I did them several yrs back in the mid-90s. It was fun, until I found out they had already picked the next-yr's "Rose of the Year" and named it before they even sent the test roses out to us. The rose at that time was MOON SHADOW. It was the worst rose of the test batch, and I ended up tossing it. I quit doing the testing for a looong time after that because I was so disgusted, knowing that my time and effort were being wasted. I did do them the last three yrs here tho. Mainly because I liked the looks of the pics they showed of the roses. Back when I did them before, they never showed pics of them beforehand; they only had the color stamped on the tags, so it was more interesting anyway. But the test roses they send out now, most of them do end up being marketed, either here or overseas. So it can be fun to be able to get a rose a yr before everybody else does. Or you can have a rose that may be only marketed overseas, which is kind of cool. I actually have a wonderful rose from the 90s that is now only available in Australia and New Zealand. It's a beautiful yellow-orange called ALMOST SUNSET. So, you can have some fun with the test roses. However I find that many roses don't really show their full potential for at least 2-3yrs. I ended up not sending in any evals the last two times because I figured I was wasting my time. It's just nice to get some pretty roses earlier than the general public. I decided not to do them this time around tho, because this batch doesn't look all that interesting to me.

Boo hoo. I went back to Lowes to see if they had finally uncovered the pallets of J&P roses, and checked the boxes for the label. Nope. Must have been wishful thinking on my part. I was really looking forward to buying Billy Graham and Disneyland Rose, but NONE of the boxes had any indication of own root or New Generation, and I could see grafts on most. Their marketing backfired. I bought many of the New Generation roses, and they did so well for me that I won't buy their grafted ones. I'm wondering if roses like Lemon Zest, which is a shrub rose, is own-root and they just didn't label it? What are their marketing people thinking? Prices were high, too. 16.98 for the smallish box. I'm hoping they get in newer varieties in pots later, because I'm not buying from this shipment.

Last week I received 2 roses (DAs "Crocus Rose" and "White Pearl in a Red Dragon's Mouth") from Ashdown Roses. I got an email that they were on sale. They were in excellent shape, and the Dragon's mouth rose has 3 new buds on it. I also received (DAs "Christopher Marlowe") from Jung Seeds a week or so ago, also. It, too was in excellent condition. I would definitely order from either place again. Ashdown's sent me an email that they were delaying shipment until the weather cooled a little....and then the rose arrived as was promised. I am sorry you had a bad experience with J&P....however, you are not the first person I've heard that's unhappy with them. Hope you can get a response from them, or either your money back. Michelle ps...I'm not the Michelle with the adult beverage and the credit card mentioned above ..lol (*.*)

My dad loves the idea, teka2rjleffel [he's a turnaround consultant]... sell lots of product and use a year's worth of sales to come up with some actual inventory ;] Ah but if I knew I was reserving them for this price I would have this time. Brandy, good gripe! I enjoyed it :) Buford, you know I didn't look, it's true. Hey, it must've been small print - I swear it said just 1st ship date. Sneaky! I had seen posts that J&P was sold. We'll see how that changes things, I guess. This is a good test order for me, not too big. I've liked them as a vendor previously and would miss a small rose fix from them each year or two!