Frank's Nursery goes bankrupt:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/08/news/midcaps/franks/

"Frank's Nursery & Crafts, Inc. announced Wednesday that it
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, due to a steady
decline in customers, unfavorable weather and general
economic weakness."
--
Bill R. (Ohio Valley, U.S.A)

Digital Camera: HP PhotoSmart 850

For pictures of my garden flowers visit
http://members.iglou.com/brosen

Remove NO_WEEDS_ in e-mail address to reply by e-mail

Yes, it is too bad. But then it is a fact of life for a lot of companies. I
think I have gone to Franks about once in the last year. Most times I pick
up garden supplies at Lowe's or Home Depot. Matter of a fact, Walmart's got
a lot of my money this year for plants and supplies. Franks as of late never
had the plants or the good prices (or help) I wanted as they other retailers
did.

Dan

"Bill R" wrote in message
...
Frank's Nursery goes bankrupt:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/08/news/midcaps/franks/

"Frank's Nursery & Crafts, Inc. announced Wednesday that it
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, due to a steady
decline in customers, unfavorable weather and general
economic weakness."
--
Bill R. (Ohio Valley, U.S.A)

Digital Camera: HP PhotoSmart 850

For pictures of my garden flowers visit
http://members.iglou.com/brosen

Remove NO_WEEDS_ in e-mail address to reply by e-mail

Frank's Nursery goes bankrupt:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/08/news/midcaps/franks/

"Frank's Nursery & Crafts, Inc. announced Wednesday that it
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, due to a steady
decline in customers, unfavorable weather and general
economic weakness."
--
Bill R. (Ohio Valley, U.S.A)

Digital Camera: HP PhotoSmart 850

For pictures of my garden flowers visit
http://members.iglou.com/brosen

Filing for bankrupcy seems to be a standard, business-as-usual tactic these
days. Often it doesn't affect the customer in the least as the company
re-structures itself.

Even if the chain closes, I can look upon much of my landscape - the 12' - 16'
tall blue spruces (4 for 20.00 in 1986) the cherry (20' tall) and the weeping
cherry trees 15-20' tall, 9.99 - 19.99 in 1988) and a variety of assorted
shrubs, conifers, (4 or 5 for 25.00 in 1987- 1992) mass plantings of
stargazers, black-eyed susans and ornamental grasses and revel in the fact that
Frank's Nursery and Crafts (once called Flower-Time here on Long Island) shall
live on forever in my gardens, as many of the hard-wood plants still bear the
original, legible "Flower-Time" tag.

On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 20:27:19 -0400, Bill R opined:

Frank's Nursery goes bankrupt:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/08/news/midcaps/franks/

"Frank's Nursery & Crafts, Inc. announced Wednesday that it
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, due to a steady
decline in customers, unfavorable weather and general
economic weakness."

If they learned to simply water their plants, they may have not had this happen.





Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?
http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html

Oh no.

So now the only places we can buy crappy plants is Lowes and Home Depot?

Are we to suppose that their crafts division is in the red too? Where are
little old ladies, grade schoolers and cub scouts supposed to get their
doo-dads for their Christmas gift projects?


"escapee" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 20:27:19 -0400, Bill R
opined:

Frank's Nursery goes bankrupt:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/08/news/midcaps/franks/

"Frank's Nursery & Crafts, Inc. announced Wednesday that it
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, due to a steady
decline in customers, unfavorable weather and general
economic weakness."

If they learned to simply water their plants, they may have not had this
happen.





Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?
http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html

If they learned to simply water their plants, they may have not had this
happen.

Amen!






"escapee" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 20:27:19 -0400, Bill R
opined:

Frank's Nursery goes bankrupt:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/08/news/midcaps/franks/

"Frank's Nursery & Crafts, Inc. announced Wednesday that it
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, due to a steady
decline in customers, unfavorable weather and general
economic weakness."

If they learned to simply water their plants, they may have not had this
happen.





Need a good, cheap, knowledge expanding present for yourself or a friend?
http://www.animaux.net/stern/present.html

If they learned to simply water their plants, they may have not had this
happen.

Home Depot seems to do ok without watering. I always rescue some plant out of
that place. I hate the Home Depot "Nursery"
Colleen
Zone 5 CT

In article ,
(GrampysGurl) wrote:


If they learned to simply water their plants, they may have not had this
happen.

Home Depot seems to do ok without watering. I always rescue some plant out of
that place. I hate the Home Depot "Nursery"
Colleen
Zone 5 CT

You hate 'em yet you make it profitable for them by going there to
"rescue" plants. As long as people don't care enough about the poor care
to stop buying the plants, HD will never have any reason to improve their
methods.

I try never to buy anything from Lowes or Home Depot unless I really want
somethning common as dirty, that has not been there so long it is getting
unhealthy, & which is WAY cheaper than at my favorite nurseries. If it
does not meet all these criteria, I support local independent nurseries.

Though to be fair, our local Lowes takes great good care of their plants.
Walmart just lets them die & I no longer even bother to drive into their
strip mall for anyhthing whatsoever, but I still do sometimes get things
from Lowes or Home Depot. Home Depot is a mixed bag; the stuff they put
outside dries up rapidly, the stuff indoors they manage to keep watered.
But even if these places did all of it rather better, I'd still rather
support independent nurseries that have better & broader stocks to choose
from. At independent nurseries, I've gotten so many perks & freebies &
assistance on so many occasions by being a familiar face with a cart of
plants, but at chains there's no getting to know even the workers let
alone the distant owners.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

"Cereus-validus" wrote:

So now the only places we can buy crappy plants is Lowes and Home Depot?

Lowes, Home Depot, KMart, etc. get excellent plants. If you buy them
before they kill them, you too can get an excellent plant. The growers
that these chains use are top notch. They produce a quality plant. The
trick is to get them before they are abused.

In any case these potted plants are never as good as a field grown
plant. You can only get field grown plants from your local nurseries
that grow their own plants.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

I bought 3 sick clematis plants at Lowes for 10 cents each. They
still looked weak one year later, but after 3 years they have bushed
out over 10 feet on a trellis I built. One blooms in the spring and
the other two in summer and fall. I worked compost into the soil and
kept them mulched. The condition of plants depends on the garden
manager at the store.


On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 09:23:47 -0400, "S. M. Henning"
wrote:

"Cereus-validus" wrote:

So now the only places we can buy crappy plants is Lowes and Home Depot?

Lowes, Home Depot, KMart, etc. get excellent plants. If you buy them
before they kill them, you too can get an excellent plant. The growers
that these chains use are top notch. They produce a quality plant. The
trick is to get them before they are abused.

In any case these potted plants are never as good as a field grown
plant. You can only get field grown plants from your local nurseries
that grow their own plants.

Are you sure you aren't a used car salesman, Henny?

Obviously, your definition of "excellent" is on a par much lower than the
actual definition of excellent. Well grown garbage plants are still garbage
regardless of how you try to pass them off.


"S. M. Henning" wrote in message
news
"Cereus-validus" wrote:

So now the only places we can buy crappy plants is Lowes and Home Depot?

Lowes, Home Depot, KMart, etc. get excellent plants. If you buy them
before they kill them, you too can get an excellent plant. The growers
that these chains use are top notch. They produce a quality plant. The
trick is to get them before they are abused.

In any case these potted plants are never as good as a field grown
plant. You can only get field grown plants from your local nurseries
that grow their own plants.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

If the plants were any good, they would have been vigorous when you bought
them without the need to coax them along for years.

Buying sick plants is a foolish thing to do regardless of your ultimate
results. The risks far outweigh any possible reward, especially when you are
buying generic plants of little value in the first place.


"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
I bought 3 sick clematis plants at Lowes for 10 cents each. They
still looked weak one year later, but after 3 years they have bushed
out over 10 feet on a trellis I built. One blooms in the spring and
the other two in summer and fall. I worked compost into the soil and
kept them mulched. The condition of plants depends on the garden
manager at the store.


On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 09:23:47 -0400, "S. M. Henning"
wrote:

"Cereus-validus" wrote:

So now the only places we can buy crappy plants is Lowes and Home
Depot?

Lowes, Home Depot, KMart, etc. get excellent plants. If you buy them
before they kill them, you too can get an excellent plant. The growers
that these chains use are top notch. They produce a quality plant. The
trick is to get them before they are abused.

In any case these potted plants are never as good as a field grown
plant. You can only get field grown plants from your local nurseries
that grow their own plants.

In article ,
"Cereus-validus" wrote:

If the plants were any good, they would have been vigorous when you bought
them without the need to coax them along for years.

Oh, I dunno. There are a few top-flight nurseries that sell mostly only
seedlings, especially those who are doing mail order or growing extremely
rare cultivars, & they just don't sell them more mature than that. They
expect their customers to be able to baby mere seedlings for a couple of
years, though people without coldframes or greenhouses end up buying them,
plop them immature or unhardened right into the garden, where they get
baked to death within the week.

Buying sick plants is a foolish thing to do regardless of your ultimate
results. The risks far outweigh any possible reward, especially when you are
buying generic plants of little value in the first place.

Depends on what means "sick." Plants that look like hell in their nursery
pot are often merely at the end of their ideal season, or got battered
while exposed to weather & mishandling, or were visited by one industrious
little snail, so the nursery marks them down from $12 to $2 to get rid of
them. If there's no reason to suspect an actual disease, buying
worn-out-looking plants can be great.

Lowes, Home Depot, KMart, etc. get excellent plants. If you buy them
before they kill them, you too can get an excellent plant. The growers
that these chains use are top notch. They produce a quality plant. The
trick is to get them before they are abused.

Many of the mass-produced plants & Perennial of the Year award-winners are
chosen & developed not because they are genuinely superior garden plants
(some are, many are really not so good) but because they are very
responsive to mass-production. The Perennial of the Year winners in
particular are voted on by production-growers who are looking for plants
that respond to chemistry for rapid mass production, or can be forced to
bloom ahead of their natural schedule to get a jump on sales, or are
sterile so that amateur gardeners can't grow them themselves from seeds, &
last a long time in pots under nursery conditions.

A plant that meets all those criteria isn't invariably as good a choice
for the garden as it was for wholesale production & retail presentation.
Many far better garden plants are never going to hit the mass-production
outlets merely because they don't "dress" well in pots (but are fabulous
in gardens), or break easily in shipping, or wilt the first day chainstore
workers forget to water anything, or grow so swiftly they don't look
properly dressed a week after shipment to chain stores.

The criteria for the Award of Garden Merit by commparison has nothing to
do with the needs of wholesale growers or retail outlets, but have
criteria strictly related to their benefits, beauty, & ease of growth in
the garden. More of these will be found through independent nurseries
which are not as reliant on mass production lines to sustain their stocks.

In any case these potted plants are never as good as a field grown
plant.

Actually, there are many plants that resent being dug out of the ground
(from perennials with wide-spreading roots or deep taproots, to weeping
twisted beech trees), & will do MUCH better if pot-grown before placed in
their permanent locations. Even some easy bedding plants home-grown from
seeds should be started in pots so they won't undergo the shock of being
dug out of the ground before going into permanent locations, such as
poppies.

As for field-grown plants that do transplant well, some will be superior,
others won't. I've seen field-grown rhodies carefully developed to a
mass-production standard for shipment to the likes of Lowes. Of a hundred
shrubs sent to market, they all have one identical look to them, & are
devoid of individuality or character. To me these are ho-hum shrubs though
perfectly healthy & all that. Then again, some of the shrubs I've gotten
from small growers active in the Rhododendron Species Foundation let their
shrubs develop quite naturally, & these back-acre half-wild specimens
often have a great deal of individual character & are already very used to
exposure to the elements, unlike some greenhouse-grown dwarf rhodies that
are marketed without being hardened off enough to face the elements.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

Cereus-validus wrote:
If the plants were any good, they would have been vigorous when you
bought
them without the need to coax them along for years.

Buying sick plants is a foolish thing to do regardless of your
ultimate
results. The risks far outweigh any possible reward, especially when
you are
buying generic plants of little value in the first place.

For some people, the reward of gardening *is* taking something that has
little chance of living, and turning it into a beautiful thing. At risk
was the 30-cents paid for the three plants, and some compost, mulch and
water. The pay-off was three years of enjoyment. The positive results
were a bonus. Even if they had not survived, the experience of trying to
save them was the real pay-off.

Anyone can go out and buy healthy, vigorous plants. That's no more fun
than going out and buying new socks.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Cooking with Intense Heat
http://www.holzemville.com/community...eat/index.html

In article GP%0d.31054$MQ5.16548@attbi_s52, "Warren"
wrote:

Cereus-validus wrote:
If the plants were any good, they would have been vigorous when you
bought
them without the need to coax them along for years.

Buying sick plants is a foolish thing to do regardless of your
ultimate
results. The risks far outweigh any possible reward, especially when
you are
buying generic plants of little value in the first place.

For some people, the reward of gardening *is* taking something that has
little chance of living, and turning it into a beautiful thing. At risk
was the 30-cents paid for the three plants, and some compost, mulch and
water. The pay-off was three years of enjoyment. The positive results
were a bonus. Even if they had not survived, the experience of trying to
save them was the real pay-off.

Anyone can go out and buy healthy, vigorous plants. That's no more fun
than going out and buying new socks.

I've never in my life met anyone who enjoyed buying unhealthy sickly
plants. Unhealthy plants invite disease, which spreads to healthy plants.

I do know many who prefer to start their own things most inexpensively
from seed, & nurture a plant through its entire life cycle. But shopping
for stuff other people have started, but waiting until it is abused &
sickly & on sale, just sounds loony, & nothing at all like buying new
socks.

If socks was the comparison, going for the unhealthy sickly plants would
be like buying dirty socks with big holes in the heals from hobos for the
sheer joy of seeing if you could successfully get rid of the fungal
diseases before you pulled them parasitized & disease-ridden over your
feet.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com