Well, all those nursery plants are rushed through the greenhouse to get them in bloom for faster sale. Then, they arrive to be abused at the big box stores.

Pull all the flowers and buds. Tease off the slightly damp potting soil and replace with a good dirt,well rotted compost and a bit of bagged soil mixture. Depending on the receiving soil area drainage you could also add a bit of watersaving beads to the dirt in the bottom of the hole.

What you're asking of this plant (unless it's an annual) is to accept your soil and location and grow roots this year. Especially if you're planting it now in the heat.

Hold off on fertilizer..it mostly supports leaf growth.
Make that hole bigger than usual and break up the surrounding soil so this 'abused' plant can more easily send tiny feeder roots out and get established.

Water well but not too often. It has to learn to adapt to the home soil. Watering away from the root zone encourages the plant to send out strong roots to get moisture.

You'll be rewarded next year when you can feed the plant early in the season and get maximum blooms.

Thank you for a lot of good information. I have started removing most of the soil the plant came in.
Thanks again

We ran into a great deal a couple weeks ago at Lowes with clematis marked 75% off due to lack of watering. We potted them up into slightly larger pots, trimmed off any dead material and have kept a close watch on them - they are growing like gangbusters now - even the one that had no living stem came back from the roots and looks wonderful. Generally any of the clearance plants I do the same thing too just to give them a chance to reestablish themselves before planting them out in the garden.....

Lynne

This is MY FAVORITE place to buy my plants. Most are $1-2 and just need some TLC. 80% of them turn around and do incredibly well. My best find of late was a hibiscus tree that was originally $28 marked down to $3. I repotted it, pruned it a bit, and have been watching it settle in and open its lovely blooms. Ahhh, I love a good deal on my faorite thing -- plants!

Sheila

I know but when do you stop? I keep wanting to go to Lowe,s.

Thanks for all of the advice. Beautiful day here, I was able to stay in the yard all day.
Martha

I stumbled into a 75% off all shrubs sale at Lowes on Woodruff on Friday. I'm a hydrangea nut, so I just shoved a bunch of decent looking ones (one of each- why not!) into my cart and figured I'd sort it out at home. I got some duplicates and gave those to two of my gardening friends, both of whom loved them. When I find a REALLY great deal like that (I got 9 hydrangeas for $30- including four 3 gallon plants), I usually buy a few extra and give them to friends.

But, the big sale was at Woodruff only and when I was there on Saturday, the sale was OVER and some of the same plants were there marked back up to full price. Great deals at Lowes are really hit or miss in my experience.

Plants I get that are reduced and not looking as good as they could either go by the side of the house or another shady area, get left in their pots and watered often. I sitll have a few rescues from last year that I'm trying to decide where to plant.

I bought a Carnaby clematis from Lowes not long ago for a measly 2 dollars, all it needed was water! I planted it in the front of my house in part sun/shade. It took off like crazy, and actually had a bloom open a lovely rayed red and white. Since then it's only doing OK I think something is nibbling on it, probably a rabbit and it appears to be getting rather "stringy".

Lyle