Supermarkets, B&M etc selling bedding plants

[notedbiscuits]

Every single year during bedding plant season, every supermarket and retailers such as B&M sell bedding plants. They are always look wilted or dead. Such a waste.

A friend who works at a supermarket says that they are delivered on chiller trucks. So these poor plants are grown in greenhouses then transported on trucks which are 1-2c then depending on the supermarket location, either outside in varying temperatures or the air conditioned store. The problem with watering are some trolleys which the plants are transported and on display can’t hold water and dribbles everywhere. Or some stores don’t have time to water plants.

Then she has seen delivery trucks with plants that are squashed. Or had something on top of them.

She says that the store chucks out more bedding plants than what is sold.

So why do supermarkets and retailers who only sell gardening stuff seasonally still sell bedding plants?

AIBU - supermarkets should continue to sell them
AINBU - supermarkets stop selling bedding plants

And? It's still wasteful when you can get it in other places. It's like Lidl flogging random crap - sandwich folder and other tat - that nobody wants.

It would be a valid thing to require specific planning permission or some kind of permit to sell plants. YANBU for your views.

in my naivety I once asked if they would reduce a barely alive one, they looked at the label and said “not until the day after next”. I pointed out it would be beyond saving then and they shrugged and said sorry they weren’t allowed to, until the label said

It’s the energy for heating the greenhouse to propagate them as well

Waitrose come via crocus I think (so a proper garden centre) theirs are always lovely and they must train someone in stores to look after them. They do some lovely ones

@Ganon well they are a business. If there was no profit they wouldn't continue selling them season in and season out....that's how businesses work 🤷‍♀️

I don't know what a 'sandwich folder' from Lidl is

Don’t buy them. The choice is with the shopper.🤷‍♀️

Plant passports exist

I picked up some stunning calla Lillies from Asda, reduced to £1. They are going strength to strength after a good water and feed. They are in full flower now, but they looked liked they weren't much longer for this world when I bought them. I love buying half dead bargain plants and brining them back to life!

I agree. However I work in Tesco. They let us take the half dead ones for free. I rescue as many as I can because I can't bear the waste . I look after them, for week or two and then put them on Facebook free giving site.
I have recently had a number of pear trees ( £14.99) that were being chucked. They have made birthday and housewarming presents for the last month. I might have kept a couple too.

I always think this in our Tesco. They never water them so they nearly always look dead or withered (the Tesco is upstairs so watering would be difficult). Morrison's and Sainsbury's seem ok though as they have them outside and keep reasonably well watered.

Yes, the Waitrose plants are cared for

I do buy the odd one there

I bought a hydrangea from IKEA of all places some months ago - it was half dead but just needed watering, and it came back beautifully! Lasted six months til we went on holiday and our cat feeders didn’t water it.

The whole thing bugs me tbh. Plastic pots. Forcing plants with heated greenhouses. Compost that probably has peat in it. Transportation. Annuals that die anyway and you start again the next year (or I don’t anyway, I only buy perennials otherwise it’s a waste of money and they’re not cheap).

I think people underestimate the power of plants!

They may look 'half dead' to the untrained eye but has many mumsnetters have found, they are ok. Just need tlc

Perennials for 10p? If you know you know!

I bought a hydrangea from Lidl that didn't take at all, I dug it out and the root ball was still solid, I soaked it in water for a few days, replanted it and it was fine. A lot of larger plants, even from garden centres, have the same problem, they need soaking to free the roots.

I work in a Co op and we used to selling bedding plants but have thankfully stopped. We do however sell flowers whose buckets are empty because no one knows how to stack things properly or more likely isn't allowed the time to do it right.
We had our store extended and were shown the plans and I asked if we would have a downstairs tap for flowers, spillages etc. No because apparently it's easy to find an extra ten minutes to run upstairs find everything you need and deal with it. No that doesn't work but what do I know?
Sorry rant over but it pisses me off that life could be so much easier if only the powers that be would think.

It's much less wasteful when bedding plants etc are sold by actual garden centres rather than supermarkets, because staff are employed to look after the plants and water them so you don't get a high percentage of them dying before they've even been bought. That is the waste that people are objecting to.

Garden centre staff will be trained in how to correctly water plants

Supermarket staff will host throw water over the top

I get most of my plants from my local Morrisons. They are all watered every day. I love looking what’s new in each week. Local Asda however let them die

I dont mind because we buy them half dead at cut price and they do wonderfully well. A lot of our garden is made up of cut price half dead plants

JudgeJ I've also found this - plant seems healthy enough, but won't grow, then when you investigate it's because the roots are stuck in those little sponge balls surrounded with gauze that the growers must start everything off on. I've freed a couple and it's weirdly sweet to see how gratefully they start throwing leaves and reaching up.