I am sorry to hear that. I went to Lowes today. They were unloading trucks with all kinds of big palms and birds of paradise to put in the outdoor section. Way too soon. It was 19 degrees Saturday night. Still almost a month to go until the “safe” date here. I order most plants online, but picked these two up last week while grocery shopping at Publix. Maybe not of the rare kind, but I like them :)

I agree! Way too early for outside plants! Is that a Moonshine or Prince of Orange? Nice plants!

Yes! Very far. My only option is the big box stores, unfortunately.

My only option is the big box stores

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at some point ... your only option will be mail order .. and why isnt that an option???

that said.. the hunt is half the fun.. so i dont know why you are complaining .... lol

ken

Randi, I feel your pain. Some times I go hit about 5 Lowe's and Home Depots and strike out completely. Then one day, I will get a good hit! It's one of those things you just have to keep at. During the two years of the pandemic, I used to do what I called Friday Happy Hour. When I got off work on Friday, I would get in my car and make a big loop that took me to two Home Depots and three Lowe's. I would make a swift round at each one. I got some good stuff but a lot of Fridays were duds. But I still enjoyed the chase.

Walmarts in my area (Denver-ish) are useless. They are nothing but houseplant graveyards. So I don't bother with those.

The Home Depots stopped carrying Costa Farms plants here so you will never see Global Greens there. But the Krogers started getting them occasionally.

Still we never see some of the amazing Costa Farms plants that some other states do (example the philodendron squamiferum).

What part of the country are you in?

Randi, I am not sure. I think it’s moonshine. The label just said tropical foliage. The spider plant had an elephant ear tag :)

There are 2 nice nurseries with greenhouses within half an hour from my place. I usually just go if I want something for the yard. They are also hit and miss. One of them has the plants labeled. With the other one it’s also just tropical foliage, small terrarium plant and so on.

Iris, I have that philodendron 'moonlight' also. It's a really great grower. I got mine in a 2" pot in the fairy garden section of one of the local nurseries. It's now in a 5" pot and gets new leaves constantly. It's also not fussy, including lower light conditions.

Yes, I do almost all my plant shopping online. But shipping can get expensive. Didn't mean to sound like I was complaining. It's just that you hear about people finding all kinds of great plants at Lowe's and HD, and that never happens here. I'm in SoCal, btw. The high desert, and I think the companies kind of overlook us since we're rural.

I agree that the hunt is half the fun! I should do what you do, popmama! It sounds fun. Make rounds of all the box stores for a Friday night happy hour! Only problem is, I only have one Lowe's and one HD within a 40 mile radius. I hate seeing dying plants because they weren't watered, or were overwatered, or have terrible cold damage at these places. Here, it's quite common.

I understand the feeling completely. The East coast seems to get a wider variety of the Costa Farms plants than we do here.

I guess I'm sort of surprised you can live in SoCal and not have access to tons of great independent nurseries. We all know the prices will be higher but sometimes you have to support the little guys too.

Oh, there are plenty of nurseries, but all are over an hour's drive away from where I live. I'm too rural, I guess, and the deliveries don't go out this far.

That is ridiculous that they wouldn't scan another plant and give you the one you want. I've never had a problem with that.....that was weird.

You may be able to request a specific plant be ordered if the suppliers carry it....I worked in the Target garden center and we did it all the time.

I haven't had too much luck with mail order plants :(

(I probably shouldn't say that as I'm waiting on a couple Hawaiian Pothos cuttings... don't want to jinx myself xD)

I'm glad you understand vicious! I agree - just scan another plant and let me have the one I was wanting.

I had no idea you can request a plant at Target! I will keep that in mind for the future. For now, I'm just disgusted. I've had mostly good luck with mail order plants. I just got one today - Philodendron Black Cardinal in a 2" pot. It's so cute! The leaves feel pretty soft, although not drooping, and I don't know if that is normal for them. I misted it and set it in bright shade with other plants around for humidity.

OH! Want to see photos of your Hawaiian babies that are coming as soon as they arrive!

Visciousfishes, are the pothos cuttings you ordered already rooted? I have some that are trying my patience. 2 1/2 months, and they finally have some half inch roots.

As for ordering plants, for house plants I often end up on Etsy. I have some favorite nurseries for the ones for the yard. Most experiences have been good. Not long ago, I ordered a shingle plant from a seller on Etsy. This one was incredibly generous including freebies. A bunch of cuttings, even a whole ziplock bag with Spanish moss. The hermit crab is enjoying this one in his terrarium. Now that they have rooted, and look like they will stay alive, I will need to figure out what the ones I don’t know are.

I love plant shopping on Etsy too. That's where I've gotten most of my recent plants.

Ok, I'll post a picture of the cuttings when they get here (I was hoping they would get here today, but, it's looking like tomorrow is more likely) No, they aren't rooted, but pothos are pretty easy to root so I'm not too worried :)

I'm glad others are having good luck with Etsy.....that's where I haven't been having great luck lately. First I ordered a potted Neon Pothos ....came in a pot, looked great for about a day, then started going downhill fast.... unpotted it and found out one was an unrooted cutting, that didn't have enough unrotted tissue left to root, the other had a root about 1/2 inch and half of that was rotted...I put that one in water hoping to salvage it, but unfortunately it died :(

The listing specifically said they would have an established root system...If I had known from the begining they were cuttings I could have just put them in water and I'm pretty sure they would have lived.

The seller did refund my money, eventually....now I'm going through the same thing with a variegated swedish ivy .

Yeah, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. all price their plants by pot size...so there was no reason they couldn't have scanned another pot...That is such horrible customer service!!

Iris...glad your cuttings are finally rooting :D....sometimes they like to take their time!

I'm glad you got a refund! I had that happen once. The plant (a Global Green pothos) had almost no roots at all. Of course it died. Seller wanted a pic of the roots. Well, my phone won't download pics to my PC for some reason so I had to just take that one as a loss. Still looking for one.