« The High Line Exhibition | Main | Rockefeller Center »
May 05, 2005
Home Depot
Citygardenguide is not particularly keen on box stores--one of the good things about living in New York is their relative scarcity--but we are ALWAYS looking for a good deal on plants and garden products. So when the new Manhattan Home Depot stores took out big ads touting their Indoor Garden Centers we thought we should take a look.
Sad to report, the Indoor Garden Center is more dismal than you can imagine. For starters, the lighting, which is probably flattering to plumbing fixtures, makes everything look plastic. We had to finger the spathiophyllum and a number of other plants to make sure they were real. The choice of seasonal plants is pathetic. There were about a dozen potted roses in terrible condition, some potted tulips in pink foil paper which looked as if they had missed Easter, several diseased mandevilla vines.... you get the message. A group of standard hibiscus in neon colors were still looking presentable, but the pickings were very slim. Traditional indoor foliage plants appeared to be a better bet and were decently priced, but grouped together in that light they resembled a display in a less than elegant office lobby. A large collection of orchids looked healthy, but the selection of hanging plants left much to be desired. There were lots of ornamental pots but relatively few with simple clean designs.
Feeling that we had to find a redeeming feature, we moved on to the garden products; potting soils, fertilizers, and gizmos. We found an intriguing watering device which can keep a plant watered for three weeks. There were many sizes of potting soil (Home Depot seems to have an exclusive deal with Miracle Grow and Scotts). When we asked if there were any organic products, the salesperson looked at us as if we had said a bad word, and said no. We moved on...
Posted by gardenguidenyc at May 5, 2005 07:08 PM