I went to Lowes yesterday for some fertilizer and a planter bottom (for a birdbath at our old house...pic is of the one I did at our new house... and of course had to check out the TB irises that were potted and blooming. A pretty light blue with dark blue beards, a gold, and white with blue stitching. The labels were Batik, LA Black Gamecock, and another I didn't even look at the label. How could ANY place be so off!! I would surely never buy there!
Deb
Par for the course. they don't know enough to care. Not the place to buy irises anyway. Even our local garden center had irises lying loose in a box one fall. I told them that they needed to be potted. answer: oh, they came that way.
The nursery near here does that. too. He has some potted but he just pots up what doesn't sell from the boxes! I don't trust the ones loose in boxes as people looking pick them up and don't seem to care or forget which box they came out of when they put them back.
Deb
Yes, par for the course. Working at a big box store myself, it is amazing how society expects everything to be perfect, with employees waiting on your every desire. In other words, full service at discount service pricing. For a lot of people, mis-identification (the fault of the vendor, not the retail store) is okay. They just want pretty.
You get what you pay for. Sometimes I want the lower prices, and sometimes I value more the service/care/knowledge that comes with necessarily higher pricing.
All the irises I have seen at Lowe's and Wal-Mart were packed in individual packages with a picture and name of the cultivar. Problem is, the name and picture seldom match the actual rhizome. The wholesale broker and the originating nursery are the problem. I think the broker waits until the end of the normal shipping season and buys all the junk leftovers. I seldom see any in the big-box stores or shipped by mail order vendors until about late September or October. The $.25 dried out rhizome becomes a $4.98 beauty and the buyer is none the wiser.
Our lowes has potted iris right now, I didn't look at the tags so I don't know if they were right or not, probably not :)
But I agree, for the price, buying them WHILE they are in bloom, you see what you are getting, regardless of what the tag says. I have bought tons of stuff at Lowes and the majority of it all, I have been pleased with. Plus they offer a one year guarantee. Our local nursery, seen a truck at Lowes one day unloading some things, ate lunch and headed over to the nursery, guess what? same truck. Prices are way higher and there is NO guarantee on anything there. What a rip off!
don't get me wrong...I do buy a lot of plants at Lowes. I just LOVE their clearance racks of plants where I bought about half of the shrubs for our new house. Boxwoods and azaleas for 1.00 and mountain laurels for 12.50...can't beat that. Out of just those...there were 25...I lost only 4 and that was due to drought and our not being there half the time to check on them. A lot of the shrubs i took to our present house and sunk the pots in the garden for the rest of the year. planted them the next spring at the new house. Bought 4 azaleas 1/2 price this past week and nothing wrong with them except the blooms are gone. Will take those and replace the ones that died when I go back to the new house next week.
Geez I will be glad when I can just say "our house" rather than 'our new house' and 'our old house'! It is ready to move in. we still have some work to do on the old house before we put in on the market. I am redoing the beds and the foundation landscaping now. The gas is eating us up. 150.00 one way and not counting when my husband goes, I make 3 trips every two months at least and my gas for that is 900.00! Just can't keep affording to do that. One of us is going to have to live in each house for a while.
Deb
I know the feeling. Have stuff here and there, and two of some things, and just a mess! Can't wait to get moved out of here and get it up for sale.
I am moving all my plants to my moms place for now, will come back for them when we get a more permanent place to live, will rent until our house sells. Have to have the equity before we can build.
Just a lot of stress!
On Wednesday I was out of town and stopped at the Lowe's in West Haven. You cannot go and not check out the garden center. Really impressive, not like HD near my home. Plant rows were well laid out, so it was easy to go up and down aisles. Plants were well marked and well tended. Did not check out irises because there is no room left, but I picked up some Heucheras that were beautiful and inexpensive. I paid $6 for a healthy silver mound (artemisia) in a huge pot, soft as fur.
I like to think I'm not a snob, just really particular about where I spend my back-breaking efforts while on a budget at the same time. Don't we all like some special stuff in our gardens sometime? That's when I like going to the grower.
Our local nursery, seen a truck at Lowes one day unloading some things, ate lunch and headed over to the nursery, guess what? same truck. Prices are way higher and there is NO guarantee on anything there. What a rip off!
I must be somewhere between the idiots and the know it alls, but I have to defend our HD because I found Heirloom Beefsteak tomatoes there this weekend, when the two nurseries in town had none.
I never intend to sell any plants of any description, so I think not everybody needs to know the precise names of irises if they are not going to sell them. Besides, when I go online to a university site and learn the "proper" names of plants, I promptly forget them. It just isn't something I consider necessary to strain my brain over. I just find so much joy in looking at flowers of all types I fail to see how knowing their true names could make them prettier.
Just wanted to speak up for the other "ninnies" ... but I hasten to add that all you experts are treasured for your knowledge. If I ever do need to know what something is called, I know where to come... DG!
For some reason everybody around here has been selling "heirloom beefsteak tomatoes." That is probably why the nurseries don't have them. Last week I bought 20 heirloom tomatoes from the a local nursery. The responsible nurseries are well tagged with the grower's name. There were 2 healthy plants in each 5 inch pot, and they were cheaper than a similar size single plant in a big box store.
There is something for everybody out there. We just have to pick what we like and can afford.
Keep in mind that not everybody at a local garden center is knowledgeable while some big box stores are lucky enough to have someone like Leftwood.
This message was edited May 14, 2011 9:56 AM
begonianinny...I understand what you are saying in a lot of situations i don't care what the name is. However, if I really wanted a pink iris somewhere in my yard and I picked a pink one and when it bloomed the nexy year and it was yellow...I would be very unhappy. The name of the plant should just insure the color and appearance of a flower if you are interested in nothing else.
I purchased 4 dwarf red crape myrtles at a nursery near our new house. They were almost in bloom. When I started to plant them, one was blooming purple. I took it back. I picked them by name so they would all be the same size (shorter) and red. I also picked two hibiscus from the same nursery. They were also supposed to have huge red blooms. i didn't pick by name except to make sure they were the same plants. well, they weren't and by the time they bloomed the nursery wouldn't take it back. So one with a huge beautiful red bloom, one with a bloom about half the size and white with magenta on it. :(
I don't buy anything there anymore unless I can tell by looking at it that it is what I want. I drive 18 miles farther, almost to MD, to a great nursery there that has been dependable and freely gives info and time if needed!
deb
On the other hand...now that I have been collecting and growing for ernest, I want my irises to be named and correct.
FrillyLily ... Where are you moving? I know what a job it is to move your plants! Other than irises, I moved only a few that weren't actually potted, in the ground here, ready to lift and go. My irises on the other hand...I moved about 700, and my hubby saw a few here and there, mostly smaller and back rhizomes, sending up blades and told me to get those, too. It was a ton of work!!
deb
Many people take offense when others disagree with them. Some people feel free to offer comments based upon many years of experience. I have learned much from forums such as this because the members are so diverse in knowledge and geographical areas. The more I am exposed to a wide range of member's experiences, the better I can choose plants and methods for successful gardening.
About 5 years ago, I purchased two potted peonies from a local Lowe's. One for myself and one for my grandaughter. About $15 each. Clearly tagged 'Karl Rosenfeld'. When they bloomed the following year, they were both white with traces of red deep in the petals. Very nice but I already had two others of identical color. In cases such as this, the best of warranties is useless since two years have been wasted. I have had similar experiences with a certain mail order vendor.
Names and descriptions can be important, even in situations such as mine, but more so where hybridizing is done. An extreme case would be buying a Ford online and receiving a Chevy. If you wanted a Chevy, you would have ordered one.
I, too, become irritated when I receive mis marked irises from any vendor. I purchased around 150 bulbs last Fall and have found that about 35% have been mis marked., My Jurassic Park bloomed lavender and pink which was very irritating. I like to trade with other DG members and would be very embarrassed to send the wrong bulb. The picture below is supposedly Autumn Wine (I hope.)
Hey, orchidman, those are rhizomes, not bulbs. However I agree you don't want to put a misnamed plant on anybody's garden.
