If they look like they're just dying from lack of water, I'll give them a try for a huge discount. If they look sick from bugs or disease, I wouldn't bother.

put your hand over the pot .. with the plant between your middle fingers.. and tip the plant out ...

a vibrant root system ... on a perennial .. might be salvageable ... there MIGHT be a bargain there ...

if the roots are as dessicated as the tops ... forget it ... there is NO bargain..

it isnt worth the gas to drive home annuals ... they are goners ...

make sense???

after you waste enough money.. like most of have.. you will learn.. there are probably.. very few real bargains ...

ken

I feel that are often great bargains to be had. Not everything that is marked down is dying/diseased/DOA. Blooming plants SELL, and most often nurseries will nicely discount those plants after blooming is over - nothing wrong with the plant other than it won't bloom until next year. Now, of course, plants sold primarily for foliage effect (e.g. hosta, coral bells) don't fall into this category...

Sometimes the plants are on their last leg and that is why they are marked down. Now your observation skills and common sense are going to have to come into play. I can't name any one thing in particular I look for in these cases; I guess I just know what to buy and what to avoid when I see it.

Fall is the best time to score real bargains on plant material as well as optimal planting time in general. The deep discounts usually start cropping up October or so in my area, maybe a little earlier, depending. One's stance on planting later in the fall is the topic for another post and has been discussed many, many (many) times in the past (and probably will be debated yet again this fall), so please let's not bring that issue into the discussion at this point :0)

Perennials with browned foliage and vibrant new growth at the base are usually a pretty good bet. Checking for healthy roots and a not overly potbound state is useful. I may buy borderline specimens if it's something I really could use and it's heavily discounted.

Discount annuals are sometimes worth buying, especially if they're a variety that can be propagated by cuttings (i.e. Coleus) or carried over indoors till next year. I've bought cheap Musa basjoo plants near the end of the season and kept them going under lights until the following spring.

I buy marked down perennials all the time. I buy potted bulbs that are done blooming too.

I'm with Mxk3! My garden is full of "rescued" perennials that I scooped off the clearance table at Lowes, for a small fraction of thier original price. A through dead-heading, fresh soil and a good watering usually results in a nice, healthy plant that will reward me with beautiful blooms the following season. Even some annuals will bloom again in a few weeks with this treatment. Of course you have to make sure the plant is not diseased or too far gone to survive.

The box stores in the past used to mark things down to a quarter- I got 8 small, caradonna salvia that way that are now, several years later, huge.
I've bought lots of non blooming annuals that were fine just not in flower, for less than a dollar.
Huge geraniums (with buds but no flowers) for fifty cents.
(They overwinter well for a few years anyway too)
Large, fancy, healthy, just-not-in-bloom-at-the-moment petunias for a quarter.

But the prices here have gone way up. Now they want three dollars for that same geranium, half price, yes, but too much for me.
I rarely see perennials anymore unless they look totally dead and then they're still two dollars or more.

I won't buy distressed annuals, but I'll take a chance on discounted perennials if they are discounted enough.

What you want to have is a nice nursery bed where you can place plants you want to baby back into good health.

Find a nice shady spot (dappled shade is good) near a source of water, and create a bed with good quality soil that will be big enough to hold the babies you rescue until it cools off enough to plant them in a permanent spot.

You want it to retain moisture, but also to drain well. I put down a layer of sand and then a layer of good quality bagged potting soil.

After that, you put your "lightly killed" rescue plants into the nursery bed and keep them moist. I've had perennials that didn't have a single living leaf on them (but with root systems that looked fine) leaf back out and survive until it cooled off enough to find them a permanent spot for planting in the fall.

I've got a whole lot of different clematis I paid a quarter apiece for. You can score some deals.

I bought a huge geranium in a hanging pot just this week for $3 at Home Depot. It was covered with dried, dead flowers, but the leaves were green and vibrant. I dead-headed it, cut out any yellowed leaves, and it is covered in buds now. YES, a bargain!
I have also "rescued" poorly cared-for African violets from Walmart. They don't water them properly or put them in good light. Flowers die, leaves droop, and they are discounted. I take them home, water, feed, and put them in good light. They have rewarded me with some lovely blooms.

Half my garden is made up of markdowns! Probably more than half. I never buy something that is all dead on top, though. Like , you get a feel for things. Just accept the fact that some won�t make it. The nursery bed is a great idea. Gives them a chance to at least get out of being rootbound. I have one, it's my former vegetable garden, which is now too shady for tomatoes. Still gets too much sun for an ideal nursery, though. If I run out of time in the fall, though, that's where things go.

I drove through Dubuque yesterday, back to Chicago. There is a gigantic Menard's there where I always stop for a rest break (yeah, right...). They have the biggest big box nursery I've ever seen. Completely different selection than in my area. So of course, some marked down perennials came home with me. Missing tags, out of bloom: who cares? I scored 3 Bridal Veil astilbe (that did have tags), an unknown white/pale pink Gaura, Minarrete Lupine, Powis Castle Artemisia, and my real prize, a white balloon flower. All beat up, past blooming, or dry, but healthy enough to take a risk on. Not buggy or diseased. I have no idea where these guys are going. To me, the thrill of a deal is worth it.

I think there are a lot of plant first aiders here. I started a thread a while back and got a lot of responses.

Here is a link that might be useful: Reduced plants

My yard has TONS of markdowns but one important thing to do is smell the base and/or root area of the plant. If it smells like rot...pass it up. Often when they are almost dead, they will overwater them and they are goners for sure (easy to also do if you tip the pot out like ken suggested...then take a sniffer)

If it's brown, put it down.
If it's green, do your thing.