Home Depot finally listened!

[jimscott]

A couple days ago our Home Depot received a shipment of CP's - 20 (typical) VFT's and 5 S. purpurea, ssp. venosa. I bought a purpurea, since all three of mine bit the dust in April. The gal who works for a plant vendor and does the maintenance for those plants asked me what to do with them. I found a stray 36" planter and got the VFT's staged in it, on top of a ledge where the fountain ornaments were kept. I put the Sarracenias literally in one of the fountains. The very next day the guy who was recently moved to Garden to be in a managerial role, had them all brought inside the store and aesthetically staged on a table, along with a bunch of cacti. I happened to ~50' away from the table, with several H.D. employees (including the store manager) gawking at the setup and told the manager that the CP's would die from the lack of lighting and no water. So he said he'd get with the garden guy about that. Actually, I thought I was just being placated but when I went on break the garden guy was there as well and he told me that he was going to have me rearrange the CP's as I saw fit. So I put them back outside, in direct light, open tray. I'm gonna bring a few of my jugs of rain water, so they don't water them from the tap.

 

[nepenthes_ak]

THATS JUST AWESOME! Man, I cant beleive, I'm speechless. Congratulations

 

[Fryster]

That IS good news.

Now, if all Home Depots (and Lowe's too) would do something similar.

I see that Lowe's has their new CP's in those new cubes now. A bit better now at least...

I even saw a 'Scarlet Belle' Sarr hybrid in one of those cubes. It still looked fairly healthy too.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Good for you Jim! I'm considering having a chat with a local greenhouse here. I want to see if they will let me provide care sheets for the plants. I hate to see how they treat their few little CPs (although the last time I went there they had a spectacular container of Scarlet Belle).

A little persistence can pay off.

 

[jimscott]

What gets me is that there are myriads of chainstores that sell these TC plants (H.D., Lowes, Walmart, OSH?...) and out of a shipment of 25 plants, nearly all of them die within weeks, at the hands of someone who waters from the tap or keeps the plastic dome on or feeds them hamburger or... The rest just die from being light starved or rot. Very few go to a good home and get past their first dormancy.

 

[bugfreak]

makes me wonder why they keep buying and selling these things if they keep dying and nobody know how to take care of em. the supplier doesn't care as long as home depot/lowes/walmart keeps buying em and they are never informed.

jim, you're still a nerd. yay for you though- knowing how to take care of em and having the guts to actually go up to someone there and unleashing your passion.

 

[LLeopardGGecko]

That's awesome Jim. I'm happy that someone is out there trying to change things for these plants.

Even though they're just TC plants, I always get sad when I walk up to one of those CP displays at Home Depot or Lowes and they're all dead or dying. Then I remember that I can't save them all, so I get my peace of mind from how I grow my own CPs.

 

[jimscott]

Out of 25 plants, only 4 remain unsold. I composed a sign with basic Do's & Don'ts, as well as a quick www.terraforums.com. Who knows...

 

[neon-eon]

I was at Lowes the other day and I got a nice sized purpurea, I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it...Way to school home depot lol!

 

[tommyr]

Great job but how long will it last? Probably not too long...

Tom

 

[droseraguy]

Why does this creep me out jimscott ? Your hanging out by the CP's in LOWES going "Hey kid, I got a Sarracenia that can eat your little sister over here." Poor kid takes it home and the next thing you know he's checking out terraforums after his folks go to bed. Boxes begin arriving from Arizona, descretely marked "model airplane parts". One more victim to the CP addiction is claimed ! Now if I could only convince my kid that it really is a cool hobby. Maybe in about 15 years when I start getting smarter again !!

 

[BigCarnivourKid]

Out of 25 plants, only 4 remain unsold.

Have you taken these poor orphans home yet?

 

[ilbasso]

It CAN be done!!

The closest I've come is popping the lids off of the containers at a garden center and plopping the CPs in trays with water. I was very pleased to see the greenhouse staff kept them in there, although I'm the one that sneaks water into the trays and their new VFTs are kept in the little domes. Oh well. But YOU...YOU did it!


Congrats!

 

[jimscott]

Have you taken these poor orphans home yet?

I bought this one, right off the bat:

But the few that remain are likely to be sold before they hit the "50 cent rack".