Gayla Trail at You Grow Girl and Elizabeth Licata at Gardening While Intoxicated both have recently reported their finds at botanical society plant sales. Why am I paying full price? Why haven’t I bumped into any of these botanical society sales? Do you have to live in Toronto or Buffalo to get perennials for a few dollars each?

Maybe not. At my local grocery store, in addition to the cemetery planters and buckets of geraniums, there were — surprise! — really nice full size perennials on sale, two for $10. (At the local nursery, the same plants are $14 each; even at Home Depot they’re $9 or $10 each.) I inspected them and found these:

• Leucanthemum ‘Becky’ (2) — daisies? I should get more.
• Aquilegia ‘Biedermeier’ (4) — I love columbine.
• Bellis ‘Strawberries & Cream’ (6) — This was an impulse grab. I’m not normally looking for pink, but these are sweet.
• Hosta ‘Wide Brim’ (4) — Our back yard is a mix of part and deep shade. These thrive.
• Hosta ‘Francee’ (2) — Ditto.

Eighteen plants, $90. Not bad. Now if I could only find some cheap annuals. Hardware store, here I come.