this is my understanding ...

bigbox decided they want 10000 plants ... and puts orders in from probably multiple growers..

then they order 10k labels ...

two year later when performance of the contract comes.. growers gather up 10 k potted red weigelas .. the key.. red leafed ... and stick in whatever label bigbox provided ...

10k plants are delivered ... money paid on performance ...

no on is really concerned if the plant is properly named if its a red W ... its a hardware store .. not the royal botanical gardens ...

one of the biggest games in the hosta world.. is shopping bigbox.. looking for rare hosta in with the masses ... this logic fits why they show up ... its a hosta ...

my first coffee hasnt fully set in.. hope this makes some kind of sense ...

ken

Thanks for the responses; I get it now. @ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 lol botanical gardens. Years ago before I learned about gardening, I bought what I thought was red prince and once it bloomed the flowers were pink...hummm. now I know why : 0

Actually I have been told by growers that they purposely send unlabeled plants to big box stores when they are selling the plants at a greatly reduced price. That way their other retail customers are not as likely to be undercut. This is apparently especially true of Japanese maples. The idea being that if you want to take your chance, you buy a discounted plant at a big box store. If you want to be sure of a specific cultivar, you buy at a specialty nursery.

sara .. i think that fits with my theory ...

BBStore.. you want 1000 maples.. here are your 1000 maples ... tag them any way you want ...

and again.. if you are shopping the BBS hardware store.. how legit is it to complain it isnt what you wanted.. because apparently you dnt really care what you want.. as long as its a maple tree ...

also note.. its a good way for growers to recover costs on overstocks or un named plants ... and hopefully profit.. so they stay in biz.. to sell us who know what we want ... want we want.. the not so profitable side of growing ....

ken

oh.. another label story ...

so i visit one of the biggest wholesalers .. with the VP of the MI hosta club.. who happens to run the TC lab there ... wow ...

anyway .. i say.. so this new hosta that was just found 2 years ago ... you put in TC last year ... tissue culture .. and now you are selling one year old plants ... how in the heck do you know what the mature size is going to be.. since no one has ever grown one to maturity ... he laughs and says .. if we know parentage .. say a seedling .. we just average out the parents size ... .. etc ..

SO BASICALLY THEY JUST MAKE IT UP ... LOL .. and then print 10000 labels to stick in the pots.. and good luck to the buyer.. lol ...

after this ... i decided just about the only good info on a tag.. is usually the latin name.. if they were nice enough to provide that.. and then its on me to figure it out from there ...

and lets be honest.. who is going to complain.. if you end up growing twice as big as the label said.. youre going to be walking around sticking out your chest at your gardening prowess .. lol... stopping peeps in teh street bragging.. etc ...

ken

Learn something everyday; It seems like the label has value in other ways except for the print on the label...lol. The ironic part is those who know little about this “oh honey, this one looks pretty” rely on the label which at best is subjective if it’s tagged correctly.

Growers are responsible for labeling the containers before they ship to the retailer. Most often mislabeled plants are the result of a mistake. Tagging will often takes place in the winter or early spring when many plants are dormant and hard to identify. In addition, the people doing the work are often seasonal employees that are not plant ID savvy, and may not be proficient in English. While this is the most likely reason, I have experienced some unethical growers that will falsely tag plants, bulbs etc., because they are sold out or discontinued an item, but still want to make the sale. Box store garden centers are less likely to notice the switch, but even knowledgeable retailers can be drooped. For example, I have been told that if you order King Alfred daffodils you will, in all likelihood, get some other large flowered variety substituted without your knowledge. Generally, I would attribute most cases of mislabeled plants to human error, as opposed to intentional deception.

Growers are responsible for labeling the containers before they ship to the retailer. Most often mislabeled plants are the result of a mistake. Tagging will often takes place in the winter or early spring when many plants are dormant and hard to identify. In addition, the people doing the work are often seasonal employees that are not plant ID savvy, and may not be proficient in English

Yes: I've never seen box store employees working garden center departments hanging labels on plants. I have seen box stores renting shelf space to plant suppliers, who then sent their own employees to stock and even water.

“...stopping peeps in teh street bragging.. etc ...”

Ken, I’ve never tried that, but something tells me it wouldn’t end well.

I recently had an "experience" at a local Home Depot. I was looking for a particular purple heuchie. The heuchies they had from Monrovia all had proper I.D. tags. But the Vigoro plants (Vigoro is now a Home Depot brand) had NO I.D. tags whatsoever, other than informing you that the plant was a heuchie. Duh! I ended up buying a purple heuchie online. Still trying to find another Terranova Little Cutie called "Frost".

maak.. you guys dont hang out on street corners at night.. bragging about your plants???

ken

From a big box store anything is possible.