Saving Neglected Plants So They Will Live Another Day, Week, Year..

Neglecting greenhouse plants happens frequently. You see it at Wal-Mart, Loew's, Home Depot and other stores. It happens all year long in the big box stores and in the private greenhouses when the plant buying season starts to taper off. For this reason, I go on a plant-saving mission, looking to get good plants who just need some love, at a discounted price. I save paying full price for the fancier, more rare or showy plants but have found some very viable, beautiful varieties that were just about to be thrown out, then working a deal with the vendor to sell them at a reduced price. Sometimes they just give the plants away, since they feel that they're going to die. But the ones I choose are able to be resuscitated..even if they look sometimes quite worn out and too far gone.

When I was younger, I worked in a few area greenhouses, learning tricks of the trade here and there, memorizing names/genus/species, etc. I learned how to bring plants around and how to prune them. So, on plant-saving missions, I dust off the knowledge that managed to stick with me, and find perennials, orchids, tropicals and others that I've worked with in the past..and some that I haven't. What looks like a twig with a few little green leaves at its base can be a thriving, happy plant later on with a little love, good soil and water (or lack thereof..in case of plants that were overwatered nearly to death). I like to use different plant vitamins (especially Super Thrive), plant food and fungicide to give them a boost.


This lovely Asiatic Lily was a ratty, already-bloomed, half-dead plant at Wal-Mart last year. I bought it for a dollar and this year it's doubled in size and has been very happy.

When you think of the time and effort it took to raise those poor, neglected plants..only to let them decline, it's a tragedy. In my twenties, I used to get racks of half dead orchid plants and my apartment was a floral paradise as they grew like crazy and were good as new after some patience (orchids grow slowly). Also, some annuals you see in the stores can be raised year-round in tropical climates, such as Morning Glories, Portulaca, etc. I saw them year-round down in Mexico. Morning Glories grew everywhere as weeds, and after big, tropical rains, they bloomed en masse, in shades of purple and pink. So if you like or save a pretty annual, consider potting it and bringing it inside during the winter. Just care for it as normal, as tropicals love water/humidity. They will reward you with color and beauty during the drab, cold months, and then you can put them outside on your porch in late Spring, or plant in your garden. With a little love and creativity, those throw-away plants you see at stores can be beautiful all year round.


This 5-foot tall double peach flowering Hibiscus tree is recuperating from a fungal problem, and is doing much better as time goes on. It has huge flowers, and lives on my porch in the Summer, then in my kitchen during cold weather. It will grow very large in time. I did it before and the one I used to have before grew so big I planted it in the ground when I lived in Florida, and let it stay there to live out its life in the tropics..where it came from.