Buying House Plants - Make Me Cry
I’m working on a project to convert plants grown in soil to expanded clay. Sub-irrigation is not anything new to me and I’m a solid supporter of it. However, my experience with growing in “rock” - LECA - Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggreate is limited. My quest for plant growing experience continues and I’ll be giving you more “test results” in the future.
In the future I’ll report on converting these plants to LECA and growing all in conditions you would face. The goal is to teach you plant care… it’s easier then many think. Plus I want you to enjoy your houseplants more and reduce any maintenance and houseplant bugs.
In order to do this project correctly I wanted to buy houseplants from the same place you may buy them from. So I went over to the seven - yes SEVEN stores of the big box retailers with garden centers - Walmart, Target, Lowe’s and Home Depot.
Sad to say all but Lowe’s on a scale of 1-10 failed! Lowe’s in my opinion was about 8.5. All the others delivered only disappointment. In fact I found it hard to buy any houseplants from them. First the displays for house plants and foliage were terrible. Orchids and bromeliads looked great but the tropical plants and palms looked like second class citizens. Dracaenas were put pot to pot right along with the palms and ferns.
The whole sight frankly made me want to cry as a grower and sad for you as a consumer. Growers spend months growing a great looking plant only to have all that work wiped out with poor handling at the garden center. The best description I can offer for what the foliage looked like would be a called “scratch and dent” and plant trouble ahead.
Kudos to Lowe’s for a well organized garden shop area, drip irrigation for baskets and plants which were not mashed together. Lowe’s also carried varieties others did not touch. For example I could not find ONE Aglaonema at any of the other 6 stores except for Lowe’s. In fact, the plants at my local grocery store looked better!
Enough with my rants. I was able to get some plants from Lowe’s to start the experiements. I’ll keep you posted.
Related Articles
- Bamboo Palm Lighting - What is the best lighting conditions for Bamboo palms like Chamaedorea Seifrizii or erumpens? Most Bamboo palms are nurtured and shade-acclimated for interior use and should do well in most locations. Any lighted area (natural or artificial) should be adequate. As with many indoor palms watch out for spider mites, they love the dry conditions in
- Tough Indoor Plants - Aglaonema, Aspidistra, Sanseveria, Kentia, Rhapis - Let’s talk about "Tough Plants". People go on their summer vacations and come back to see that their plants haven’t done so well. Would a different plant make a difference? What if it was what is considered a "tough plant?" What do you consider a tough plant? I know that I have my definition. To some it may
I found a similar situation. At one Big Box store I found the tropical plants displayed beside a large, double automatic door during the winter. Every time someone walked by, the doors opened and a cold wind blew through the plant display. I guess you have a good look, then go back 4 or 5 days later and find out what plants really are hardy enough to take that treatment. Then go somewhere else and buy those types of plants.