My favorite death row survivor so far this season is these Seaside Serenade® Hamptons Hydrangeas. They were 75% off and were pretty much dead. I took a chance, stuck them in the ground and did nothing really. They have come back more than I could have imagined. I can't wait until they bloom! They need some mulch... Side note, I bought two full price azaleas at the same time and they are not doing so great. It looks like something ate them pretty much to the ground. They have some green but slow going. So, I guess it is a wash really between the four shrubs. hahaha.

I love looking at Lowes death row. I have gotten some nice plants. Most of our garden centers don't have death rows. I guess they would rather throw them away and have you pay full price.

@functionthenlook awww, I'm sad that your local center doesn't have a clearance section. But at least you have Lowe's! They really do have some great ones there. Sometimes I find that they put perfectly fine plants there, it's just that they aren't in full bloom. I guess people don't buy unless they are in full bloom. It's good for a newbie like me. If they die, I don't feel as bad about wasting $$ !!

I haven't bought anything for a long time on death row, mostly because I'm usually looking for something specific rather than just browsing with the chance something might come home with me. But, I do scour fall sales for trees and shrubs -- 75% off a couple-few hundred dollar woody is a nice chunk of change (I scored all my dwarf blue Colorado spruce that way).

@porkchop_z5b_MI its great when it works out like that. I was specifically looking for pink hydrangeas and there they were on fall sale. Great!

I haven't done this much (like mxk I'm usually looking for something specific) but I'm sure I've done some impulse buying this way. My mother, however, used to do most of her buying at the end-of-season sales and was always proud of her resuscitated finds!

Mamaham that wall behind your hydrangea intrigues me. It's lovely. Is that your house, or a wall...?

:)

Dee

Dee. Thank you. It’s my house. It’s real stone but put on as a facade if that makes sense? There are areas which have it as accents at foundation And front porch I want to put in a raised flower bed and match it but I haven’t been able to find anything similar yet.

It's really very beautiful, mamaham. Not sure where you are but here in New England stone walls are everywhere - except on my property lol. The majority of people on my street have them, but I do not. They range from nothing more than rock piles to some that are very... engineered? Not sure of the word I'm looking for. I've always wanted one but it's not in the budget and I've been too afraid to attempt my own. I can't tell you how many times I'l l be driving and see a network of stone walls in the middle of the woods and think, huh, the middle of the woods but not in my front yard....

Thanks!

:)

Dee

Wow, what a nice perk that must have been, GG!

Wow. That is an awesome perk! That would be bad news for me... I keep “rescuing” plants but I really don’t have space for them. My neighbor is selling their house as a tear down and said to come over and get plants out of back Yard. Now I have too many and don’t know what to do with them. Hard to say no to good plants. I need to post some for giveaway!!

"My favorite death row survivor so far this season is these Seaside Serenade® Hamptons Hydrangeas."

Wow, Hydrangeas have gone from Cape May to the Hamptons!? Moving up in the world!

Love the idea of this thread but I admit I seldom buy from the discount bin. (seldom shop local nurseries except the few remaining really excellent ones like Groff's Plant Farm in Lancaster Co. PA) One case where this did happen was seeing a Hebe pinguifolia, of all things, at the Aberdeen, MD* Home Depot of all places, back around fall 2007, deeply discounted and kinda ratty looking from surviving a hot summer on the HD benches. Surely not to its liking. Well it survived, but that was my first taste of "Hebes can possibly grow here". They were definitely on my radar for ages, having seen Peter Seabrook gushing over big showy ones in New Zealand during the old Victory Garden travel segments in the early 1990s. (What I would give to see those again. PBS, learn how to monetize your old content!) Alas, it died in Polar Vortex 1 (2013-2014), not unexpectedly. It was never super vigorous but it did bloom some years. Subsequent attempts to grow bluer, showier ones have failed.

* - a ratty, not upscale suburb of Baltimore! Admittedly I almost bought a house there because it had acreage but glad I didn't. I found somewhere a little less rough around the edges!

I know! Where do they get these names?!?!

I don’t think I have pictures, but I do have a story to share. End of season last year, sometime early fall maybe, passed by a nursery and went straight to their clearance area. They had marked down a bunch of a variety of native tree that I knew was trendy, trendy, like $5 each. All looked somewhat like misshapen twigs in a pot, but I figured that’s more or less how they grow. I bought what I thought were the 5 best ones, planted one in the front and tucked the rest away in the backyard for the winter in their same pots. Pulled them out a few weeks ago as they were beginning to bloom and looking great, sold them for $30 each.

@lalennoxa did you’d find out what tree it was?

@mamaham - serviceberry. The tree was actually labelled at the nursery so it wasn’t like it was unknown :-)

Oh I misunderstood. I thought you bought the twigs without knowing what they were. Lol.

I was able to get to Lowes on Saturday. Got a flat of (40) petite marigolds for $10 and 2 pots of asiatic lilies (3 per pot) for $7 each in death row.

Flats at our local nursery are $ 17 this year.

Function, your store has a death row already??? LOL. Around here it's usually late September. Maybe some death row annuals around July, but most things are much later in the season. Although, honestly, now that I think about it, since the season for everything is pushed so early now, maybe death row appears around early September, to make way for Christmas stuff lol.

Good for you - great score!

:)
Dee

We won't have clearance around here until July-ish. I will usually pick up a few annuals to round out my summer pots. But my Lowes has so many DNRs on the pile, that it takes patience to find something that can be revived. I have snagged some pretty good deals on perennials; roses, peonies, Japanese fringe shrubs......... It's a gamble but a fun gamble.

Wow. Our Lowe’s has death row all year pretty much except maybe the dead of winter. I went last week and my husband made the mistake of sending us down that aisle to look at pavers. It was more than I’ve ever seen before. Pretty much filled the entire aisle (where the pavers are etc). Of course I got distracted and had to be pulled away. Lol.

As soon as something is done blooming, is not perfect, or they only have a few left my Lowes puts them on the clearance carts.

The Lowes I frequent already has clearance plants in abundance. The sales lady said they can’t keep up with all the new stock and are forced to put many on clearance just to make room. She stated they are supposed to get four times as many plants this year and has no idea where they will put them all. It’s a shame as my beds are full now... although I do admit I picked up a handful...

Hmm, interesting.... I guess I usually go to nurseries and garden centers, which I suppose usually take better care of their plants and keep their stock through the season. I think I might have to start taking some monthly strolls through Lowe's lol. Maybe I can find some bargains!

:)
Dee

@functionthenlook same here - some good plants for bargin just because they aren't actively blooming...

My Lowe's doesn't have clearance set up yet either- I go by every Friday morning to pick over the new deliveries before the weekend crowd gets there. Last week it was all Lilies and combo arrangements for Mother's Day, hopefully something good will show up this week.