Lowe's table of death

[cmmcd0472]

I was not sure where to post this but I wanted to share my experience and to find out what experience others have had with purchasing orchids from Lowe's. I have found that for me, I have to arrive within a day or two after they receive a new shipment or many of the plants have gone terribly downhill. Our store carries mostly Phals and Oncidium hybrids and I have am always on the lookout for Cattleya hybrids, which are rare, they are really into the mass-produced Phalaenopsis. Earlier this week when I was in Lowe's making another purchase, I visited the greenhouse to see what they had and to my surprise found a pretty Catt. However, we have had outdoor temps in the 100+ degree range for a couple of weeks and it was horribly hot in the greenhouse. I don't know if it was an issue with their ventilation but plants were literally dying on the spot, I was lucky to have saved the Cattleya. There were a number of Phalaenopsis that were badly burned; I don't know if they moved those to a different spot to try and save them, or if the plants just suffered too much heat stress, but I have never seen anything like that. I also grow African Violets and it seems more difficult all the time to find nice plants. An entire table of violets were literally ruined. Instead of disposing of these obviously dead plants, the store marked down the price and moved them to a sale cart, which I refer to as the dead table. What a waste because I am sure they were all pretty plants and healthy when they arrived from the shipper. I know that it is possible to obtain sale plants that are still pretty decent (I've only done it once with a Potinara that was out of bloom, obtained for $5.00), but why would they think that anyone in their right mind would purchase those horrible looking plants, they need to just cut their losses and move on. I cannot believe that the garden center staff does not recognize that those plants are beyond the point of being salvaged by anyone.

I know people enjoy the challenge of nursing orchids back to health, but those of you who do it also run the risk of bringing home diseased plants and exposing your healthy plants to all kinds of nasty things. Beginning growers try this because they think it saves them money, but to me one healthy plant is a better investment than 2 or 3 questionable plants, and when it comes to orchids, a person does need to know what they are doing.

I appreciated the common sense sticky in regard to purchasing healthy orchids, and I hope that people follow that advice. I did want to hear other's experiences with Lowe's. From what I have read, the dead table seems to be a common occurrence in their stores. Thanks in advance.