Hosta ‘Halcyon’
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Maybe your soft spot is homeless dogs at the Humane Society. My soft spot is clearance shelf rescue plants. It is hard for me to walk past that clearance shelf without pausing to assess what is on offer.
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I went to Lowes in late August for gravel, potting soil and landscaping blocks, and happened upon hundreds of struggling plants loaded on rack after rolling rack out in the full sun. Oh, the indignity of once beautiful plants ending up in such straits after just a few short weeks in a big-box store.
I couldn’t avert my eyes. I couldn’t just walk past. I had to scan the shelves to see what I might salvage. That is where I turned up two Fortune’s holly ferns that I planted to help control erosion, a flat of mixed Sedums, and this poor little Hosta. Marked down to only a dollar, how could I not give it another chance at life?
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The Hosta has grow several new leaves over the past three weeks. It could be divided next spring.
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The day it came home with me, it had exactly three leaves left, and those were scalded from sitting in full sun with dried up soil. That’s not a promising start. But I knew that if those three leaves were alive, then the roots were alive. And you buy a perennial for its roots.
Before adopting a dog or a plant, there are a few questions one must address: Does it have fleas, or other insect infestation? Any signs of disease? Will it fit in with the family? Can it be saved?
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Two Athyrium ‘Bradford’s Rambler’ that I picked up on an August clearance in 2018 yielded several plants, after division.
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With a plant, my next question is its expected life-span. Only the perennials are worth the effort, to me. An annual is only expected to live a few months, anyway. Late in the season, it usually isn’t worth it to purchase and rescue an annual plant.
Now, a marginally hardy perennial might be an exception. I recently bought a couple of flats of stressed Salvia coccinea, a native perennial to our south. This red hummingbird Salvia is hardy at least to Zone 8, and might make it here with a good mulch. The plants were still in 1″ cell packs, root bound, and stunted. I took a chance.
I freed each one’s roots, loosened the root balls, and planted them into rich potting mix in larger pots. After a good feeding and watering, I set them into a protected spot in partial sun to recover and begin to grow. After giving away more than half of those I bought, I still had a few Salvia plants left to use in a bed, and others left for pots.
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Salvia coccinea, Hummingbird Salvia, have prospered now that they have room to grow and reasonable care.
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The key to reviving a rescue plant is to meet its needs and give it space and time to recover. Rescue plants have sat in a shop for too long. They may have gotten too much or too little light, been allowed to dry out, and they are almost certainly root bound. Most have lost a lot of their leaves and may have stopped growing due to extreme stress.
So the first thing I do with a plant, after looking it over carefully for any sign of hitch-hiking insects or disease, is to water the root ball. First thing, before I even go in the house. I may even water the plant before I leave the nursery, if I have some water in the car. Water is life for a plant, and it can’t carry out any of its life functions if it doesn’t have moisture.
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I enjoy miniature Hostas, but they can be pricey. All of mine came as gifts or as clearance plants. I found this one in late July, with its own culture of moss, and simply repotted and fed it.
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Next, I usually cut away and throw away any broken or dead stems and leaves. Pruning stimulates new growth, and the plant needs healthy new tissue to begin producing sugars and cellulose again so it can recover.
If a plant has grown way too much top growth, for the size of its roots, you might cut it back by a third to a half to stimulate new growth. It is possible that the stems you cut away will root, given a chance, to give you even more new plants.
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After several weeks of care, it is producing new leaves and may fill the pot before frost.
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If a plant is severely root bound, with roots showing on top of the rootball and hanging out of the pot, it needs repotting or planting as soon as possible. Gently tease out the roots, trim away any that look damaged or dried up, and give the plant a new, larger pot. I usually pot up all rescue plants and leave them in shade to partial sun, away from other plants, until they show signs of growth. This allows the plants a rest, a chance to convalesce, before I expect them to perform. While they all need light, placing them in a little more shade than they would normally grow in gives them a chance to recover without the stress of full sun exposure.
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This little Alocasia was a rescue plant last summer. It has many beautiful leaves, but is still much shorter than most cultivars of this species.
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Finally, I give a good foliar feed with fish emulsion, such as Neptune’s Harvest. Drench the plant’s remaining leaves and root ball with this gentle, mineral rich fertilizer. Do it once every week or so, and watch the life return to the plant as it sends up new leaves.
Remember, with a perennial, you are buying the root system. If there are some leaves or buds, that is just a bonus. After working with bare root starts for a while, one comes to realize that the roots and crown are the main things required for a plant’s survival. Most perennials die back to just their roots and crown during the winter, or their period of dormancy anyway. A stressed plant may go dormant in the summer, too, and will reawaken with new growth when conditions become favorable once again.
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Late summer and early fall are prime time to find good rescue plants. Discounts may range from 15% up to %75. Sometimes I’m even given plants for free, where I have a relationship with the staff, especially if the plants are already destined for the compost pile.
This is a good way to acquire plants when you want to experiment with a new cultivar, when you need a large quantity of a specific plant, or when you’re on a budget. A little TLC and a lot of patience make those horticultural dreams come true, as plants bounce back and grow in your care for many, many years to come.
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Woodland Gnome 2019
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Forest Garden 