On Wednesday evening, while strolling through a Fred Meyer Store, (regional grocery/hardware/garden center/clothing/housewares/little-bit-of-everything-but-not-really-a- department-store chain) looking for a few begonia tubers for my begonia experiment (more on this in later posts,) something very red caught my eye from the distant shelves of house plants. What new and unusual variety of plant could be such a color? Forgive the images, I only had my phone with me, they "upgraded" an app or something and I have to re learn how to turn off the flash. Anyway, they're even more red in real life.
But wait, there's more -
This is closest to the true color of this one. I've unsaturated the next images to spare your eyes the pain.
The good news is that if you like these, they're marked down from $12.99 to $6.50.
The bad news is that they seem to be planted directly into 4" glass cubes which are totally free of drain holes which means that if one is not extremely careful with the watering can, they'll die in fairly short order. Wait, should I save this for an In a Vase on Monday post?
In a way I feel sorry for them, not six fifty apiece sorry but sorry.
Maybe these were slated for use in a Home and Garden show display? I've seen a lot of spray paint used in bad ways in those.
ReplyDeleteI've posted about similar horrors a couple of times. If the pigment does come off fairly easily and the glass pots are nice, $6.50 might not be a bad deal. (You could drill a drainage hole)
Not a bad idea but the glass pots weren't very nice, the pigment was painted on them as well. I've noticed a lot of red and pink glass that is clear glass with pigment only on the outside. This usually scratches/washes off ovr time. Pink and some reds require the use of gold in the glass recipe to achieve those colors so they're expensive colors to make. And I really don't need any more plants.
DeleteI remember your post, especially one from a big box store with crazy colored succulents!
Plant crime to us plant lovers but it seems to be an increasing trend, even here...
ReplyDeleteSay it's not true! Not in the country of Gertrude Jekyll, Rosemary Verey, and Christopher Lloyd! Oh well, worse things could happen I suppose.
DeleteI hope this trend of covering leaves with paint dies faster than the plants are sure to do.
ReplyDeleteLet me tell another story of uselessness. A friend told me that her new neighbor who moved into Winnie's late sister's home dug up a long row of Liriope because she wanted BLOOMS. She bought potted Daffodils and Hyacinths in bloom to plant out. They 'died' and now she has to replant. All around this young woman's new neighborhood are ladies in their seventies and eighties who have been gardening for decades. All she need do is ASK.
Strange indeed that the new neighbor didn't simply ask the neighborhood gardeners! Isn't that the way most of us got our early gardening education, not to mention lots of pass along plants?
DeleteOh! You mean they were LITERALLY spray-painted? Horrors - and I'm not even a plant expert!
ReplyDeleteI'm far from a plant expert myself but this is an odd practice.
DeleteThat red certainly is eye-catching, they would have drawn my attention for sure as well. But it's definitely not a good thing to do to the poor plants. I wonder if they are Christmas leftovers, still hanging around. Maybe they could be saved, since they can be replanted, and the paint does rub off.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking maybe Valentine's Day. I'm sure the plants will be fine with some care and hope somebody adopts them!
DeleteWhat, they didn't have any grafted cacti to go along with these? The colors would certainly brighten someone's day.
ReplyDeleteI can always count on you to come up with excellent plant combinations. The shapes and colors of both would be perfect together! Maybe inside a flying saucer shaped planter to carry the alien theme.
DeleteOh my, that is .. unfortunate. Hurts my eyes.
ReplyDeleteSorry for causing you visual distress. Misery loves company.
DeleteWho buys these things? I mean besides those tempted to simply to try and rehabilitate the poor plants.
ReplyDeleteThe color blind, well-meaning but non gardening husbands whose wives are crazy about offbeat plants, people with black lights, and folks who shop stoned to name a few.
DeletePlant Abuse...get those placards ready!
ReplyDeleteMake love not plants? Spray paint is not healthy for plants and other living things? Peter Max, keep your hands off my plants?
DeleteIt's like the blue carnations you sometimes see in the supermarket - I've never understood those either.
ReplyDeleteYikes, those blue carnations are heinous!
DeleteOy Vey!
ReplyDeleteOh horrible. This plant abuse is getting worse. Over Christmas I saw heathers dyed all different colours and a few weeks ago I saw orchid plants with dyed flowers.. I can' t think of anything more pointless and vulgar than dying orchids which are so beautiful, so exotic and come in such beautiful colours. And there are people out there who buy these offences against nature. There should be a law against it.
ReplyDeleteThey're taking gilding the lily to new heights! Dyed orchids are awful. If they are truly unpopular, growers will stop producing them, cross fingers.
DeleteCan you believe it? They did that at the Freddie's here, too. I think I yelped out in horror and got a few perplexed stares. What were they thinking?
ReplyDeleteDo you suppose that it was a new item that some long-time supplier threw on the truck just for V Day? Maybe it was a new thing for Freddie's floral departments to try. I don't know what they were thinking!
DeleteIt started with strawflowers glued onto cactus, then progressed to spray painted Echeverias and beyond. I'd laugh if it weren't so sad.
ReplyDeletePerhaps people will simply not buy them and the trend will go away. Just found a funny article in Southern Living Magazine online called, "Plants To Dye For.
DeleteFrankly, the practice pisses me off, along with that of dyeing orchids and carnations that Kris and Chloris mentioned above. I don't know why I'm that offended by it, but I am. I've seen Echeverias, not only sprayed orange, but covered in glitter too. So sad...
ReplyDeleteGlitter too? Yikes! Funny, I have a similar reaction and can't put my finger on exactly it offends me. There are lots of things on the market that I don't like/don't buy and feel neutral about their existence. These practices hit a nerve for some reason.
DeleteDoes it matter if they don't have drain holes? Whoever would buy them doesn't want real plants. anyway. Besides, those plants should not live.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. I was just hoping that they could live. There is some green showing on the leaves which means that the paint/dye hasn't prevented the plant from growing and perhaps that little bit of green is enough for photosynthesis. Do you remember when they used to dye chicks to sell around Easter time? What makes people do stuff like that?
DeleteCome on now, don't be shy. Tell us how you really feel. If I'd only had some paper and a writing utensil.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand some people!
ReplyDeleteOh, the botanity!
ReplyDeleteGACK!
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to use spray paint why not just sell plastic plants, which would tolerate the containers without drainage holes a lot better. Alternatively, shouldn't they sell the plants with their own spray cans to provide for future touch-ups?
ReplyDelete