Guide to Proplifting: How to find free plants!

It is VERY important to note that I am NOT CONDONING SHOPLIFTING or breaking plants/ruining stock with the intention of taking it, I RECOMMEND ASKING STAFF before picking leaves off the ground, as there is definitely a grey area with the legality of this practice and different stores have different policies about this practice.

As a previous Home Depot manager IF anyone does this it is stealing and any home depot employee allowing this will also be prosecuted because ALL the plants belong to the usually e different local plant companies . The plants DO NOT belong to HD.

Way to encourage shopping lifting. Ugh, people work hard to grow your encouraging stealing others' hard work. Sad

Please folks, dont feel bad for a giant corporation that underpays its workers, pushes small local family businesses out of the market, and lobbies politicians for tax breaks your local business can't get. Please support local businesses with your purchasing power (if you can) and do proplifting at corporate giants.

Theif! Stealing from a multi-million dollar company who don't give 2 shits about you, and just your money, all just for your own tiny gain. This is enough to land you in hell.
(I'm kidding around)

While picking up a bag of soil and some clay pots, I was able to pick up a couple of dropped succulent leaves. A small Star Aloe leaf, and a Snake Plant leaf. The lady at the register was okay with my taking those.

This fall, Menards was selling off their Japanese Maple inventory. After I had put them in my cart, I asked the garden center manager to give me additional discounts on top of their regular discount, most of the time they have complied with additional discounts amounting to 50% to 75% off. Big bargains for Japanese maples

At Home Depot, I bought big 26-inch whiskey barrel wooden planters and asked for discounts. The manager easily took 10 dollars off of each planters. I bought 3 of those at a discount.

All you have to do is ask for discounts, and you may be surprised by their responses.

😂😂that's not free is shop lifting

I think it is WAY better to wait for the end of the plant season when there are racks of "leftovers" and more or less "bellyup" plants ..many beyond hope but quite a few recoverables! In Ace hardware I wait for the dried up end of season tomatoplants sitting there for 25c each and you should see how fast they recover and start producing just fine! The "gleaning" of broken off succulent parts and not buying any plants at all seems a bit ...well...one sided, but this is only my personal opinion.

As someone who has been at odds with the law most of my life id definitely consider it shoplifting unless you clear it with them first. But i say go for it at big corporations. Good luck and happy propagating!

I do it all the time. I have a windowsill full of leaves growing babies.

I know where I'm going tomorrow!! Great video

What is the best soil you use for propagating?

Thanks for your information i'm frm south africa enjoy your day

I’m definitely going to try this !!

With right color, you can get everything free from and, lol

Funny, this is also my story

There was a monstera adonsonni at a Home Depot near me and I was like hey is there any discount I can get on this Becuase it is completely root rotten and every leaf is yellow/brown icky
And she goes ugh yea 20$
And I’m like seriously? In my head I wanted to cry bc the poor bean is gonna die anyway /:
But oh well ig

I’m glad you made this video , my husband always yelled at me when I picked up a piece of succulent like this, now I know it is ok to do that , thanks.

I would always ask rather than assume it’s okay.

We need all these stores to just have a free stand but ONLY when there closed so there's no issues of stealing the non free plants!! This can be a great idea to help out sooo many people and the earth!!!

I hate they just get tossed why not donate them to nursing homes. It would give them something to care for and make them happy

Great video. Are you using just cactus soil in your flat trays? Appreciate any recommendations.

There was a story in our local paper about a guy who gets off reviving sick & dying plants. One day, he was in his local Home Depot garden center and saw the employee pitch a plant into the trashcan. He went & asked if he could have it & the garden mgr said 'YES'. That MGR told him it was their practice to weed out the sick & dying plants every Saturday. So, He then got into the habit of stopping in every Sat morn & he was given a whole bunch of plants to revive free of charge. Way Cool.
ALSO,
When you drive down the strret in the commercial warehouse district, if you see a beautiful plant you like, stop & take a cutting.

!

I got a load of Christmas succulents from ikea, one year, just from doing this! Just pick up all the broken off bits, and you have free gifts the following year 😊

We have bought quite a few Hondas from our local dealer so everyone once in a while I'll go by and remove a tire and bring it home.

The arguments about being a good customer, spending money there, so my conscience is clear, etc., are completely worthless arguments.

The good news here is, the ONLY argument that's valid and has any ethical value is that you ask if it's OK for you to take dropped bits you find.

That's it, it's that simple and straight forward and binary. So it's THAT practice that does NOT equate what you are doing to "proplifting". If you have permission, then your activity equates to volunteer janitorial work and cleanup.

I was in the back of Home Depot on their property, getting some seeds off of a desert ironwood tree that was growing in the ground, and they came out and asked me what I was doing. I let them know and asked if it was OK, and they said yes, take all of the seeds you would like. so I was able to grow some Arizona desert ironwood trees from their free seeds. 👍

They might also discount or let you take broken bags of soil etc. While shopping, I struck up a conversation with an employee and told them I'd be happy to take whatever broken bag (thing of interest) I spotted off their hands so it didn't get wasted. One person gave it to me and on a different occasion someone else sold it to me for a quarter of the price. Tonight I collected a few broken plant pieces and put them in the plant I was buying and told the cashier they were broken on the ground and asked if I could have them to try to save them. They said yes :) Thanks for the advice!

I have a deep belief that anything 'living' or 'of nature'- plants, people, land, animals, water, etc. should not be bought and sold for profit or 'owned'. They should be cared for, used, and shared publicly, freely, and communally.

what are they going to do? propagate it, repot it, label it and add it to their corporate run inventory?

I always ask for the lawn and garden manager to clear it. I don’t want to get an associate in trouble. I buy something in a pot that has room because, to me, putting them in my pocket looks shady and draws more attention…..Happy proplifting. 9 times out of 10, I share the proplifting reference and it breaks the ice.

I do the same thing. The manager told me I was no longer allowed to do that. Im like they are going to die if I dont. So I bought a saucer dish that catches water. I asked an was told no. I do it anyway. Tbe i b es that fall if. I live im nir the only one

I live 5 blocks away from a Lowes & 7 blocks away from a home depot. I've noticed my local Lowes will try to put fallen leaves in random planters but home depot never has loose leaves or propagating leaves on the ground or in other planters

ya free plants! wait what? at the home depot!!! ya adventure!!!! Plant Blog!

I told a women at the garden center who was buying so many marigold plants. I told her to buy 2 plants and when the flower head is done to get the seeds out. You will never have to buy more marigolds 🤩

great job explaining this topic

Home Depot funds Anti-LGBTQ legislators, so therefor I always try to get something for free if I absolutely have to go there.

You got to be kidding? I'm gonna go hit my hand with a hammer for watching / listening to this for 5 min. I fell for the title...
Stupid me!

Just did this at Walmart today with my 7 year old lol. She has her own cuttings not to start her succulent propagations. I also found a string of pearls on the ground and some other succulents at lowes.

They also throw away a ton of plants if they aren’t in bloom. Like daily.

I too ask if I can have what is on the ground. And they have no issues.

I got a grocery bag full of stuff yesterday, and no, the employees don't care. My youngest likes leafy plants so the large pieces, I just leave in the cart. The single succulent leafs, I put in my pocket. They know you're going to see something to buy,which I did. So, they don't care (at home depot). It really is best to throw the succulents in or in soil within 3 days of finding. The soft leafy plants must go in water or moist sphagnum immediately

I have taken plenty of pieces of almost dead plants home. I'm talking like one node leaves or 2 inch tradescantia which are ALWAYS lying all over the floor. The stuff is literally going in the trash anyway. Why not give it life 🤷🏼‍♀️

You know you have the sweetest face but I like that you have a little bit of rebel in you😂

I went to two different Menards today One Menards had threw away a lot of plants and a lot of plants were on clearance because the season is ending So there were just a lot of cactus leaves on the ground fresh and healthy there was a bunch of string of pearls and I pretty much put them all in a little napkin and I took my soil that I was purchasing and a pot and some other stuff and I just asked the lady at the cash register I was like I found these on the floor can I just take them with me she was like Yeah we just sweep the stuff on the floor up and throw it in the garbage can not even a second thought

pro tip :)

I sometimes go to the botanical garden and get some free dried seeds. Or I will exchanged plants from neighbors