Free plants!

Luvly.cuppa.T

Hi all, I had no idea where to put this , but free it is, so here I put it.

With the family we did the usual 'bored on sunday thing' and went to the local gardening centre, and had a browse at everything with no intention to buy anything. As we leave my son (9yrs) spots a sign that says, 'FREE- anything on the shelves here free to have'.

It turns out that they were plants. Not many of them mind you (approx 20), and not in great condition- although a bit of pruning and dead-heading would fix them up, as we have done.

I have no idea why they were free, I didn't like to ask in case the offer of 'free' was withdrawn!! So we took a tray of plants that would be fab in our small front garden and a couple of others. All in all we had £29 worth of plants (flowering by the way).

I think one of the draw backs is that the planting conditions may not be suitable for most- but we don't mind. We're gonna give them a try and a lot of love!!!

The place was , um, Heathrow gardening centre- I think. Something like that any way.


It's now made me wonder if it's a usual thing that happens at a certain time of year, or even asking staff if they have any plants/flowers that they are throwing out, or aren't 'good enough' to be on the shop floor. Perhaps they would sell them at cut price or even give them away!!

Any feedback on this would be great and I apologise if there has been anything else posted similar to this.

SwissToni_2

Usually they'd either dump them in some dark corner of the plant centre at a cut price or they just throw them in a skip. It's common practice, but I can't say I've ever found any going free like that.
The only thing I can remember being anything close, was a seasonal local paper coupon for a free plant from Blooms of Bressingham garden centers. Don't know if that's still going as our local one shut down. I used to check all the free papers and the local press for them and with family managed to get at least three each offer, but I had to buy something in the process.
I think we got some free pots and trays once. Sounds pretty cool though, I always check the sales section, usually you can pick up some nice bargains for silly money just because they've lost a label. But beware, sometimes they're either dead or dying and maybe diseased so be careful you don't introduce a health risk to your own healthy plants.
Another good time to check out garden centers is after heavy winter storms, especially if they have glasshouses. If they get damaged enough they tend to mark down all their softer plants and I managed to get a whole load of large cacti like that.
Sometimes you just have to be there at the right time, if they get taken over usually old stock get's sold off and I got 8ft pear trees for £2 each and an ornamental tree for just 25p.
End of season/new season times are great for old stock bargains.
Woolworths used to mark down their trees and plants too, usually around January and I picked up a couple of apple trees for 50p each.
Even Tesco marks down most plants, as they all carry sell by dates now and you can pick up some nice bargains if you wait and look. This season I've managed to fill all 20 of our pound shop hanging baskets with bargain fuchsias, geraniums and Livingston daisies. Even £1 stores that stock plants drop prices, my aunt managed to get vegetable and flower seed for just 5p a packet at the end of a promotion. Garden centres do the same as new seed catalogues come out, so you can get some bargains there again.
Most supermarkets, DIY chains and high street stores that stock plants these days really aren't as capable of looking after their stock as garden centres, so most have a policy to stock and price on a short date to date basis. They then slash prices as they bring in the new fresher looking stock or as they're promotion ends. This all plays into our laps, just keep your eyes glued open.