Bustopher, there have been at least a couple threads on the crummy service from J&P. I tried to copy but couldn't. Just be careful, I don't want to see you done wrong by J&P.

Carla

What Carla said. However we can always buy them at the local nurseries (Heartland or Family Tree). I'm planning on trying Sweetness since it is out of Melody Parfum, Lagerfeld x Shocking Blue. It's gotta smell something awful!! Malibu looks interesting also.

I was struck by the $24.95 price tag.
Me thinks not.

Oh, I am really jonesing for one of those Cinco de Mayo's! That color is intoxicating....if it shows up locally next year I will snag one.

I was figuring on probably picking up the J&P plants locally. That way I can pick out the plants myself. I was just wondering if anyone had seen any of these or maybe had them in a test panel.

greenhaven,
Cinco de Mayo is a Tom Carruth creation from Weeks, which makes it a winner in my books. If I see it around next year I will be scooping it up myself.

I am/have grown Sweetness, Malibu, and Summer of Love that I got by participating in the Hybrid Tea Test Panel.
JACemini is Summer of Love. I think this is a true winner. The bush is vigorous and healthy, and blooms alot of beautiful flowers of a everchanging melange of colors of orange, yellow, peach, and pink. The blooms are large and slightly fragrant. This is a darned good rose. It has all the good attributes of it's parent Gemini.
Malibu is another good one for me. It too has a healthy and vigorous growing bush with attractive foliage. The flowers are a nice orange/peach color and are nicely fragrant. I would recommend it from the experience I have had with it. However, many people complained that the blooms balled when opening. That was not my experience. Maybe it was too wet or cool in their environment. My area so far this year has been moderate temp wise and the flowers still opened well. For me, this is a keeper as well.
Both of the above roses are in this years Test Panel and are own root. I like them both.
Sweetness was part of last years Test Panel. The first flush was impressive in number of blooms and the vigor with which the bush broke dormancy and bloomed very quickly. However, I was disappointed that the blooms on Sweetness did not last but about 5-7 days on the bush. They were a decent size and form okay but not great. Fragrance was very good though not as strong as it's parentage would show. The rebloom was very disappointing and the rest of the year after the first flush I barely got any blooms at all--maybe 6 or 8 blooms total the rest of the year. I won't say this is a bad rose, but there are better roses in this color range out there I think. I won't replace it. My Sweetness was overwintered in it's container I had it in in my unheated garage. It looked pretty good this spring and I planted it in the garden only to have it quickly dry up and die for no apparent reason this Spring. Don't know why, it just did, and as I said I won't replace it unless I hear reports saying the rebloom and bloom longevity I got were flukes.
However, there were two others in last years Test Panel that they offer that are really good roses. The yellow grandiflora Southern Belle and the pink blend Rose of the Year winner for J&P named April in Paris. Both were good last year as brand new own roots and they are even better this year with a little more maturity. They both are healthy growing and vigorous blooming. They have good fragrances as well. I would highly recommend Southern Belle and April in Paris both if you get the chance to purchase them. I think these two roses will continue to improve this year and next when it reaches full maturity.
I hope this helps you some with your selection. To recap;, Summer of Love, Malibu, Southern Belle, and April in Paris are good roses for me and I recommend them. Sweetness was impressive at first but didn't hold the line. I won't recommend it.
John

Thanks for speaking up. Your comments are noted and appreciated.

"greenhaven,
Cinco de Mayo is a Tom Carruth creation from Weeks, which makes it a winner in my books. If I see it around next year I will be scooping it up myself."
**************

Whoops! My bad! :o/ (I do like CdM, tho!)

jont1, thanks for your comments on April in Paris. It was the only one at the nursery, from among Bellaroma, Aromatherapy and one other that was wonderfully fragrant.

The test panel roses this year were a mixed bag. Malibu and Summer of Love are certainly the best. The red velvety rose has lovely blooms but was so slow to leaf out and still is tiny. The other one has black spot so bad I don't know if it will make it. I lucked into Cinco de Mayo the other day and I'm still grinning about that. I planted it next to Disneyland and Mardi Gras. They seem to go together not only in name but in color. In fact, they look almost like 3 of the same rose. Hmm.
My poor Bellaroma died down to nubs over the winter and now is blooming on 3" canes, and I would have to stand on my head to smell it. It gets about 2 more months to grow up, or I'm giving its space to someone like April in Paris. I would like to find Southern Belle also, but for some reason, didn't see any nurseries carrying it this year. Maybe next year?
cindi

Has anyone purchased or tested Enchanted Evening? I love the color, but lavender roses aren't the easiest. I wanted it as soon as I saw it last year and I have been waiting to hear more about it. I noticed that J&P has it mixed in with the 2009 roses. Cinco de Mayo is beautiful, and the flowers are the same shape as Tequila 2004 (Meilland) Tequila changes color in the orange to yellow range. That would be a natural Cinco De Mayo & Tequila!
Diana

worm not included. (oh no, that's mezcal. )

I actually did get Enchanted Evening. It has been growing and blooming, but it is not a heavy producer. I have a Simply Marvelous near it, and both are first year plants. The Simply Marvelous has been growing and blooming a lot while Enchanted Evening has been more lackadaisical. It may improve with age. It is too early to make a judgement.

I planted April in Paris this spring, and really like it. It has a delicious fragrance and lovely color to the bloom.

I've been debating April in Paris - I've heard some mixed reviews on it so anything that can sway me one way or the other (enabling I think it's called) would be appreciated.

I also have Malibu from the test panel; although it's only bloomed once for me so far- it was nicely fragrant and very pretty - it's been very wet here and I didn't have problems with it balling up - the blooms didn't last very long, but we've had lots of storms with 60-90 mph winds so I really can't comment on how they would withstand under normal wind conditions - honestly, I also kind of like the Jacelvet - I haven't noticed a fragrance on it and for me that's a biggie - I like very fragrant roses, but it's petals have sort of a unique shape that have kind of won me over and while the bush was slow to start it's bloomed more than malibu or jacdrama and it's caught up in size to malibu - it was just slow out of the gate. jacdrama hasn't bloomed once for me and is barely growing. I haven't been able to figure out what it's issue is - but for me, it hasn't been good. They didnt' send me the fourth test rose (summer of love), they were out so I can't comment on that one.

However, I do have a Bellaroma and it died all the way back down to the ground this winter too. My canes aren't 3 feet tall and I do really love that rose. Makes me smile everytime I see it and smells wonderful. Personally, I wouldn't shovel prune that one, but I'd trim it down a bit. Mine's about four years old.

I saw April in Paris locally and gave her a sniff and she really is lovely. On Mother's Day I was rose shopping for myself and it was between her, Angel Face and PJPll. The Pope won. But April is definitely on the radar for the future.

Were the test panel roses grafted (like J&P used to be)?
Most of these are now going to be sold own root and some are even bareroot/ownroot.
They are really going to need to reeducate their clients who're used to bareroot roses grafted on Dr. Huey.

jont1, thanks for the very informative comments!

Do NOT mail order from them!!! They sold out and the new owners have terrible business practices!!! I am currently fighting with them to cancel and order I placed at the beginning of June and have filed a complaint with their Better Business Bureau.

In short, I didn't get the roses in the normal shipping time and have been calling and requesting they cancel my order. They always said it was "on the shipping floor" and refused to cancel it. During my last call two weeks ago a salesperson took pity on me and actually checked and then said they won't be shipping it until next spring!! And I still couldn't cancel it!

I would buy a rose grown by a local grower but never ever order from the company again!

This years J&P Test Panel has actually been pretty good in my opinion.
I have already stated that I love Summer of Love and Malibu from it and they are definitely keepers for me.
As for the other two, the jury is still debating but for the most part it is good news as well.
JACdrama, the red/white stripe has bloomed once so far and they were pretty nice but could have a little tighter form to them. The color,size, and fragrance were nice. I hope the form tightens up and that the rebloom is good. If so, I will definitely find a spot for it in the garden somewhere.
JACelvet, the dark velvety red, was super slow to break dormancy. I am telling you that it took a good 10 weeks and I thought at about 7 weeks it was about to dry up and die. In a side conversation with the J&P rep one day when they called to try and get an order out of me, I told her of my concerns with it. She offered to send me another so I let her and three weeks later a second one arrived. Lo and behold the very next day my original plant broke dormancy like gangbusters and has done a nice job of catching up with the rest of them. The second JACelvet bush they sent broke dormancy that very first same week so now I have two very good growing JACelvet plants. The bushes are growing vigorously and have started blooming. The blooms could use another few petals to fill them out but the form is decent with good petal shape and petal substance that makes them last a long time on the bush. the color is excellent. Many times first blooming cycles end up with fewer petals on the blooms than what I would like but most times that is one thing that will definitely improve with a little more age and maturity of the rose bush. I truly think this will be a keeper as well and this will be a good rose when it matures.
All four bushes have had very good disease and insect resistance with my usual spray program that I use on all my 225+ roses. They've had no disease or insect problem at all even including the nasty little thrips I get each and every springtime.
All of the potted bushes were growing well until I sprayed a new amendment item I bought on-line on all my potted roses including 18 mini's on my back deck and my pot ghetto where the test roses are currently growing. The stuff left a greasy,waxy, gray residue on them and stunted the growth of the big roses and almost killed my mini's by defoliating them almost completely. Thankfully they have all rebounded as the stuff has been wearing off of the leaves and the bushes are putting on new foliage growth. This little tragedy slowed the growth on all my roses but they are coming back and I cannot fault the roses for this as it was definitely my fault for spraying them with the stuff--Liquid Karma it's named. Maybe I got the quantity wrong, but I don't think so. I sure won't use it again, that's for sure, so I just wasted my good money for nothing.
For the person who asked, all the test roses that J&P is sending out are own root. I was surprised at first by this as o/r hybrid tea roses for me have generally not been very good growers especially in the first year. However, these have been the exception both last year and this one. last years test roses grew and bloomed well and continue to do well this year too. I am condifent that these test roses will do the same. J&P has done a commendable job of carefully and correctly selecting o/r roses that will do well without being on an understock like Dr. Huey which is what they generally use on most of their roses.
John

Thank you, John. That's what I was wanting to hear (and from someone who understood my worry at the Dr. Huey to own root possibility of problems.)

I tried Enchanted Evening in a 1/2 whiskey barrel but it just barely sprouted a couple of tiny leaves and stems and then promptly dried up and died. I don't know if I will try it again or not.
On that same order I got Lovestruck and Mardi Gras from J&P. The Mardi Gras is not growing very strong and has only produced a couple of smallish but pretty blooms.
Lovestruck has been the best growing and blooming of the three and it is just mediocre at best. I don't think any of J&P's floribunda's for this year are very impressive as far as I can tell.
John