my local store are selling ceramic pots with various things in for 50p or a £1. there is strawberries, beans,herbs even flower bulbs. the staff said they are dead.
maybe the pots are worth it?

A little tip Mel...........if they're dead, don't buy 'em........

bought for the pots as have seeds :-)

There is an 8ft castor oil plant next to my pond. I bought it from the Hospital Corner in B&Q, where it had been pronounced 'dead'. It was in a litre pot back then.....

Beans will be dead but some bulbs, herbs and the strawberries may still be alive. And if you like the pots - what's to lose?

I once bought a 25p 'dead' rock rose from b&q, which has since spread to fill an entire flower bed.

Even better, in autumn our local Homebase leave trays of 'dead' plants by the exit for people to take free - many of them are just dying down perennials which are perfectly healthy. I guess they don't want to store them from year to year.

For 50p, I'd take a chance on it - even just for the pot.

I never go to a garden centre without seeking out the dead plants ("reduced to clear") section. I've had many a bargain there over the years, like WPG says, perennials that will be fine after a bit of tlc.

Having said that, the standard of bargain seems to have gone right down the last few years, e.g. like 25% off scruffy end-of-season half hardy annuals and bolting vegetable plugs.

Maybe I'm going to the wrong garden centres and should just hang around outside H0mebas3 and b and q instead?

But if you like the little pots Mel, buy them up, plant the dead things somewhere out of the way to recover and re-use the pots.

I'm with Martin on this, I always buy most of my plants from the "dead plants" section as with a little TLC they usually do fine. I always remember an old, retired nurseryman telling me, "take 'em home, pot 'em on and they'll be champion". he wasn't wrong!

£5 for a flowering cherry tree that is now 25' tall...... and lots more.