I received 2 bareroot "Ace of Hearts" & "Anastasia" from Regan's Nursery supplied by Hortico and was very disappointed with the size of the canes. They are very thin and short. On the contrary, the 3 Verteran's Honor I ordered direct from Jackson Perkins are outstanding!

I just got an e-m from Hortico stating that they were not able to find budwood and so they would not be shipping Summer Song Austin to me this year. I'm disappointed; but at least they let me know.
-t

RJLONGO,
Nice to see the growth, but if they advertise roses that they really do not have, then there will be no growth!

terryjean,
I also got the email, but mine had all 5 of the roses I had ordered as not being available. I called to see what the problem was and was told the crop failed. I wonder if they really had these roses at all.

Hey Mike, they actually DID have HELLO DOLLY. I had a box of 8 roses shipped out on Feb 4, to be delivered second day air. Amanda talked me into paying the extra because she was afraid of the cold weather back east being a problem. My box made it to Oakland in 2 days and promptly disappeared. After two weeks, UPS finally closed out the search and are refunding Hortico for my order. In it was a HELLO DOLLY. Amanda informed me yesterday that it is now sold out, so I don't get a replacement. I am sooo ticked at UPS for losing my box. I could've had HD in my hands! Oh well, I am however getting another rose that was not available from my last order... HANS ERNI, aka ZAMBRA '93. Yippee! The replacement box goes out Monday. Some of my other backorders might be available in a few weeks. So, Mike, hang in there. You could still get some of the roses. What other ones are you not getting that you wanted?

UPS are a bunch of boneheads. They mess up all the time. From dropping stuff off unattended at the WRONG address (happened to me) to losing stuff all together.

How can I tell what the rootstock is? I have several orders coming from various vendors, Hortico included. While Hortico states on their website they generally us multifora, is there a way to know for sure what the rootstock is once I get it? Does it have it on the tag of the plant? I have decent soil that I amend with compost and manure, but about 15" down it is hard clay. From what I understand multiflora would be the choice of rootstock for me. Right???

I have ordered alot of roses over the last several years from Hortico and have had good and bad results. They are however, very cooperative when it comes to replacing plants that don't thrive. My biggest gripe is not haveing the website updated showing roses out of stock. You don't find out until your order arrives and you see what you got shorted.
To their credit though they have been steadily improving in my own personal opinion.
However, if the rose I want is available from Pickering or Palatine I will definitely go there first for them.
John

I just got my order from Hortico. My plants were on the small side similar to the pictures that have been posted, but they appear to be in decent shape. I potted them up yesterday. I was also backordered on the Summer Song and Summer Holiday. I know about the situation with Summer Song, but I don't know about Summer Holiday. I do notice that Vintage Gardens has Summer Holiday on its custom order list, so maybe they will have it also. Perhaps David Austin's in Texas will also carry Summer Song one of these days if it continues to be a problem for Hortico. They told me at Hortico that the problem was that the plants of a number of Austins were exposed to an oak wilt disease and were being in quarantine until they can be sure they are healthy. In the meantime, Hortico is trying to get budwood of the Austin varieties that have been a problem so that they can grow their own. Maybe that will be better in the long run. We just won't know for a while.

I emailed Austin in the UK last year asking when Tea Clipper was going to sail across the Atlantic to Canada (pardon the pun) and a nice lady replied saying Tea Clipper was detained because of Oak Wilt disease also.

Artemis, if the roostock isn't indicated on the plant, contact Hortico directly.

An update on my orders: All Hortico plants are alive leafed out and growing despite their originally small very disappointing size. However, this year Pickering sent me quite a number of substandard plants and needless to say the canes keep dying back. I am angry with Pickering at the moment though I used to praise them a lot. The HPs I got from them were huge and beautiful, the Austins were mostly allright but the rest was second rate. Especially embarrassing were the two SDLMs because those were for a friend whom I talked into to order from Pickering.

I got 3 from them this year and all are doing great. Better than J&P...but the best grafted roses I got were from Rosemania. Humungous roots and canes.

Triple B, in case you're interested, Garden Import is carrying Tea Clipper this year. It's a bit expensive, but if you really want it, there it is. Don't know if they will ship certain Austins to the U.S., however.
Judith

Triple B is in Canada so a Canadian source should be good for him/her.

Sorry, Ceterum, I wasn't very clear - I knew Triple B was in Canada, but I just wanted to let people in the U.S. who might be interested that GI may not ship all of their (new) Austins to the U.S.
Judith

I got Tea Clipper this year from Regan, and it is available from Austin themselves (my Regan bareroot has an Austin tag).

(Just to keep the thread OT) I have never ordered from Hortico, but they have a lot of roses that I like a lot, including the Tantau and Williams varieties.

but they have a lot of roses that I like a lot, including the Tantau and Williams varieties.

Correction, Diane. They do have listed a lot of Tantau roses but they do not grow them but try to get from other nurseries. Sometimes they get them, often they don't. That's why it is so frustrating to deal with them despite their friendly and helpful customer service.

Thanks Judith.
It is rather pricey, about $50 with shipping for ONE rose. I think I will give it a couple years to hit mainstream more. Hopefully by then I will have a better place for it than a pot. As fun as it is to be the first kid on the block and all...my bank account will not justify it.

I received my Hortico order: White Queen Elizabeth, Yolande d'Aragon and Outta The Blue. They all look average...not big, buy not puny either. I am not the best bare root gardener. I try and to do it right: I soak them, amend the soil, plant with graft below the soil line, mound and keep it moist. I just don't have the knack. I don't want to admit to how many I've lost...
I'll try again today.

My hortico roses arrived a few days ago. They are Imperatrice Farah, Shi-Un, and Oceana. They're all very small. Imp. Farah is grafted kind of sideways which sunk my plan to stick it in a small pot. It doesn't help that my Palatine roses came this week too and are so much bigger.

Say what you like about them but they do carry some hard to find varieties and who amoung us wants to see another rose source go under this year.

Just chipping in my 2 c worth. I had an order with Hortico and Palatine scheduled to ship on the same week.

Out of my order with Hortico, only half were available. What a disappointment. They contacted me less than a week before my scheduled shipment and said Blue River was not available, either (along with Trojan Victory, two Claude Monets and I forgot what else). Desperate to get a Blue River and knowing that Palatine had offered it, I went out on a limb, called Palatine LESS THAN WEEK BEFORE MY SHIP DATE, and begged them to send a Blue River if they still had an extra one. Unbelievably, they SENT ONE and simply added it to my total. I was floored and knew Palatine had a customer for life in me.

When Hortico's shipment arrived, Spiced Coffee was literally, the size of a miniature with three canes the size of spaghetti noodles. I made an issue of it with Hortico. They said Canadian roses were generally smaller than US versions and "understood" my surprise if I've "never ordered Canadian roses before". Their presumtpion was embarrassing; I promptly pointed out I was a long-time customer of Pickering, and not only that, a Palatine order arrived the exact same day as Hortico's and their roses were superior. They insisted it will be fine but would keep my complaint on file. We all know that Hortico makes the customer pay for all shipping charges, even when Hortico is at fault.

So my two cents' worth? I will never order from Hortico again. Too much stress and aggravation.

Well, I have to say I have no problems with my Hortico roses, but the Edmund's Roses.... FORGET IT! I doubt if I will ever order from Edmund's again. Ever since Jung's took over, the roses have been inferior, and their packing practices suck. My roses arrived in early Feb and they were nearly bone dry with no moist packing and a piece of plastic draped over the roots. I just sent them an email requesting replacements for the 4 roses I received this season from them. Every one of them has died back at least halfway, and one is totally dead. The other 3 haven't broken dormancy yet and are drying up despite mulching and plenty of water.

Nope, I'll take Hortico over Edmund's any day! The plants might be a bit small, but they usually take off really well and become nice big beautiful plants.

I received my order from Hortico Friday, and I have to say that they were very small. I put two in one hole, they were the same rose of course. The roots were good though. This is the first I have ordered from them. I probably will next year too. Now the roses I received from J&P were just as small as Hortico's. Hopefully they will grow big.
artemis, that white Queen Elizabeth sounds interesting...post some pics when it starts to bloom, I would love to see it.

I ordered from them this year. All 3 I ordered from them are doing fabulous. No problems here.

Beth, what roses did you get?

As for Pickering, maybe two years ago my Pickering Charles de Mills bloomed the second year, and was pink. They sent me a credit but I had to order two other roses with it, so I didn't use it which didn't make me happy.

I somehow did not give my two cents earlier this year on this topic:) This year was my first order with Hortico. After my experience with them I would have to want something REALLY REALLY REALLY badly to go down that road again.

In short they sent me a bareroot that simply never broke dormancy. They kindly offered to send me another one at half price plus shipping. Wow, that's big. When I called them and told them the second one wasn't growing either I was told several times (after several phone calls) that their staff expert would call me and work it out. Never happened. When I finally emailed and told them I wanted my money back I was informed by Susanna Stan that they would prefer to find a solution other than a refund. That was the last I heard from them.

I'll shop elsewhere from now on.

Kate

Sorry you guys have problems with them. I just placed a new order a couple days ago, and asked for status on my backorder. I know I won't end up getting all that I ordered, or all of my backorder. But I am getting several replacements for roses that I got this past season that were not what they were supposed to be. Some won't be available, I know that, but if I get a few of the replacements that are correct, I'll be happy. They are coming free of charge. I suppose I'll be paying for the extra shipping for those tho.

I ended up having about 7 replacements due. Most were mismarked, but one or two were ones that had not broken dormancy. I am getting all of those free. No half-price stuff. Not sure why you would be charged half price, Kate. That's not what they normally do, as far as I know.

Anyway, Teach, were you asking what roses I got from Hortico or Edmund's? As for the Edmund's roses, I had gotten ALL AMERICAN MAGIC, ADOLPH HORSTMANN and REMEMBER ME. All three died. They did end up sending me actually 2 replacements each of ADOLPH and AAM. They were out of RM. All of those roses grew really well and were quite lovely in early summer. Since then, the deer devour them all the time...

My Hortico's are due to ship out in early November, and I will be anxious to see what actually gets shipped. The one thing about them that is frustrating is they don't always have what they show is available on the site. But, I'm hopeful I will get most of them!

My experience with Hortico has been so bad that it is scarcely believable to me that others have had good experiences. I ordered 2 roses early in 2007 that didn't come; when I inquired they said they were out of stock. So I asked them to cancel the order and please refund the $10 that they charged to my credit card when the order was placed (a business practice that I don't approve of, anyway). Well, the refund was promised many times by their customer service, but never made, even after repeated requests and reminders on my part. In 2008 I just decided to forget it; the hassle was more than the money was worth. But I am wondering if anyone has any advice on prying my money out of them. Frankly, I don't trust them enough to make another order that the ten dollars could be applied to. I don't even trust them enough to give them my new credit card number so that it can be credited to my account. I suppose I'd have to open a Paypal account or something. Needless to say, I won't be doing business with them again.

Donna

With Hortico, it's always a good idea to inquire about availabilty by email before placing an order. Their growers are never able to deliver the vast number of varieties that appear in their catalog. Generally, it's not until mid- to late February that Hortico has a fairly good 'handle' on what they will have available for shipment each season. I've found that they are pretty good about returning emails. Sometimes they aren't real speedy, but they usually do reply.

I placed an order that should arrive in April. Hopefully I will not have any missing or mis-labbelled. I too would like to know if the variety of graft used is marked, because I would not know what I should be looking for.

Joan

I placed my 1st and last order from Hortico last winter.I recieved all four roses one was sub. I wasn't happy with the size they were really small and should have been planted in a pot for season. Pickering sends much larger plants. But like a lot of people i ordered because they had roses that Pickering was not offering.I see those roses in the pickering listings this year. But i did get the order on time and in good condition.
Mark

An update since my last post: I ordered three roses from Hortico last year. Imperatrice Farah was tiny when I got it but did very well and grew quickly. Shi-un was a bit larger and grew well too. Oceana didn't do much of anything and was declared dead by summer. I replaced it with an Oceana from EuroDesert Roses because I didn't want to deal with another Hortico replacement.

I won't buy anything from Hortico for a variety of reasons. If you buy OGRs from them, this is where they often ship an incorrectly identified variety. Even after all these years I think they still ship the wrong plant under the name 'Gloire de Dijon'! (I have other issues with Hortico that I won't go into here, but they are issues I feel very strongly about.)

Pickering Nurseries has gotten my $$$ every year now for over a decade and will continue to do so. They make a concerted effort to propagate plants as virus free and correctly labeled, and their quality has been, excepting the year they changed locations, absolutely superb.

Paul Barden

Always interesting to see a thread pop up again after it has been laying dormant for months. It is almost a year since I started this one, nearly to the day. How 'bout that.

They owe me a correctly labeled Memorial Day. Since they charge for shipping for a mistake that THEY made, and the shipping is more than the rose itself, I think I will cut my losses.

cut my losses on the original cost of the rose. I'm nobody's fool.

I realize this is an old thread..I wanted to get Impeatrice Farah, Chandos beauty and st Ethelberg but after reading this thread afraid to. Has Hortico improved at all?

Hortico is fine. See my answer to you on the St Ethelburga thread. Diane

Yes, Hortico is great now. Their roses are smaller than Palatine but really take off. I also ordered rubus odoratus from them. This is a lovely plant and I was so happy to see it on the Hortico website.

@diane_nj 6b/7a ,@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR..I was super excited to see the 3 varities in one place, I will get the roses before they go out of atock.

Some random thoughts and questions;

What made Hortico great ( again)?

Are bare root roses sold by Hortico really one year younger than bare roots sold by Palatine ? Does anyone know? A comment on another Hortico discussion on this rose forum suggested this was so. In the past, Hortico explained their roses small size by a “short growing season”, but one comment at this same discussion mentioned that Hortico’s growing conditions are similiar to that of Palatine’s. And yet someone else commented that Hortico doesn’t even grow several of the roses they sell. Is that really true? If it is, than Hortico‘s growing season wouldn’t explain small size of these cultivars.

And speaking of small stature: Last time I looked on Google Maps, Hortico’s property abutted that of Aldershot Greenhouses, the behemoth grower of mini roses for supermarkets throughout the US and beyond. IF native soil is used to grow these mini roses, than this might be a clue that Hortico’s problem is the presence of growth inhibitors in its soil. I concede this last hypothesis may require some fuzzy logic.

Oh - I forgot the most important thing. This discussion is full of comments from ”12” or ”13” years ago, all ”modified 6 years ago”. I haven’t seen this before. Carbon dating of Houzz takeover?

Hortico roses have always been pretty consistent in quality for me, dating back to 2007, before I knew what the rose forum and Garden Web were. They had what I wanted and I ordered. So it wasn't a matter of Hortico becoming great again. They were always quite satisfactory, and I never found their bareroots particularly small, nor do I think they are one year younger than other sellers' bareroot roses. Diane

Gosh! I guess I'll have to give Hortico one more shot to prove themselves, because if it weren't for Sheila and Diane championing them, I would NEVER order from them a second time, and I would recommend others to use high caution.

Why?

The quality of the plants I received was subpar. They were moldy, covered in brown slime. Easily the worst roses (or plants, period) that I have ever received via mail order. My "Crimson Glory" wasn't even #2 Grade so they sent me two. One had BORER damage received from them. One of them died. Even worse?

It's not Crimson Glory at all! It's a very slightly scented rich flag red that doesn't blue as it ages and the petals don't even have the dignity to fall off when they started browning. I've reached out to them, sent the requested pictures, and I haven't heard back. That was months ago. I obviously need to reach back out, because they haven't gotten back with me,

Of course, if what I received was what others would dare call "good quality" plants, I could never take their opinion very seriously.

Yes, the plants ultimately survived the first season to at least grow, but that does not a quality plant make.

Steven

I wish Hortico could improve the purchase experience. Hortico cannot confirm the availability of the "purchased" rose varieties until mid winter, and this makes the garden planning a bit difficult.

I found rare roses at Hortico and they were very healthy.

I'm definitely looking forward to having an experience like Sheila's next time. Her description gives me hope and enthusiasm to try again! Especially for rare varieties.

Steven

“I’ll have what she’s having” !