Why Those Half-Dead Plants Are Actually a Good Deal

Amanda Blum writes:
I call it the “sad plant shelf” (or SPS for short), and I make a beeline to it at every nursery I visit. This is the place where nursery workers send the plants that don’t look as picture perfect as their potted brethren. They slap them with a discount sticker in the hopes of getting rid of them fast to make room for a new crop.
Most places don’t advertise the existence of this shelf, but the SPS isn’t hard to find if you know what to look for—usually, it’s a rack of mismatched plants in an out-of-the-way corner of the store. Ask an employee if there’s a plant clearance rack and they’ll usually point you in the right direction.
Discount perennials are an excellent buy
The reason these plants are a good buy is because at least some of them are going to be perennials, which means it doesn’t matter if they are already kaput for this year. All plants are either annuals (they bloom this year, then die, and don’t come back) or perennials (they come back yearly, or like a foxglove, every other year). I very rarely buy annuals off the discount shelf, but it’s a great place to pick up perennials, which may not look pretty now but which will come back find next year, at as much as 50% off.
Why Those Half-Dead Plants Are Actually a Good Deal