates of it.

Russ

I purchased an unbraided Sans. cylindrica at Home Depot with painted tips on the four plants in a pot with no drainage hole. I bought yellow, but a few other primary colors were also available. I hadn't seen the cylindrica locally, so I bought it. Over the past few months the plants have pupped and the yellow eventually peeled off the parent plants. The paint did seem to harm the plant tips, where the paint was previously. But it did allow me the opportunity to add this variety to the family.

Only if the price is right and I don't own a S. cylindrical. Knowing those are only stems and new pups will arise in time.

What will they think of next!? Those pots would actually be a pretty good buy since you'd get lots of new plants from them.

unfortunately.. since they are so slow growing, you would have to live with those velvet tips for a long time! Its too bad because nearly all S. cylindrical are sold this way here. Or braided..

I have seen this sort thing. The worst is at the local Lowes. They have small cacti which are spray painted and have paper flowers glued to the tops. Makes ya wanna barf...

How sick.

Eeew. Hideous.

I purchased a Whitney at Home Depot last year (may be two) which had some type of glow-in-the-dark sprayed on the leaves. I didn't have a Whitney at the time so I bought it. The sprayed leaves never produced any new leaves. However, the plant did pup. And just this week I re-potted, throwing away the sprayed leaves, and repotted the pups. It took over a year, but today I have a nice Whitney to go with the Eve.

Good for you Jaye, great strategy to get a paint-free Whitney. I'm not sure what you'd get if you had propagated those painted leaves, probably trifasciata Robusta since Whitney is a Futura-sized sans.

Russ

Russ1023, I don't think the leaves would have propagated. The sprayed leaves never grew at all. Within the last couple of weeks some of the sprayed leaves started to show signs of rotting. Which is what precipitated my re-potting the pups.

Hi Jaye,

I wondered about the leaves being painted, if it covered the leaf completely then obviously it wouldn't live if cut from the parent plant. I suppose the paint was oil-based and wouldn't wash off with some light scrubbing under a faucet. I'm a propagation-junky so most folks wouldn't go to the trouble of all that, but if there's a way to propagate, I find it, especially if it would yield a plant I don't have.

Russ