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.

I grew them for a few years but stopped because I was getting too many unnamed roses in my garden. It was a good way for J&P to get rid of left overs they didn't have enough of to offer in their catalog and plantings they decided not to offer for sale. Some did get early plants that eventually amounted to something. Those offered as test roses were already scheduled for eventual sale or the scrap heap.

I"m doing the test panel this year. They ran out of the bi-colored rose before they sent this far north so I'm getting a non-test surprise instead. I do have Jacelvet, Jacdrama, and Jacsammy and so far they seem to be waking up pretty uniformly, but barely waking up. I was a little disappointed since the one I was looking most forward to was the bi-color they're out of. Thanks for the heads up on "april in paris" it was a rose I had been contemplating on getting.

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 (*.*)