Big Box Store Finds 2022

[OC2Texaspalmlvr 1,194]

Texas City Lowes got a huge shipment of beautiful Bizzies in, prolly about 12 of them 25g sized, plus maybe another 15 7g sized but they weren't looking so good. 25g sized were priced at 250$ Last year same size 149$ 

T J 

[Jtee 418]

Dothan Alabama Lowes

First time I’ve seen windmill palms for sale at a big box store here. 

nothing interesting though. 

[KingBob 2]

When I went to Home Depot in Miami a few years ago they had several palm varieties (like Thatch Palms) that the Home Depot stores here in Central Florida didn't carry.  Went again when I was in Miami last month and nothing. :-(

[JLM 1,349]

Went to both the blue and orange stores, had some interesting finds.

Home Depot: They only had one Pygmy Date, however they did have some huge Dwarf Cavendish bananas for $70

Lowes: A couple of large, flowering Bamboo Palms for well out of my price range unless its a Mule. They had no Mules, but they did have the next best thing: Butia!! They had several of these, some even had two to a pot, they costed about $30. I didnt get one though, kinda regreting it now, but we were looking for Japanese Maples and managed to snag a deal. Got one for less than $50 which is hard to do at a big box store. 

Other than what was mentioned above, both stores had majesties like they always do, HD had some cat palms like they always do. Both had sagos as well.

The last time i was at the Walmart garden center, they had some Golden Canes, Queens, Pygmy Dates, and Majesties.

[JohnAndSancho 1,853]

Our local wally world has a bunch of brown and yellow majesties that they left in full sun for $19 apiece. 

 

Local HD had a bunch of really cool looking wild colored cacti that were spray painted. 

[DreaminAboutPalms 490]

Only palms at Home Depot in Plano are some Queens that are $59.95 and about 6 feet tall and 3 trunked roebelleni….. seems lots of people plant roebellenis in their yards as annuals up in north Texas 

[Honez 20]

Blue and orange stores here only have pgymy date palms, cat palms, and majesty palms.  Wish we had more variety haha

[oasis371 435]

Selection used to be wonderful up here in NJ (direct from South Florida), now it's the much the same story all over the country.  Why?

[GregDFW 10]

21 hours ago, DreaminAboutPalms said:

Only palms at Home Depot in Plano are some Queens that are $59.95 and about 6 feet tall and 3 trunked roebelleni….. seems lots of people plant roebellenis in their yards as annuals up in north Texas 

I'm in DFW and grabbed a few of the Queens.  Was first time I had seen them in store here in years.  I'll try to protect them for as long as I can and they'll make a better screen around the pool vs. the mood ring podocarpus that were struggling to get established in over a year and would take another 5 to 7 years to match up to the queens today.  Feel kind of guilty knowing they aren't right fit for our area, but since they were already here, somebody else would had bought them as an annual.   I think you are right about the roebellenis too.  I've never seen anyone keeep them around long term despite being the most common palm at the big box stores here.

[Jesse PNW 865]

Never seen Rhapis up here... for $80 I think I'll pass. 

[Chester B 3,248]

1 hour ago, Jesse PNW said:

Never seen Rhapis up here... for $80 I think I'll pass. 

They sell much bigger ones at HD down here for $40 in a black nursery pot.

[Jesse PNW 865]

Fred Meyers has these every spring and I've always been too chicken to try this.   Well what the heck if half of them survive the transplant shock it will still be a good deal.  13 Livistona chinensis (unless someone knows them to be otherwise) for $20.  

FWIW the roots were more entangled than I thought but I rinsed them thoroughly and spent 20 minutes carefully progressing them apart.  

[Chester B 3,248]

@Jesse PNW, that's a great deal, Freddies never carries them here.  I separated a large clump from ones I bought at a local nursery, it was a real PITA.  You may lose some but you'll end up with enough.

[JohnAndSancho 1,853]

@Jesse PNW I got a much shorter clump last year at Kroger for like $10. I didn't separate them, I'm just culling them and cutting off the shorter smaller ones as I go. A year later and random seeds still popping. 

 

Kroger still hasn't gotten any palms in here yet, I'm waiting. I've promised palms to half my employees and can't emotionally part with anything I already own

 

Maybe they'll get cheap monsteras instead. 

[Chester B 3,248]

I was at Fred Meyers an hour ago and they did indeed have pots of Livistona chinensis for the first time that I've seen.

[Manalto 789]

How does Livistona chinensis do in the cool climate of the PNW? I was told they thrive in the heat.

[Jesse PNW 865]

@Manalto I don't have high hopes for Livistona's up here.   @Chester B has some experience growing Livistona up here although he's 2+ hours south of me. 

[Chester B 3,248]

On 4/24/2022 at 3:13 AM, Manalto said:

How does Livistona chinensis do in the cool climate of the PNW? I was told they thrive in the heat.

Undetermined so far.  I had them in pots for a few years and they were painfully slow, so I stuck three of them in the ground last summer.  Survived the winter with some burn on the leaves, so we'll see if they pick up speed this year.  2 are in some pretty decent shade the other gets part sun.

[Zeni 31]

I picked up a sizable Phoenix Canariensis which appears to be about 7-8 years and grown in Southern Europe for just 9 euros. Very cheap, I planted it somewhere ferally for the lulz to see if it will survive. It's a gamble, might survive for two or three winters unprotected but eventually it will get nuked sadly.

[CiprianS 130]

On 4/4/2022 at 9:20 AM, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

Texas City Lowes got a huge shipment of beautiful Bizzies in, prolly about 12 of them 25g sized, plus maybe another 15 7g sized but they weren't looking so good. 25g sized were priced at 250$ Last year same size 149$ 

T J 

How much were the 7g ones?

[OC2Texaspalmlvr 1,194]

33 minutes ago, CiprianS said:

How much were the 7g ones?

I think they were 120$ Unfortunately they were out of them today in Te xas City but they do have 2 large ones left and the are glorious. 

T J 

[CiprianS 130]

26 minutes ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

I think they were 120$ Unfortunately they were out of them today in Te xas City but they do have 2 large ones left and the are glorious. 

T J 

I am done with buying Bizzies... I have my two in the ground and another two in pots that I have no idea where I will plant.  

Last year I paid $104 for the two 14g at the Pasadena Lowe's. I would stop by though to see how big are the 25g Bizzies.

[Manalto 789]

8 hours ago, Chester B said:

Undetermined so far.  I had them in pots for a few years and they were painfully slow, so I stuck three of them in the ground last summer.  Survived the winter with some burn on the leaves, so we'll see if they pick up speed this year.  2 are in some pretty decent shade the other gets part sun.

Two years in this steam bath that is Gulf Coast Alabama and mine is not particularly speedy either. Like many plants, they may need a little settling-in time. We had 28° last winter and the livistona suffered minor damage to the leaves but not noticeable from a distance.

[OC2Texaspalmlvr 1,194]

19 minutes ago, CiprianS said:

I would stop by though to see how big are the 25g Bizzies.

They are instant gratification for non trunking for sure. Mass nursery in Seabrook have a ton of mules but they are proud of them. 

T J 

[bgifford 11]

Went Spring Garden shopping at a Lowes in Louisville, KY earlier this week and they had a bunch of Palms I would never think I would see at a Lowes here. They had Queen Palms, Bottle Palms, and Christmas Palms. They were all in 3 to 5 Gal pots. Most people will most likely buy them as a annual here and toss them out after the summer (sadly). 

Anybody ever overwinter one of those in the Garage (only place where I could keep it for a few years before it's too tall).

 

[JohnAndSancho 1,853]

For giggles and grins, has anybody been to big box stores or HGC on the north side of Houston/Conroe/ Woodlands that's worth me driving down from Huntsville for? I'd hate to burn half a tank of gas to see Majesties. 

[Jtee 418]

21 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

For giggles and grins, has anybody been to big box stores or HGC on the north side of Houston/Conroe/ Woodlands that's worth me driving down from Huntsville for? I'd hate to burn half a tank of gas to see Majesties. 

Call before you go, I always call big box stores when I go out of town, but either the phone rings and rings and no one picks up or the employee knows nothing about what they carry but they’ll go check usually. 

[Zeni 31]

On 4/25/2022 at 9:11 PM, Zeni said:

I picked up a sizable Phoenix Canariensis which appears to be about 7-8 years and grown in Southern Europe for just 9 euros. Very cheap, I planted it somewhere ferally for the lulz to see if it will survive. It's a gamble, might survive for two or three winters unprotected but eventually it will get nuked sadly.

Would be funny if my area gets a decade of mild winters and this becomes a beast, but I doubt it. We shall see. Technically last winter canaries could have survived here unprotected.

[Keys6505 386]

Saw these today in League City.  Can anyone ID them as Majesties?  I've never had a Majesty this small.  In qt pots for $7.98.

[JLM 1,349]

7 hours ago, Keys6505 said:

Saw these today in League City.  Can anyone ID them as Majesties?  I've never had a Majesty this small.  In qt pots for $7.98.

Definitely looks like a Majesty.

[teddytn 1,647]

Not big box, but big local nursery. I know there’s quite a few forum members in middle and east TN. Was at Bates in Nashville yesterday and they had 3 gallon windmills and 3 gallon med fans. No other place local that I know of selling palms, thought I would share.

[JohnAndSancho 1,853]

I drove around a bit today. 

Conroe Lowes- some big queens. They actually had a good size C. Seifrizii which surprised me. However, it had obviously been in full sun ever since it was delivered. The whole thing was pale and crispy. Wasn't paying $84 for it as a rehab project and not sure i had room for it in my car anyway. 

 

Conroe HD: had some nice Washies. 

 

Woodlands Lowes: some monster queens. 

 

Woodlands HD: Same crap. 

 

Conroe HGC: lots of cat palms and the big queens and washies out front 

 

I did stop at a mom and pop place in Willis. Not a palm but still cool. $12. Plus I met an ornery shop cat. 

[Fusca 3,010]

1 hour ago, JohnAndSancho said:

 

1 hour ago, JohnAndSancho said:

 Plus I met an ornery shop cat. 

Nice score.  Did Sancho enjoy meeting the cat? 

 

 

[JohnAndSancho 1,853]

Just now, Fusca said:

 

Sancho was busy napping lol. But the cat wasn't a big fan of this elderly lady's service dog. 

[amh 1,255]

I saw what appeared to be community pots of Chamaedorea elegans seedlings for sale at HEB for $5. I was tempted to buy, but declined at present.

[JohnAndSancho 1,853]

9 minutes ago, amh said:

I saw what appeared to be community pots of Chamaedorea elegans seedlings for sale at HEB for $5. I was tempted to buy, but declined at present.

They had some nice c. Cataractarum and queens last year for $10 and $15 respectively.

[amh 1,255]

Just now, JohnAndSancho said:

They had some nice c. Cataractarum and queens last year for $10 and $15 respectively.

The three species are common and affordable, but these were the first seedlings that I have seen. The pots were about 16oz. I was tempted to buy one and separate the plants into individual containers, but I already have too many palms to bring inside for winter..

[JohnAndSancho 1,853]

5 minutes ago, amh said:

The three species are common and affordable, but these were the first seedlings that I have seen. The pots were about 16oz. I was tempted to buy one and separate the plants into individual containers, but I already have too many palms to bring inside for winter..

Yeah, I'm gonna hate myself in the winter. 

Hell, I'm gonna hate myself having to water everything all summer. 

 

[amh 1,255]

7 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Yeah, I'm gonna hate myself in the winter. 

Hell, I'm gonna hate myself having to water everything all summer. 

 

The watering in the summer is a whole lot easier than bringing everything in and out during the winter.

[JohnAndSancho 1,853]

23 minutes ago, amh said:

The watering in the summer is a whole lot easier than bringing everything in and out during the winter.

I've gotta water everything with gallon jugs. It gets a little tedious, but you're absolutely right. 

 

I barely fit everything inside my studio apartment last winter, so let's repot everything and add another pile of 3 gallon pots. My Queen is gonna scrape the ceiling this go-around.