Boycott Home Depot~Take 2
I was really hot yesterday about Home Depot’s genius decision to start stocking trees and small shrubs. I could barely communicate to you the blatant fact that the quality of their trees was almost laughable….in the sense of ”I just can’t believe it”….laughable.
I’ve heard of “topping trees”. I’ve seen the horrid result of such actions, but NEVER have I seen the practice applied to immature, thriving trees found at your local Home Depot.
Yesterday my jaw dropped at the sight of salable plants in March, today, my head is numb from imagining the injustice caused to the Horticulture industry as a whole.
I’m not sure of the motivations behind the butchering of these Maples but just so you know, it’s NOT general practice. We learn about it in school, only in terms of what NOT to do. It completely ruins the natural shape of a tree. It encourages a plethora of small calipered, weak branching. It’s ugly. It’s stupid. And it actually hurts the trees.
Just in case I wasn’t blunt enough:
Don’t “top” your trees.
And don’t buy your plants from Home Depot.
Happy Planting! starting in mid to late April
Katie
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March 13th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
hey katie,
i am still mad at menards for selling trees infested with emerald ash borer in appleton wisconsin 2 years ago instead of disposing of them as they were told to do by the DNR. so i’ll just have to add this to my list of really dumb things big box stores do for money.
Shop quality, buy local!! yeah timberpines
March 13th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Nathan! I missed that one! Holy crap..what’s going on.
March 13th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by ketelsen: Boycott @HomeDepot take 2 http://ow.ly/1jaTe second installment on my new blog…
March 15th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by ketelsen: @homedepot is killing our true Garden Centers with their horrendous behavior~what’s your thought http://ow.ly/1liuf...
March 18th, 2010 at 6:56 am
I’m with you 100%, Katie. I purchased 3 trees about 3 years ago from HD that I’ve subsequently had to replace. Very low quality stuff.
March 18th, 2010 at 8:18 am
Ouch Phil…3 trees eh? I hope their replacements are thriving!
March 18th, 2010 at 10:04 am
[...] Follow up to my Home Depot boycott Posted by: Katie Ketelsen in It ain't garden science, NO, do it yourself Add comments tweetcount_url='http://gardengrunt.com/2010/03/18/follow-home-depot-boycott/';tweetcount_title='Follow up to my Home Depot boycott';tweetcount_cnt=0;I thought it best that I actually explain to you what a “good” tree should look like so that you would have the knowledge to shop responsibly, regardless of where that may be. This is a follow up to my previous spout about Home Depot. [...]