Bargain triumphs

[MrsBertBibby]

I ordered this centaurea Montans "purple heart" from the RHS last year, but when it came it looked so dreadful I got a refund.

It clung to life on my plant shelves so I potted it up, and eventually, planted it out.

And look at it now! Share your rescue triumphs here!

This centaurea is beautiful and the bees love it! We have one and it grew huge so we split a bit off and now have 3 more plants growing. It does tend to get a bit of mildew but its so lovely!

I bought some veronicastrum from Sarah Raven that were mostly weeds. I planted them and grew them lovingly til I realised that what I was carefully nurturing was a variety of rosebay willow herb I also got a refund but as I dug up all the weeds to bin them I found 3 really tiny veronicastrum which I grew on and they have survived and are now doing well, so a rescue triumph I think!

My hydrangea. Was a "sad plant corner" bargain at the garden centre one August about 4 years ago. Had been left in sun and leaves were all scorched. It cost me £2.50

Its now 4ft high and gorgeous.

Those and the very sad looking "november so nobody wants dead looking perennials" catmints for £1 a pot. Got 6. They're now huge too.

Oh I'm addicted to the "sad plant corners" @GuyFawkesDay, so I think I have too many to name, but my best bargains have to be a couple of pots of Acanthus Spinosa and Echinops Ritro that I bought at an open garden about 25 years ago - through propagation and self-seeding, they are all over my garden.

I’m another sad plant fanatic. My most recent bargains were two Elizabeth roses for 75p each. A local supermarket had a trolly full, all reduced. They’re in recovery pots and are coming along nicely. I don’t expect any blooms this year, just giving then TLC.

Smashing!

Honestly, I started the day atrociously, but after stomping outside and seeing this, I have been much better.

@MrsBertBibby

Smashing!

Honestly, I started the day atrociously, but after stomping outside and seeing this, I have been much better.

Glad you’re feeling better. I have chopped down 4 huge garden bags worth of overgrown shrubs. Gardening is wonderful for the soul.

I lurk around the bargain corner of my local garden centre and bought several large (3-4ft) Photinus Crispy and Spotted Laurels for £1 or £2 each.

I also found a tiny Sambucus Black Lace which was not much more than a twig before I planted it last year. It died off but there must have been a tiny bit of life hanging on. It's now about 6 inches tall. This makes me happy 😊

I love the "hospital corner" - and that centaurea is gorgeous.

I have two blackcurrant bushes which I got for 25p each. They fruit well.

'Pot luck' from the local nursery when he was selling off his stock of aquatic and marginal plants. The pots had been kept close together for goodness knows how long and had colonised each other. I was fairly sure I was getting an iris, but it turned out to also have some marsh marigold and water avens in it.

I have a lot of plant bought from the dead corner of my local garden centre.
My lambs ears which cover about a metre of a low wall in my front garden was bought as a 9 inch pot of dead looking twigs for £1.
I have two roses a shelia pride and Arthur bell both nursed back to health and now thriving and my lovely cardoon bought as a couple of wilted leaves for 50p now grows to about 1.5 metres every year and the bees love it. It has also given enough seed heads that just about everyone in my family has one of its babies.

I used to love buying plants from Woolworths (RIP) they always reduced them down to pennies, and my aunt and I used to have a friendly rivalry about who could revive the deadest looking plants. We used to call them “woolies sticks” because that’s often all they were. There is something very satisfying about looking at a healthy plant that you have brought back from death and only paid pennies for. It helps you to forget the ones where you didn’t bring them back to life, not to mention the ones you paid pounds for which promptly died!