I'd love to hear which zone pushing conifer you attempted in southern Ontario that a garden centre was foolish enough to apply their warranty to.

It's also disheartening to hear that you would consider the notoriously poor quality stock that big box stores sell in order to get a no questions asked 1 year warranty.

The desire for a 'sure thing' with iron clad warranties is one reason why it is so difficult to get anything even remotely interesting southern Ontario. Everyone sells emerald cedars, flowering crabs, and bridal wreath spireas because they're hardy north to Timmins.

I am half a zone colder than you, Smivies. Even 'real' nurseries here don't grow their own stuff, they buy them from growers, just like big box stores here do. True, 'real' nurseries as a rule have more knowledgable staff that take better care of the stock, but the underlying quality is determined by the supplier/grower. With regard to conifers, if you buy them from a big box store within a week of arrival, I don't see much difference in quality.

Selection is different matter. I believe that no market can truly cater to collectors of any kind (horticultural or otherwise) unless you are willing to pay premium prices for merchandise without (fully supported) warranty.

But if a warranty is offered, then that should be honored, no? And not hide behind - essentially - it is not dead yet, only disfigured?

Would still like to know what conifer failed on you.

Hinoki Cypress on a 50 cm standard, planted in a semi-sheltered location in a corner of a fenced backyard, the (board-on-board) fences face NW and NE, planting site 2m from each of the fences, planted on a 30 cm mound of top soil with a rain catch basin, lightly mulched with pine chips, about 6 to 7 hours sun in the growing season.

The vendor does offer the item for sale again for this season (as it did for past seasons) but I won't try again, not inclined to go beyond the precautionary measures mentioned in the previous paragraph. But if the vendor honours the warranty, then I am quite willing to spend the money or voucher on site, merchandise is actually quite good.

Returning to the original purpose of this thread, any warranty stories to share?

That's a shame...C. obtusa (the species) grows well at the Arboretum in Ottawa. Sounds like you have a nana gracilis if it's a grafted standard?

As for warranty stories, I returned Pieris japonica 'Mountain Fire' to Loblaws after it failed during it's first winter about 15 years ago. They were great about it.

I haven't claimed a warranty since...everything that has died has had an assignable cause (borderline winter hardiness, ignored a plant during drought, pest damage I didn't do anything about). I'm not going to saddle a retailer with failures I know I'm at risk for regardless of their warranty. I guess the caveat would be if I found myself dealing with a 'difficult' retailer...then I may get a bit vindictive.

I seldom return plants, but I'd be more inclined to do so if it was purchased from a big box store. The last plants I returned were five Juniperus chinensis 'Blue Point' purchased from Menard's, all of which failed following their first winter about five years ago.

I try to buy roughly 2/3 of annual plant purchases form nurseries & garden centers, with the balance from big box stores (i.e. Lowes, Menards, etc.). The plants I tend to purchase from the box stores are commonly available and should be fully hardy for our region, while those from nurseries/garden centers would tend to be less common and/or marginally hardy.

Pushing the hardiness envelope is a risk I accept and I don't like to punish a small business operator for my peculiar hobby.

One could read the last several posts as 'big box stores are the best places to shop for the average home owner'. Where do you shop for groceries?

It's the online or special order stuff that I want a warranty for as you can't inspect the plant for inherent issues.

It's rare I'd need to exercise a warranty for local stock even if was brought in for stock.

at the end of the day you pay for a warranty so I would never hesitate to get a replacement.

“One could read the last several posts as 'big box stores are the best place to shop for the average home owner'.”

1. I suppose you could look at it that way, but it’s not how I see it. I apologize if I did not make myself clear, but the large chain retailers tend to carry stock with tried and true hardiness & durability. It may not always inspire, especially if you suffer from collection disease, but if well grown and properly sited these plants can make for a nice garden. In some cases, like parts of our garden (planted by me), preoccupation with the perceived “rare” plant is intoxicating, but often doesn’t make for the most healthy or beautiful garden.

That sounds like a case in point of how a big box store caters to a non-collector shopping for his garden, i.e. the same way he shops for his fridge :-)

I would agree that box stores tend to sell tried and true, but would not say they always sell zone appropriate material. Too often up here I see Buddliea, Knockout Roses, evergreen holly etc stocked in the shrub section. It's gotten better since the state started forcing stores to label non-hardy material as such but some of it still comes in.

I rarely return material unless I get I it home and there is definitely something concerning. I don't expect every plant to make it, even those proven hardy for my area. Either I mess up the watering or, for whatever reason, the occasional plant doesn't survive the first winter.

I believe the big box stores primarily consider cost/sale price and consumer preference. Breaking that down, easy/cheap to propagate, fully developed production lines, recognizable varieties, and showy varieties. Reliability/hardiness factors into the recognizable category.

I've got a lovely 6' tall & wide Abeliophyllum distichum in full white splendor right now...doing better after this winter than any of the local yellow forsythia. Good luck finding that at a big box store.

Ditto for my 8' Abelia mosanensis...much nicer IMHO than bridal wreath spirea which resides in the same general landscaping niche.

So yes, big box store nurseries are the large grocery stores of the gardening industry. I often frequent specialty nurseries as I do farmer's markets and various specialty food shops & bakeries.

Another cautionary note about big box stores as a source for woody plants: most of the damage is done at the grower. However, retailers that are not plant-savvy don't maintain their stock. The worst root-bound conifer that I ever purchased was from a specialty nursery that did not do much business in conifers. When I went back and showed them, they allowed as how they had had that plant for a couple of years and never up-potted it. They were embarrassed (I didn't ask for my money back as I really wanted the plant; I repotted it after ripping the roots, as I couldn't plant it in the ground since it was summer, it lived and ultimately flourished).

I can't even imagine how big box stores maintain their stock. Or don't.

Wonder if the above outlets provide a warranty for nursery goods as they do for their other merchandise.

Suppliers have been doing this for years at grocery stores (if you go to one of the 24 hour supermarkets at an odd hour, you will see the suppliers all stocking the shelves.) But I suspect that with plants at big box stores this is more random, but I don't know. I do think that there is, as Ron noted above, an inconsistency among what a particular chain store carries. Some seem to just order a 'load of plants' and have no idea what they have. We have had two instances around here, both, as it happens HD, of the particular store having a good nursery manager, with really desirable stock. We all flocked to the HD in Corte Madera for a while, where we could find cultivars that other nurseries around here didn't carry. Then one day it all changed and when we asked what was going on, turned out that they had a new nursery manager. When I say 'we all', I am referring to plant nerds, and maybe there weren't enough of us to move the cool stuff. Or else the manager just decided to move on.