I call it the “sad plant shelf” (or SPS for short), and I make a beeline to it at every nursery I visit. This is the place where nursery workers send the plants that don’t look as picture perfect as their potted brethren. They slap them with a discount sticker in the hopes of getting rid of them fast to make room for a new crop.
Most places don’t advertise the existence of this shelf, but the SPS isn’t hard to find if you know what to look for—usually, it’s a rack of mismatched plants in an out-of-the-way corner of the store. Ask an employee if there’s a plant clearance rack and they’ll usually point you in the right direction.
Discount perennials are an excellent buy
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The reason these plants are a good buy is because at least some of them are going to be perennials, which means it doesn’t matter if they are already kaput for this year. All plants are either annuals (they bloom this year, then die, and don’t come back) or perennials (they come back yearly, or like a foxglove, every other year). I very rarely buy annuals off the discount shelf, but it’s a great place to pick up perennials, which may not look pretty now but which will come back find next year, at as much as 50% off.
Take, for instance, a delphinium, a notoriously hard to germinate seed. They produce a few tall, narrow stalks. If one of those stalks gets bent and folds over, the plant goes to the discount shelf. but there is nothing strictly wrong with it. Cut it back, and you might get a new flower this year; regardless, next year, it’s coming back in full, at which point you’ll have a two-year-old plant that has experience a 400% increase on its value. That’s the best case scenario, but I’ve plonked pretty sad looking clumps into the ground and had glorious echinacea or agastache emerge the next year. I often feel that for a few bucks, it’s worth the risk to see what happens in 12 months’ time..
The closer you are to the end of the season, the fuller the SPS shelf gets. In October, my nursery hosts an entire greenhouse of them.
How to spot a good buy on the discount plant shelf
The number one SPS tip, then, is: buy perennials. This will usually be indicated somewhere on the plant tag. In some cases, you won’t be able to tell what color the plant is because its not flowering, but the label will give you a name to google.
Plants can come back from a lot, but you want to ensure that the plant can still absorb water. If the soil seems way too dry, take it over to a water fountain and see if the soil will absorb any. If not, the plant might be a DNR.
Make sure there is some green on the plant. Again, a plant can be very, very sad, but it needs to have at least a speck of green to be able to come back. Look for any bugs, like thrips, or signs of disease, like brown spots. Those plants stay put—you don’t need to bring bugs or illness into your garden.
I’m a little more of plants at big box stores because they’ve come from a bunch of different places, and the staff often doesn’t have as much experience with horticulture. So there, I do a lot more nosing around the plant itself. I’d say the same about the grocery store, but I’ve honestly found the staff at grocery nurseries around me to be highly educated.
Also, never be afraid to ask for a deeper discount. I recently rescued five mildly depressed looking hydrangeas from my grocer. Though they were already 50% off, I asked for a deeper discount for taking a few, and scored them for $4 each. Remember, plant people are tenderhearted, and mya just want them to go to a good home.
How to set your discount plants up for success
The first thing you should do is give the plant a break—it’s been in the sun, without all the resources it needs, so bring it home and put it into the shade, and give it a good drink of water, enough to ensure that the water bleeds out the bottom of the pot. Leave it for at least twenty four hours.
Next it’s time to either repot it or plant it, and see what kind of condition it’s in. Sometimes, the reason it’s not thriving is that it’s root bound, which means it’s just too big for the pot it’s in. When you take it out, use your hands to break the roots up a bit. Examine them. If they’re healthy looking, you’re good. If they’re rotted, then you need to cut away the rotted portion.
Give the plant a good haircut on top so it doesn’t have to support as much greenery and can focus all it’s energy on growing healthy roots for next year. For instance, a hosta can be cut down to an inch or two. Shasta daisies can be hacked all the way back. Hydrangea flowers can be deadheaded. Look up your particular plant to see how it should be pruned, but the point is to take some of the burden off the plant.
Put it into a hole three times the width and depth of the rootball with the roots nice and loose, and add a little slow release fertilizer like Ozmacote to the hole. Make sure your new buddy gets enough water and a few words of encouragement, but remember, overwatering is as problematic as not watering, so ensure before you water it again that it actually needs it.
Buying the sad plants is a smart way to build out your garden and allows you to try out plants you might not choose at full price. Remember, a small sacrifice now, in terms of a plant’s looks, can mean lead to big returns later.