Thursday, April 17. 2008
Did I Mention Home Depot?
I think I mentioned earlier that today is Pick on Home Depot Day here at the Cactus Blog. I don't know why. It's not like I have anything particular to say about them. Well, I do, but it's probably not printable in a family blog. (Which is why it's good this is not a family blog.) But first, we have these lovely terrestrial bromeliad blooms making big news in the Liverpool Daily News, which I believe is in England.
Odd that they would say it's in the cactus family, when of course it's in the bromeliad family. I know the news will call any spikey plant a cactus, which one could see as a colloqiual reference, but actually using a botanical reference seems a bit too much of an error.
Anyway, we were talking about Home Depot. Here's one thing they do wrong: they overwater the cactus so that you have to buy them within a day or two of them arriving or they're already half dead. We get people at the nursery bringing in the cactus they bought at Home Depot, and they're half-dead. So you know, you're rescuing the plants you buy from Home Depot, so you better be ready for the extra work. And it's just like buying a puppy from a mall pet store - you're rescuing the poor thing, but then they just fill in behind with another poorly bred dog, thus encouraging bad practices down the line. You should find yourself a reputable breeder, whether you're buying dogs or plants.
That whole paragraph really went off the rails. I find it entertaining when I write in a run-on sentence kind of way. I hope you do too.
The puya alpestris is on the verge of blooming into pollen dripping blue/green flowers.
A member of the cactus family, the spiky puya 1.5 metres tall, is expected to burst into colour by the weekend.
Visitors to Ness Botanic Gardens will be lucky enough to see its spectacular metallic teal-blue flowers.
A member of the cactus family, the spiky puya 1.5 metres tall, is expected to burst into colour by the weekend.
Visitors to Ness Botanic Gardens will be lucky enough to see its spectacular metallic teal-blue flowers.
Odd that they would say it's in the cactus family, when of course it's in the bromeliad family. I know the news will call any spikey plant a cactus, which one could see as a colloqiual reference, but actually using a botanical reference seems a bit too much of an error.
Anyway, we were talking about Home Depot. Here's one thing they do wrong: they overwater the cactus so that you have to buy them within a day or two of them arriving or they're already half dead. We get people at the nursery bringing in the cactus they bought at Home Depot, and they're half-dead. So you know, you're rescuing the plants you buy from Home Depot, so you better be ready for the extra work. And it's just like buying a puppy from a mall pet store - you're rescuing the poor thing, but then they just fill in behind with another poorly bred dog, thus encouraging bad practices down the line. You should find yourself a reputable breeder, whether you're buying dogs or plants.
That whole paragraph really went off the rails. I find it entertaining when I write in a run-on sentence kind of way. I hope you do too.
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I have found your diatribe n Home Depot hilarious. I also could go off on them and their lack of education in the gardening department. How about all of the plants that they sell that don't actually grow in my area? Try growing zone 7-8 plants in a 4-5 zonal area. It just doesn't work. And yet, they sell them every year anyway.
I used to work in a garden center and I remember well the people who would go to Home Depot to buy some plants and then come into the greenhouse to ask us why they weren't growing or were now dead. It would have been better for them to buy the plants from the people who actually knew about gardening in the first place! LOL!
Thanks for making me smile! :)
Brenda E.
I used to work in a garden center and I remember well the people who would go to Home Depot to buy some plants and then come into the greenhouse to ask us why they weren't growing or were now dead. It would have been better for them to buy the plants from the people who actually knew about gardening in the first place! LOL!
Thanks for making me smile! :)
Brenda E.
Home Depot isn't the only place that over waters cactus. All the big box outfits do it. Wal-Mart is the worst. Their cactus plants are standing in water, and stacked at the bottoms of the racks with no light. I rescue cactus from there, as well as from several garden centers when I'm looking for some of the common Mammillaria species. It's fun to see if I can keep them alive. It's a better hobby than gambling. What pisses me off even more are those hideous cacti with eyes or fake flowers glued on them. I've asked about it, and they say that's the way they come from the distributors.
I've also heard the kids working in the garden sections giving people some of the most ridiculous advice; like water your cactus every day, use extra rich potting soil, use B-1 when transplanting and water them in. When I heard one kid telling a customer that stuff I couldn't keep my mouth shut and told her he was wrong. She said he must know what he was talking about because he worked there.
The only time I've ever gotten really good advice is when I go to a cactus specialty nursery. Even the regular nurseries have people there who don't know much about the cacti and succulents they carry. If the folks who take care of the plants spoke English, I would get better advice from them than the sales people!
I've also heard the kids working in the garden sections giving people some of the most ridiculous advice; like water your cactus every day, use extra rich potting soil, use B-1 when transplanting and water them in. When I heard one kid telling a customer that stuff I couldn't keep my mouth shut and told her he was wrong. She said he must know what he was talking about because he worked there.
The only time I've ever gotten really good advice is when I go to a cactus specialty nursery. Even the regular nurseries have people there who don't know much about the cacti and succulents they carry. If the folks who take care of the plants spoke English, I would get better advice from them than the sales people!
Aiyana,
But you do then go back to the big box stores to rescue more cacti, rather than buying healthy plants at local nurseries. It perpetuates the cycle.
You do have good local cactus nursery choices in the Phoenix area, and they even grow locally too, rather than having them shipped in.
And nobody at our nursery is going to make the mistake of using B1, since we don't even sell it. We give away myccorhizals instead.
Peter
But you do then go back to the big box stores to rescue more cacti, rather than buying healthy plants at local nurseries. It perpetuates the cycle.
You do have good local cactus nursery choices in the Phoenix area, and they even grow locally too, rather than having them shipped in.
And nobody at our nursery is going to make the mistake of using B1, since we don't even sell it. We give away myccorhizals instead.
Peter
You should have also mentioned that the plants that HD and most of the Big Boxes have in their nurseries are even purchased by them, they run "Pay at Scan" so all the plants are really just there on “consignment”.
Imagine being such a big company that you can go to your vendors and say we are no-longer going to buy your products, but you can still put them on our shelves, we just won’t pay for them unless they sell for the price we decide to sell them for, no mater what your old wholesale price was or what they cost you to grow… and you wonder why the plants are dead and dying and being watered by people that tell the customers to water cactus every day, after all it is their job to water the plants, everyday.
But then this is the same company that decide that the best way to deal with their current “problem employee issues”… is to fire over one thousand of their Human Resource people that are out in the stores and “centralize HR” to Home Depot’s headquarters in Atlanta. “They will handle their stores’ HR needs by telephone.”
If that is the level a service they give to their employees, no wonder they are so bad at customer service in the stores!
Imagine being such a big company that you can go to your vendors and say we are no-longer going to buy your products, but you can still put them on our shelves, we just won’t pay for them unless they sell for the price we decide to sell them for, no mater what your old wholesale price was or what they cost you to grow… and you wonder why the plants are dead and dying and being watered by people that tell the customers to water cactus every day, after all it is their job to water the plants, everyday.
But then this is the same company that decide that the best way to deal with their current “problem employee issues”… is to fire over one thousand of their Human Resource people that are out in the stores and “centralize HR” to Home Depot’s headquarters in Atlanta. “They will handle their stores’ HR needs by telephone.”
If that is the level a service they give to their employees, no wonder they are so bad at customer service in the stores!
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