Interesting link!

I would bet quite a few of us possess a plant or two that originated from there. With the exception of local growers or direct purchase from a grower who knows the actual source of their parent plant, who knows? Even small time, hometowny "nurseries" truck a good percentage of their inventory in or purchase wholesale bareroots (from Costa Rica?) to start in their greenhouses. Even the large commercial nurseries I know of focus on trees and shrubbery, not perennials. And let's face it, they purchase starts, not seeds. Not to say there aren't large commercial operations here in the USA that focus on perennials but with such a huge market and demand these imports have to hold their "fair share".

Very interesting to ponder. No doubt the latest and greatest hybrids are grown on a small enough scale that lineage might be traced like an ancestor but everything else?

As for Lowes? They get a lot of business from me including plants. Without a 100 mile round-trip they've usually got the best selection, variety, and prices locally. Lucky I can shop a semi-commercial daylily farm and the same goes for ground-grown hostas. I've had good luck with my Lowes plants just the same.

Thanks for sharing!

In my part of Maine, Lowe's forgets to water their plants, but Home Depot has an elderly gentleman who runs the garden section professionally. Stores vary.

Yes from store to store Lowes does have a different take on the outside garden areas. I can go to 4 different ones all within about 40 miles. Some have nothing but dried out plants and landscape bricks, while others are packed with plants and such all the time. I'm thinking it's the management and the staff that go into a good location. I go at least once a week for something and check out the newest stock of plants. The Binghamton NY store moves a lot of plants to the discount area often. I buy some plants at pretty fair prices this way. Also I check for potting soil bags that have been torn open and re-bagged. Of all the potting soil bags brands that they have there is often a bag or two that I can get for at least 1/2 price. Works real well when your going to use it anyways that day. Also mulch.
Back to the Custard Candys... They are so far going strong. I did see the shipment when it was full and they had hundreds of them. Pretty sure they will be C Candys. Spring will tell.
Dennis

At least on trees, but maybe other plants, Lowe's will refund your money for a full year if you bring them back a dead plant. Keep receipts with a note in real ink about the date, price, and plant - maybe also the numerical code. Receipts can fade.

One fall, I took a chance on a dry Blue Spruce that didn't revive. I got a refund the next spring.

Linneaj said:At least on trees, but maybe other plants, Lowe's will refund your money for a full year if you bring them back a dead plant. Keep receipts with a note in real ink about the date, price, and plant - maybe also the numerical code. Receipts can fade.

One fall, I took a chance on a dry Blue Spruce that didn't revive. I got a refund the next spring.

We purchased three Redbud trees from Lowes last spring, and none of them survived.
Sadly, we lost the receipt, so were out of luck.

I can think of half a dozen locations with twenty miles of where I'm sitting, where row upon row of trees are lined up, waiting to grow to a certain size, and be sold.

And, if you go to Eustis, Fl, and take SR-44 like you were going to Nichole's daylilies, you will pass a number of wholesale nursery operations, most of which seem to specialize in bedding plants and shrubs. There's quite a bit of that around Apopka, Fl, as well.

It's a safe bet that most of these nurseries buy huge quantities of plants from places like the one in Costa Rica, then put them in pots and grow them for a season or two before they enter the retail market.