Chuffed shopper shares £9.99 buy she got for 50p to brighten up her garden but is quickly warned it could die ‘in weeks'

The Sun

18-06-2025

A CHUFFED shopper who couldn't resist boasting about the £9.99 Home Bargains buy she got for 50p has been warned her delight may be short-lived.
Kellie was in the store at the Bentley Bridge retail park in Wolverhampton when she came across some cute little box bushes, which had been slashed to just 50p each.
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Thrilled, she picked up four, and took to the Extreme Couponing and Bargains UK group on Facebook to share her epic find.
"My little bargain small bushes reduced to 50p each from £9.99," she wrote alongside pictures of the plants.
"A few left in the store by the tills."
She added that she'd trimmed the bushes and planted them, so "hopefully they will grow".
However, the comments section was quickly inundated with other green-fingered shoppers issuing Kellie a warning about the little bushes.
" Caterpillars! We had to rip out all of ours this year from the garden as the little b**gers got to ours!" one wrote.
"Bushes that had been growing for more than 10 years gone in weeks as they destroyed them.
"They are unfortunately ruining all of these bushes - just be aware!!"
"Mine too, hundreds of the bleddy things at the all they could eat buffet!" another agreed.
"20 plus years and all gone in couple of weeks!"
Watch the moment home owner walks over their new-build's lawn and shows how landscaping turned it into a water bed
"I bought two from Home Bargains last year," a third wrote.
"Within 2 weeks they were dead along with so many others I had.
"Check for caterpillars!"
"I had well established bushes like these," someone else sighed.
"All got eaten within weeks by a caterpillar. Tried to grow back, got eaten again.
Common garden pests
Common pests in the garden don't need to be a cause for alarm. If you can identify them, you can work on getting rid of them and preventing them from returning.
Aphids (Greenfly, Blackfly)
Aphids are extremely common and can impact plant growth. They have tiny soft pear-shaped bodies, and are usually green or black. You may spot them clustered on the stem of soft shoots – look under leaves in particular – or may find a sticky substance on your plants that gives away aphids have been there sucking at the sap.
Whitefly
These small white-winged insects are related to aphids, at just 1 or 2 mm in length, and look very much like white moths as adults. They can be found on the underside of leaves, preferring younger, fresher leaves. They fly in clusters when you disturb them. Their lifecycle is only three weeks long, which means an infestation can occur very rapidly.
Slugs
An unmissable, squashy-looking body plus small sensory tentacles on its head. Slugs move along on one muscular foot. They range in scale from surprisingly small to terrifyingly large; limax cinereoniger species can grow comfortably beyond 20 cm in length.
Cabbage Moth Caterpillar
Cabbage moth caterpillars happily make their way into the heart of the vegetables, The caterpillars are distinguished in shades of yellow or browny green with no hair.
Mealy Bug
Mealybugs are tiny oval-shaped insects that have a white, powdery wax coating. There are several different species, many of which have what looks like legs coming from their sides and back end. In their earliest stage of life, it's entirely possible to mistake them for fungus and not recognise them as insects at all.
"You'll need to treat these regularly."
"Check for caterpillars!" another warned.
"I've got box bushes in my garden and this year the moth caterpillars have ravaged them!" someone else said.
"They go brown and have what looks like cobwebs on.
"I picked them off by hand and sprayed the bush with washing up liquid/water."
"I have them all around my front garden but all huge now," Kellie replied.
"Been in 10 years - more like hedges now lol - but never heard of that.
"I will be keeping the new ones in pots, thank you!"