Free Plants from Mall Landscaping Companies

My girlfriend's former job was at a restaurant located on the outer rim of one of our large local shopping malls. She noticed the mall's landscaping contractor pulling up all the annuals around the mall in the seasonal revamp of the flowerbeds. Knowing what a plant addict and scavenger I am, she asked the workers if I could come get some of the plants, and they said, "Sure!" I was at the mall pronto in my pick up truck and loaded it FULL of wax begonias. The workers were more than happy to give me my own large bed of begonias to pull up bare root -- it saved them an hour or so of effort and got their job done sooner. I was able to fill a large planting near my curb with the wax begonias and gave away as many as I could to neighbors that stopped by to see how I happened to have a truck load of begonias. A few dozen (out of the few hundred I planted) still return from year to year. These are the ones that I happened to plant in EXACTLY the right spot for them to survive the winter freezes under the protection of taller plants and receive some shade during our hot, humid summers.

I was able to get plants this way a few more times, but unfortunately Christina is now working at a restaurant that is not in a mall location so I've lost contact for knowing when the plants are being pulled. I know the name of the mall's landscape contractor and plan to call them at some point to see if I can volunteer to work for a day (or a few hours) in exchange for another load of plants.

I hate to see a perfectly healthy plant tossed out for no reason other than a seasonal whim and I also hate to see so much waste of plants that could be used elsewhere. My pick up truck load of rescues was but a small percentage of the DUMP truck load of plants that went to the landfill.
In addition to being a good FREE source of annuals to fill in large empty spots in a home garden, there seems to be the potential here to use the throw away plants for public gardens, flea market sales, charity projects, and many more uses.

Some of you may be able to contact your local mall managers to find out what landscaping company they use and check with the company to see if they will inform you when the plants are being pulled, or just keep an eye out when you are at the mall to see if there are any landscape workers pulling plants and ask if they need any help with their labors.

Or stand in the mall parking lot with a sign that reads, "Will Work for Plants," until someone takes pity on you!

Jeremy