So many churches have Easter Lilies on the altar, and on Monday they are tossed out. I confess that I go "dumpster diving" to retrieve the lilies which are often still green and healthy. I water them thoroughly, remove them from the pots, and then try to find spots in the garden for them. I have a gardening friend who is as much of a softie as I, and will take any neglected, ejected plant and bring it back to life. She has a LOT of Easter lilies now!
I think that's a great thing to do Jane. Here the Easter lilies are all cut flowers or I'd been dumpster diving too. I hate to see plants thrown away that could be replanted and go on to give joy to a garden.
I once saw an entire tray (36) of marigolds abandoned at my local landfill years ago, and while they looked a bit brown and worse for wear they had a lot of green color as well. I brought them home, repotted them and after a week of TLC they rebounded into gorgeous specimens!
The expression "where did that come from" for a now emerging plant, has ceased to be used, as those doing the questioning have learned that almost anything that is green and on it's last legs is given a chance, in a pot, a glass of water of a vacant spot in a garden bed. Even their progeny may be squirreled away in a container for a future planting but almost all have a fighting chance. Including the mini celery stalk I found between two larger stalks now sits in a 50ml beaker happy it did not get thrown away(Experiment 19-022). Jerry
@marlingardener that's nice what you do and such a shame being throwed out...here they used to give them to the hospitals or homes for the elderly, weather it's still done I don't know.
I do this with clients and their houseplants, especially orchids. Once the blooms fall off, they're ready to get a new one, because they don't have the time, or more often the patience, to nurture the plant till it puts out new blooms, which as you know with orchids, takes a while. And their other houseplants too, when they start looking poorly, or sometimes just when they get tired of them, are often offered to me because they know I'll take 'em. Occasionally, like you all, I'll find one in the trash and I'll happily fish it out and rescue it. I probably don't have a friend left who hasn't been the recipient of one or more of my rescued plants. and my daughter has followed in my footsteps. She's started to haunt our local Lowes for their greatly discounted houseplants..stuck in the back, on their last legs, one step before the dumpster. There are a dozen plants she has earmarked for me once I'm stably at Ron's and the dust has settled .. both figuratively and literally because we're still very much in the throes of working on the master and until he gets the demolition of the old closet and bathroom done and all that mess is over with, they're going to stay happily at her house!
When I worked, people leaving the company would often give me plants they no longer wanted. Sometimes, I would arrive at my office in the morning to find a plant sitting on the floor next to the door. Probably thinking, it's about time you arrived, can I have a spot near the window? Next to the last day there was yet again another orphan at the door. 10 years into retirement many of those plants still occupy a window spot, but now it's at home. Jerry
My neighbour who moved worked at a garden centre and they had an area for plants which was no good and many a week she's come back with plants on deaths door and they've soon been rehomed here
