A small win at the local hardware store's garden center

I was at the big hardware place on 4th Street yesterday, picking up some stuff for a rental. Their garden section had these sad, half-dead lavender plants marked down to $3 each. Bought four on a whim, gave them a good soak and a trim, and stuck them in my work van's shade. Two days later, they're perked right up and I can use them for a small dried arrangement order next week. Has anyone else had luck with a last-minute rescue like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

hall.jenny6mo ago

My local place had a whole rack of those crispy ferns for a dollar last summer. I always figured they were too far gone to bother with, but I grabbed one as a test. It's now taking over a corner of my patio, which totally changed my mind about the clearance rack. It's the same feeling @casey818 described, like you unlocked a secret level. There's something really satisfying about bringing a plant back from the brink.

casey8186mo ago

Got a clearance rack orchid once. It had one sad flower left. Stuck it in the bathroom for the steam. Thing went nuts, bloomed for months. Felt like a plant wizard. Those discount rescues hit different.

henryt186mo ago

That lavender rescue is awesome, but I gotta say, @hall.jenny, ferns are a whole different beast. They look dead but that's just how they handle stress, they bounce back crazy fast if you keep them wet. Lavender is way more touchy when it's that far gone, it hates wet feet. You really scored with those. Most of the time, those crispy discount perennials have root rot already and it's a lost cause.

hannah_west394mo ago

Wait, so you're telling me I've been throwing away perfectly good crispy plants this whole time? Honestly, that fern story makes me want to go dumpster dive behind the garden center. Ngl, I tried the clearance rack once and ended up with a pot of dirt that used to be a rosemary plant. Just a sad little pile of soil and regret. But maybe I just got the wrong kind of crispy. Tbh, ferns sound like the only plant that actually appreciates my "forget to water it for two weeks" style of care.