On that I agree with you!

Looks like the annual 'Let's Gang-Up & Trash J&P' season has begun in earnest. What rose supplier ISN'T concerned with marketing -- or with profits?

Although I usually purchase my roses from Great Lakes Roses, David Austin, Pickering, etc. occasionally I will order from J & P and have had some excellent luck with some of their roses. The highlight of my garden last year were two plants from J & P - the floribunda Royal Wedding. Very healthy, hardy and beautiful heavy bloomers. I also had excellent luck with two David Austins that were carried by J & P exclusively - Bishop's Castle and Jubilee Celebration. Again, both roses were healthy, had lots of good cane, and performed beautifully in my garden. These were all roses that were not available through my usual sources, and I was very pleased with their quality. It's nice to have many different sources.

A Very Happy & Healthy New Year to everyone.
I love J&P for their courteous reps and their willingness to try to make wrongs right. Having said that, has anyone ever tried their blueberry plants - more particularly someone in zone 9 (Fl)? That's the only item in the catalog that tempts me.

J&P sells quality roses and has great customer service. They also have great sales after the spring ordering is done.

Didn't Jim also complain about David Austin? I think he's just mad because he can't grow any of these roses in his zone.

Oh ,I would rather pay their prices and have a reasonable 5-6 months of health and proliferation with a reasonable shot at survivng the zone 5 winter then pay the same for some tiny band of some exotic that probably will not last the summer. They do fulfill a nuts and bolts garden need for me, and I have found their bare roots and other garden products to be as good as most internet and cataloge companies. Customer service very responsive...ownwed by Harry And David. Sometimes larger companies can absorb the loss of an error more readily than the smaller ones. And yes...I like the fruit too ( :

There are still those of us who plant mostly HT's and floribundas. While they are not my preferred vendor I will and do order from them.

But I agree about the post the other day about voting their own floribundas the best LOL. They also doctor their pics a bit too much. I mostly order tried and true things from them, but I did order April in Paris with my gift card from my Bil. I could not resist.:)

susan4952,
Harry and David sold J&P last year to the same holding company who owns Wayside and Park Seeds. Some say their quality has already suffered a little. I've been told their orders are handled from the same place as Wayside's and Park's. We shall see how it goes after they are fully integrated with the those two.

J&P has been known to promote their plants in the slick catalogs we all get, but I've always gotten very nice Roses from them and they do have a good refund policy if you contact them in a timely manner.
I have found them expensive and usually don't order many from them these days.
I don't have any real problem with their marketing tactics but we'll have to see what happens when the new company really takes over.
Chuck

Jackson and Perkins are too high and are great at marketing their products. But, occasionally they come up with some great roses.....and I keep coming back year after year to be used a little more. Hard to tell what their quality is going to be like after being sol.

I put myself thrugh college in the late 70s, in RI. I got on J&Ps mailing list, who knows why, couldn't plant anything in our apt---but the catalog came "in the bleak midwinter" and my roomies & I were thumbing through the photos, enjoying the vision of something bright & blooming. Heidi said, "These pictures are so beautiful, I can almost smell the flowers," and I had thought so, too---I put the catalog right up to my nose---sure enough, a faint rose scent! They were perfuming the catalog --- wow---I have never trusted them since. Although I do have to admire the idea.

J&P were my original suppliers. I grow more OGRs now and mostly ownroot, so don't purchase from them as much, but I admit to having purchased some wonderful roses from them. Several things about the catalogue made me happy.

They are offering Purple Tiger again. I know, I know, much groaning and complaining about that rose, but it did very well for me and there is nothing like those blooms. My x bulldozed it (actually he used a bobcat) during the divorce or I'd have it still. So now I can replace it, even though I'd rather not do grafted. For all I know, it is one of those roses that needs to be grafted.

Referencing the divorce, I was able to get some of my roses, but left all of my perennials. So a couple of happy notes in the perennial area.

J&P is offering the Aster "Wonder of Staffa". Its the best blue/lavendar aster ever and I hadn't been able to replace it because everyone has been offering whatever their latest is.

They are also offering the siberian iris "Steve" another great bloomer I had not been able to replace for the same reason as the paragraph above.

And the Malva "Blue Fountain". There is a big bare spot in my front border just waiting for this plant.

About April in Paris. I grew both Pristine and New Zealand. Both I lost in the divorce. Both I plan to replace at some point because I loved them (even though I don't much like pink roses). This could be a very good rose. I'm probably going to run down the road to the local grower and buy one just to see. Its ownroot!!!!!!

Why get mad at J&P? I think of them very much in the same vein as I do Heirloom; which is that they both have gorgeous catalogs, wonderfully "flowery" descriptions that of course omit any mention of any weakness in a given variety and describe virtually every rose as "fragrant". But still, I enjoy looking at them, can go look up more info elsewhere about most listed varieties that catch my attention and usually find it at a better price, too. But am I going to complain when they send me free catalogs? Hell no. I LIKE eye candy. Besides, as said above, they have periodically come out with exclusive varieties that are truly great roses. I certainly wouldn't mind getting Pope John Paul II, for example, or how about Sultry.

It would be nice, though if they would actually make more of their rose varieties available from their retail catalogs. I know they grow many many varieties, but most seem to only be available wholesale, and some they've dropped altogether but still cling to the patents so that on one else can sell them. Oh well, I can find "most" of their offerings elsewhere, even if I have to wait a couple years to do it.

Oh yeah, I suspect Buford has a point, too, about Jim being mad he can't grow most HTs well in his zone. Guess what; I've got a few blooms and quite a few flower buds out in my yard right now. :) More than makes up for our July-August swamp pressure cooker down here. lol

I complain about lots of stuff, just ask my wife!

"I can't complain but sometimes I still do"

Joe Walsh

I have 15 of their roses that I bought from a local nursery in pots for $14, each in pots. The quality is good but their direct prices are indeed high, plus shipping. The only cheap J and P roses are found as bareroots at the 99 cents and only stores in May and June. I bought ten last year and only 2 bloomed: a white fairy rose and an orange rose(unk). Lets see how many survived the winter of 5 feet of snow. 4 showed some life before winters onset but I will think Im lucky if 2 survive. If I see them again my strategy will be different, pot and put in semishade area. All and all the nursery plants from J and P are good quality.

I bought Abraham Darby as a 2 gallon J&P own root at the local nursery. It has been very healthy and vigorous. Not cheap, though ($25).