The calendar says summer is winding down, but garden-center bargain season is just getting interesting. Once the big rush for colorful annuals fades, many nurseries and garden centers start clearing space, which can create excellent opportunities to pick up plants and supplies for less.
That does not mean every sad-looking plant in the clearance section deserves a rescue mission. Some bargains represent perfectly good plants that simply have fewer weeks of prime display time left, while others have spent the summer getting stressed, neglected, or overcrowded in their containers.
