Show and Tell: Rescuing plants nobody wants

One of my favorite things to do is check Lowe's for the plants that are on sale. All during the day they add plants to the markdown carts at the Lowe's in town. Throughout the years, I've gotten lots of good buys on plants that come back each year.

I checked the cart the other day, and found these coleus plants for 29 cents each! They were pretty leggy, and needed to be trimmed. I know they won't come back next year, but I just hated to see them on that sale cart baking in the hot sun with no one paying any attention to them!

Coleus is really easy to root, so after I trimmed the plants, I put the cuttings in these containers to give away or make another pot. So I ended up with 18 extra plants! And all I had to do was stick them in the potting soil, water them a little each day or so and keep them in a shady spot.

I didn't see any pots that I really liked enough to spend money on, so I picked up a can of black spray paint while in there, and dug out these old fiberglass pots from under a table in our shed.

After lightly spray painting the pots black, I gathered everything needed to plant the pot. I did splurge and buy 1 pot of purple fountain grass for height in the pot. It wasn't on sale, but worth the 4.99 it cost.

Here's a picture on the finished product! I used one pot as a base, and stacked the one with the flowers on top of it to make a pedestal type planter. It fit in nicely with other pots at the end of the walkway.

I really like the contrast of the colors and the texture in the coleus. I love the way they blend in with the purple fountain grass. At one time, I really didn't care for coleus at all...but some of the new varieties are so pretty and look great in containers. This planter will last until fall and fill out nicely in the days to come, and I rescued some plants that probably would have been thrown away! And I am now 'hooked' on a new plant!

For lots more Show and Tells visit Kelli at There is no Place Like Home. Have a great day!