Hi Ingrid, Thank you for the post. I am so gun shy with this rose, as I ordered it from Heirloom and/or Rogue last summer only to have the orders canceled. Also, from Heirloom, PJ would be the one thing I have certainly sworn off, "a band". Unless I view the rose as SPECIAL, which to me, Pretty Jessica is not , I am done babying those little things. I have three that remain from the summer that I am likely to gift. Again, thank you for supplying this information for those of us who have been frantically searching for this rose. Lynn

I didn't mean to critize Ingrid. I was fortunate to be able to find Pretty Jessica last year. I know a lot of folks are looking for it. It is a good post. The truth is I have, in the right mood, fessed up for expensive shipping on a rose I couldn't live without. I did it with Alfred Colomb when I could only find it at a west coast nursery. It arrived well packaged and healthy but in 2 years hasn't given me a single bloom. So it also makes sense for other reasons to maybe order from places within a similiar climate. OK, now back to Ingrid's topic, sorry for the hijack. Nancy

Ingrid, I want to say thank you for your advice several days ago on a separate thread. I'm a new gardener, and you were so thoughtful and helpful, like many others (including Carol). Just to offer a different perspective, I like this forum particularly because of all the differing opinions that harmoniously exist together. I read your posts with pleasure and enjoy the humor with which you express your pleasure and displeasure in your garden. If your posts were malicious or mean-spirited, then I might think criticism was called for. However, disliking red roses does no harm to anyone, and I find it quirky and funny. If we all censored ourselves all the time so as not to hurt others' feelings in however trivial a manner, no one would say anything at all. Forgive me for reviving the serious tone this post adopted at some point, but I felt compelled to give my humble opinion. I have a friend who always amazes me with her ability to express what I know to be a negative opinion about something in the most positive, non-hurtful, and usually funny way. I often wish more people expressed themselves this way, myself included. Please don't stop posting, and please continue to post as your unique and endearing self! That said, Pretty Jessica sounds like the perfect candidate for my tiny garden. Perhaps the upside to all this is that a rose trade recycling program can be started! One man's trash is another man's treasure.

I don't know anything about the nematodes but I do know about roses in raised bed and winter. They do great! I have a large two tiered raised bed that has about 30 roses in it. The upper bed is about 2 feet high has about 20 regular size roses. They've done fine for 6 years now. The lower tier is about 10 inches high and has 10 minis in it and they are doing very well. Sometimes I will mulch them for winter with leaves but several years they got nothing but what blew in on it's own and it didn't seem to matter either way. I'd say put them in the ground, with as little disturbance to the existing root balls as possible, as soon as possible so they will have time to settle in before the ground freezes. October or November for you? I'm not sure. Here it's the end of November or sometimes early December. But in either case you'll have at least 8 weeks for them to establish and that should be good. Since you only have the two you may chose to mulch them in some manner for added protection.