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

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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

"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.

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.

Phisherman wrote:

The condition of plants depends on the garden
manager at the store.

if you wait too long that is true. the trick is to be there when they
come off the truck. then they can't screw them up.

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

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

happen.

Actually, their extremely high pricing is probablty more to blame.

On Sat, 11 Sep 2004 14:34:58 GMT, "Cereus-validus"
wrote:
Oh no.

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

I have mixed feelings about this. Frank's is pretty much where I got
my start at gardening, and I still remember the joy I got out of my
first plantings and containers.

As I've gotten more experienced I've spread out beyond Franks, as well
as Lowe's and Home Depot. There are a lot of fine local nurseries,
some with excellent prices. I still stop in Franks, Lowe's and HD,
but more for potting soil or other implements, and I still like to
walk around the plant section for the occasional sale.

Lowe does seem to be the best at indoor plants in my area, S.Jersey.
I haven't found any other place else that has any selection or
quality. Franks has long ago gone downhill in that department, though
I'd still call it second best there. Maybe I'm just not looking in
the right places. Not that I really need any more indoor plants mind
you.

The spring bulbs section is what I enjoyed the most about Franks.
Most local nurseries seem to have a meager section. Its almost as if
bulbs were an afterthought. Franks had a nice layout, and I always
wanted to plant everything I saw. Come to think of it, where am I
going to buy my Jan Reus tulips this year? I'll have to look online.

Swyck

I know what you're saying, Swyck. I knew I could always get
fresh evergreen garlands and wreaths for the holiday season at a decent
price
at Frank's, now I'm not sure where I'll find them. Pam

BasketWeaver wrote:
I know what you're saying, Swyck. I knew I could always get
fresh evergreen garlands and wreaths for the holiday season at a decent
price
at Frank's, now I'm not sure where I'll find them. Pam




While I was out shopping this afternoon I stopped by my
local Frank's to see if they were having their going out of
business sale yet. There was a notice on the door about the
Chapter 11 filing and signs all over the store that said ALL
SALES FINAL, NO RETURNS but there was nothing about an
upcoming going out of business sale. I asked one of the
employees when that sale is going to happen and she said,
"we haven't been told yet but we are guessing that is will
start by the end of the month".

It is sad to see so many people losing their jobs (over a
dozen in that store, some have already left).
--
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

wrote:

I have mixed feelings about this. Frank's is pretty much where I got
my start at gardening, and I still remember the joy I got out of my
first plantings and containers.


Swyck


I also have mixed feeling about them going out of business
but quite frankly my local Frank's has got so bad in the
last couple of years I knew it was going to happen. Several
times last Christmas and again this spring I had serious
problems with service at Frank's. When I relayed those
problems and concerns to the manager he did not seem to care
or take any action to correct the problem. After that
(early June), I stopped shopping there and apparently so did
a lot of other people.
--
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