Last spring I ordered 3 John Cabots from Pickering. They looked great when I received them. I gave one to each of two worker buddys, and kept one for myself.
Mine never broke dormancy and seemed to just decline from there all summer, so I shovel pruned him in favor of Westerland which I got from Heirloom roses.
Westerland did great.
One of my fellow workers said theirs did great, and one said theirs did bad too. Maybe I got a couple of duds.
This year I decided to try again with Pickering and purchased 3 Twister mini climbers.
One will go in a half barrel with J&P's small umbrella trellis. We'll see how that goes then. The other two I haven't decided on where yet.

Last year I got 2 Austins and 2 Kordes roses from them. The two Kordes roses took off right away and did great. The two Austins needed much TLC. But they lived. Austins take some time to establish anyway.

My Souvenir de la Malmaison came from Pickering and has surprised me with its hardiness and vigor. She is on the right in the picture below and is certainly not the weak baby as some describe her...

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The Gallica below (on right) is Gloire de France, now about 8' wide, which is another Pickering purchase that has thrived here.

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Pickering grafts onto rootstock (can't remember name) which is well suited for the acid soil found here in the east.

Last fall, I planted these roses from Pickering:
Gay Princess
Golden Arctic
Lady Moss
Mrs. Oakley Fisher
New Zealand
Pink Peace
Playgirl
Sonia

and all have done well. Mrs Oakley Fisher, New Zealand, and Sonia were really damaged by winter, and they struggled all year. They're alive, so I expect they will be better this year.

Last spring, I received:
Queen Nefertiti
Wife of Bath
Break O'Day
Minnehaha
Soleil d'Or
St. Nicholas
... and they did very well.

At the end of March, I expect to receive:
Pretty Jessica
Emmanuel
Morning Mist
English Garden
Dr. J. H. Nicolas

I have heard of occasional difficulties with Pickering's roses, but I have not had any problems myself. For my climate, I just won't order them in the fall anymore.

Connie

It has been awhile since I bought them, but my Baby Faurax and Excellenz von Schubert have been fabulous.

They were grafting on R. multiflora.

Here's the quote from their FAQ page:
We bud the majority of our roses on R. multiflora and the gallicas, damasks and some odds & ends on R. laxa. All our understock is grown from seed, thus making it virus free and less likely to produce suckers/ wild shoots.

It's very interesting to hear about each person's experiences. I guess I am also so new to roses, that I don't really understand the significance of grafting onto multifloras and whether each company grafts onto a different understock and why they choose one over the other and how it effects how the rose will grow for you. Looks like I will have to educate myself about that. Very interesting though, thanks for pointing that out to me. I am familiar with about 5 of those roses listed, by photo only. Plus the David Austins, of which I have one.

Thanks to all. Anyone else that wants to add their experience to the thread, I imagine the more experiences the more useful the thread will be for everyone.

BTW, harryshoe, thanks for posting those photos. Your plants look very healthy and well cared for!

I have ordered from Pickering many many times and have usually been very happy with the resulting rose. They are very reasonably priced and the bareroot plants are very nice looking and vigorous growing bushes.
Also, their customer service is top notch.
I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Both of mine are polyanthas, but EvS has some hybrid musk in its background.

Excellenz von Schubert
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Baby Faurax (could have used better pruning so that it wasn't so top heavy)
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I've ordered from Pickering for years & have always been pleased. There are certain OGRs, Buck roses & other shrubs that I've wanted to try on grafted rootstock -- all of those I've been especially pleased with.

Their HTs & Floribundas also perform well for me, altho they tend to have a spindling, twiggy look for the first several seasons. I prefer not to order those roses from Pickering if the varieties I'm looking for are available from other sources.

diane_nj, your EvS is to die for! I love this rose but I don't think it loved my hot climate. It was a stingy bloomer and the flowers seemed much smaller than yours. I think yours is the best specimen I've ever seen. Thanks for posting a picture of it.

Ingrid

The EvS is really gorgeous! Love everything about it.

I couldn't even tell you how many roses I've gotten from Pickering in the last 17 or so yrs. I order mostly hybrid teas, floribundas and David Austins. I get most of my Fryer roses from them, as they have the biggest selection of them. They usually have a lot of the Harkness roses too. Probably one of my all-time favorites came from Pickering.... BERYL BACH. It's a massive 3½ftx7ft blooming machine from the Harkess family. I've had it for probably 14yrs. It's amazing. No disease, blooms all the time, but it is a bit on the thorny side.
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Roses I got from them this season are:
CREAM CARAMEL
CHERRY FREELANDER
MUNSTEAD WOOD
LORISE

and still to come...
STRAWBERRY HILL
TEA CLIPPER
FABULOUS
ALEC'S RED (to replace mine that died)

I have ordered a variety of plants from Pickering, but I have only had trouble with Belami. I have lost that one two years in a row. I do not know why that is, but it has happened. I would like to get it somewhere else. All the others have done okay. I hope this year's plants will be okay also.

Connie, very nice list of plants. I love that Minnehaha, among others. Very pretty and cute name. If it just had more fragrance! I will be interested to hear how that does for you this year

I love your Excellenz von Schubert, Diane. Sorry to see Pickering doesn't have it listed this year.

Harry, I've had my eye on that Souvenir de la Malmaison and your photo looks different than I was expecting. Much better than the Pickering photo. Thanks

I guess you would call Twister a stripe, kent. Very cute. Westerland has been recommended for my part shade location too. Pickering is listing that one too.

senko, I see Pickering has a lot of Austins. Sounds like you've grown them before. On paper, some of them sound like a perfect rose. I take it they have their drawbacks? I haven't heard much about the Kordes yet, I'll have to look into them. Are they from Germany?

jont1, quite a few people in the New England forum have recommended Pickering to me, too.

jaxondel, do you have a favorite OGR or other that you have had good luck with? What part of the country are you located? Really helpful to know about the spindling, twiggy look, since I really dislike that.

beth, thanks for posting that photo, very pretty rose and pretty foliage. Pickering has a nice photo of that rose, too. I have avoided the HTs so far, as I expect they are more challenging for organic growing. I do like the Austins, but I imagine they would grow differently for me here in zone 6a I am looking at the list of Harkness roses and I see Livin Easy is one that I've heard was carefree. I usually filter my search with strong fragrance because it is important to me and I see a few with Harkness. I wonder why you order from the East Coast and not the West Coast suppliers?

Thank you!

Prairiemoon,

Souvenir se la Malmaison was described by some as a difficult rose that lacked vigor and hardiness. It was recommended that you plant it in a pot so it could be babied in the summer and protected in the winter.

Mine began in a pot but quickly outgrew its domain in just two seasons. I read on GW that the Pickering version of SdlM was a stronger grower than most. So, into the ground she went without any winter protection. The photo above was taken last spring following winter one outdoors.

I have to applaud Pickering for SdlM.

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Just got my Umbrella trellis from J&P in the mail yesterday. I hope that Twister will be vigorous enough to cover it up. The trellis was easy to put together, and only took me about 1/2 hour to do. Now, if only spring would come and I could plant said Twister, life would be grand.
I still have to go out and purchase the half barrel though. But, I know my local nursery carries them for about $30 or so.
What I want to do, and maybe it'll work and maybe it won't, is to plant something blue around the twister rose, so making a red, white, and blue display. I thought of some verbena's, impatiens in blue, or even campanulas. But, I want the plants around it not to take up too much of what water and nutrients are for the rose. We'll see how it goes.
Then, I still have to figure out how to overwinter said rose in my shed. I may have to get a plant caddy to wheel over to the shed, and then get my teenage son to help me lift it in the shed. lol

Harry, I like the sound of that....'no winter protection'. [g] That is a beauty! The texture even in a photo, looks so creamy and almost waxy like a camelia. Lovely.

Kent, we get a lot of use from our 'two wheeler'. We are always moving around full pots of plants. Nice to have a young man around the house with a healthy back. I am the back 'police' at our house. Following the men around, reminding, 'use your legs' . Especially the young men who still have good backs. :-)

Prairiemoon, You asked above if I have a favorite OGR or one that I've had especially good luck with. (I'm assuming you mean a favorite among those I've ordered from Pickering.) Four of Pickering's that immediately come to mind are 'Rose de Rescht', 'Cornelia', 'Comte de Chambord' and 'Mme Alfred Carriere'. Two others that I purchased from Pickering last season also took off like bullets -- 'Marchesa Boccella' (which I think Pickering lists as 'Jacques Cartier') and 'Four Seasons Rose' (aka 'Autumn Damask'). Re your second question: I garden in the upper South, not too far from the coast.

jaxondel, thanks for sharing your favorites from Pickering. I am looking into the varieties you listed. You have some good ones there. Some that I had not run across when I looked over the site. You are a zone warmer but I am looking into it. Could I assume that you have humidity to deal with and so these varieties have been put to the test, as far as mildew and blackspot go?

I've looked at Pickering's catalog a little throughout the years, but have never ordered from them. Maybe this is common and I've just not paid enough attention. Could someone explain to me why the catalog contains so many "Smaller plants only. Price already reduced." Is there any pattern as to which plants are smaller? Most popular, least popular, oldies, newies? And by small plants, what exactly do they mean. Just curious...Maryl

Pickering's annual sales season starts in September. They have big plants earlier in the year -- if you ordered in the fall (and even if you specified spring shipping), you would get a bigger plant. As they begin to run out of popular varieties, they get down to the runtier stock, and they are acknowledging that and providing a discount. That is good, since their competitor Hortico will not even tell you which plants of theirs are especially small, and Hortico charges full price even for the itty bitty ones.

But you are definitely better off ordering early and getting the bigger plants. The size discount is nice, but robust plants are nicer. I have, however, not ever ordered their "smaller plants only stock," so I can't tell you exactly how small they are.

Kathy

thanks kathy. So the plants they have listed with that smaller plant label are the leftovers after last Falls sale if I get your drift.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pickering catalog