Today a friend took me to a local garden centre, (Wyevale).
She noticed a girl putting things into a black sack, among them 2
streptocarpus. " What's wrong with those?" asked my friend. "They're
dead" said the girl. Well we ended up being allowed to retrieve them
from the sack and take them away. Dead? Well the flowers had
finished but the plants were healthy and not drooping. A few leaves
were damaged from being dumped in the sack but a quick tidy-up and a
couple of weeks TLC and they'll be OK. Also I took some leaf cuttings
from a broken leaf.
No wonder their plants in general are so pricy!

Pam in Bristol

On 22/06/2011 14:09, Sacha wrote:
On 2011-06-22 14:05:40 +0100, Pam Moore said:

Today a friend took me to a local garden centre, (Wyevale).
She noticed a girl putting things into a black sack, among them 2
streptocarpus. " What's wrong with those?" asked my friend. "They're
dead" said the girl. Well we ended up being allowed to retrieve them
from the sack and take them away. Dead? Well the flowers had
finished but the plants were healthy and not drooping. A few leaves
were damaged from being dumped in the sack but a quick tidy-up and a
couple of weeks TLC and they'll be OK. Also I took some leaf cuttings
from a broken leaf.
No wonder their plants in general are so pricy!

Pam in Bristol

It's common practice, Pam. Once things have stopped flowering, they
don't sell very well, so they're dumped and that practice's cost has to
be covered somehow. Nurseries keep things and pot them on to sell next
year or to people who know a plant doesn't have to be in flower

Agreed it is always worth looking to see what they are about to throw
out - there are usually massive bargains to be had in late September
when everything has to be junked to make room for Santa's Ripoff Grotto
and all the Halloween Tat. Perfectly good plants at 50-80% or more off.

I quite like picking up Hamamelis this way which are very expensive in
flower but cheap again only a few weeks later (in buy & die places).

Regards,
Martin Brown