I have two hedges of Gourmet Popcorn - they get 6-7 feet tall. They bloom all summer, non-stop.

Jackie

Thank you, Jacqueline, for that good info. I heard good things from you about Crimson Glory and Lauren, and both are on my order from Burlington. All are own-root, and previous forum rated Burlington's roses to be bigger than Heirloom's.

Question: Can Gourmet Popcorn be cut for the vase, and would it last long? It's amazing that roses like Honey Bouquet and Apricot Nectar can last for a week, versus a few days for Austins.

Strawberry, I would say not. It's very much a Polyantha, you know, and the blooms are many, but rather fragile. Leastways, that was my experience.

We grew Gourmet Popcorn for years and years. I like it paired with Sweet Chariot.

Jeri -- Coastal SoCal

Gourmet Popcorn seems to be a winner for everyone except me. It never grew or bloomed much but it might not have liked my dry heat. Blue Mist, on the other hand, likes it here very much and is a really sweet rose. I love its beautiful foliage.

Ingrid

Ingrid.......I don't know why Gourmet Popcorn did not bloom for you, I don't think it's reluctance to bloom is due to heat. In my climate in the mountains of northern California, we get months of temps that are in the high 90s and low 100s without a break and low humidity. GP is a bloom machine in this garden.

Srawberry..........I've never cut the blooms for bouquets inside the house because I've got cats who live up the to reputation of being curious...no vase is left undisturbed in my house.

I think the rose is a wonderful landscape plant.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thank you, Jerijen, Ingrid, and Roseblush1 for info. about minis. I'll make a mini-rose garden for my 3rd-grader to enjoy - she's freaked out by thorny Austin octopus arms.

Burlington also offers Irresistible mini (long-stem and prolific for cutting). I haven't seen that in real-life, but I saw Bolero floribunda, great scent, but the stem might be too short for cutting. I appreciate any info. on Irresistible's scent or Bolero floribunda for cutting.

Even if the mini fails for the vase, they are great for landscape and withstand winter better than hybrid teas for my zone 5a. Thank you in advance for your help and info. on minis.

A lot of the minis for exhibition make wonderful cut flowers and Irresitible is one of them. Like Jeri said some of the more heavily petaled ones are more fragile and you usually need to cut them as large sprays not single blooms. Softee never sets a single bloom and I'd have to cut whole canes off if I wanted to bring them inside so I don't as a rule.

I wouldn't call Irresistible long-stemmed or terrificly fragrant, but the blooms do last ultra-long for me in the garden. Scentsational, on the other hand, and Jean Kennealley are very fragrant as far as mini's go.

The only reason the minis do better for me in zone 5a is that they are all own-root. Quite a few of mine die back all the way to the ground over winter & appear to be gone until they re-emerge in spring.

For landscaping, I much prefer miniatures and minifloras to the omnipresent Knock Outs simply because of the diversity in color & bloom form that's available. They also appear to be the perfect height for the kids to enjoy.

I have grown a lot of miniature roses, but I never remember to check for fragrance, so I can't tell you which ones have good fragrance.

When I started my rose life, I volunteered at Tiny Petals, the nursery founded by Dee Bennett, the breeder of Irresistible, Jean Kenneally and when I moved to my northern California home, I received many plants from Sequoia as a house warming gift. I tend to look for a good plant first because they are easier to care for in the long run. I've grown them in containers and in the ground.

Here's a list of some of my favorites that you can find at Burlington:

Baby Austin .. a small rounded, disease free rose that is always in bloom
Beauty Secret .. more upright with beautiful red blooms
Black Jace ... one of the best
Cupcake ... a lovely plant with delicate pink blooms
Cinderella ... always in bloom
Gizmo ... I had it as a tree rose in Socal .. bright, very healthy
Green Ice ... unusual and very healthy a wonderful "weeper"
Lavender Crystal ... beautiful blooms
Little Artist ... there is no other rose like it and a healthy plant both in the ground and a container
Mother's Love ... lots of blooms for a healthy plant
Pinstripe ... one of the best if you like striped roses
Sequoia Gold ... clean in my garden, but others have reported bs, but lots of blooms
Splish Splash ... one of my favorites because it is always changing
Sweet Chariot .. always in bloom ... more of a polyantha
Yantai ... a minflora, but one of my favorite roses

Others that Burling doesn't list, but do very well in this garden:

Grace Seward ... one of the best singles with soft orangy-pink stamens
Heartbreaker ... a very healthy pink blend
Torch of Liberty ... a very bright orange, but lovely
Pink Poodle ... a unique rose that always makes me smile
Purple Buttons .. a good garden rose for me

I've put up a few photos on HMF, but I tend to spend a lot more time gardening and not enough time taking photos. I'll have to work on that so that I can share more photos of the whole plants on HMF. You'll have to scroll through the photos to find some of the photos of the roses I've mentioned above.

Smiles,
Lyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Rose Photos on HMF

Thank you Seil and flaurabunda for info. on Irresistible and others. Thank you Lyn for that wonderful list of minis - I appreciate that very much. Baby Austin is so CUTE that I don't care if it doesn't have scent. Minis do really well on alkaline soil and hardy. My neighbor buys minis from Trader-Joe (no scent) and doesn't protect them for the winter. They bloom non-stop.

Burlington e-mailed me additional list for very FRAGRANT minis available in May: Electric Lady (a small version of Fragrant Cloud), Jilly Jewl (hardy in Alaska), and Jerry-O.

Other slightly fragrant minis she emailed me are:

Good Morning America
Irresistible
Jean kenneally
Kristen
Minnie Pearl
Peaches 'n Cream

And the list of bigger roses for $10.95 each:

Crimson Glory
Lauren
Apricot Nectar
Alltissino
Joseph' Coat
Drigadoon
Christian Dior
Double Delight
Mister Lincoln
Olympiad
Paradise
Loove
Impatient
Showbiz
Archduke Charles
Mutablilis
Baronne Prevost
Old Blush
Paul Neyron
marie Pavie
Sombreuil (Cl)
Jacques Cartier
Souvenir de la malmaison
Abraham Darby
Bonica

Lyn, while I'm very flattered I don't know if you intended your link to go to my photos on HMF. I only have or had a few of the ones you mention.

Seil....

Actually, I think the fact that the link takes you to YOUR photos is a function of HMF that I didn't know about ... if you are signed into HMF, it will take you to your account and the photos listed under your user name. I thought when I posted the url it would take you to a unique list of photos I have posted to HMF with my user name. Oops ... My user name on HMF is Lyn G, so you can go to my member page and see my photos.

It's amazing to me how quickly many of the fantastic miniature roses bred by Dee Bennett, Harm Saville, Ralph Moore and others are disappearing from commerce. Greenheart Farms is re-naming many of them and putting them out as "new" roses. It's possible that Trader Joe's is purchasing mini roses wholesale from Greenheart Farms.

For me, it's so sad that some of these beauties are now endangered and may go extinct.

Lyn

Burlington has TONS MORE ROSES than the above listed. They sent me a list of 160 mini roses to choose from, many of them are fragrant for cut flowers in the vase. They sent me a list of big roses, with many rare OGR, Noisesette, Teas, Moss, etc... a total of 380 of them !!

Burlington has the cheapest shipping cost. I ordered 12 roses (5 big ones and 7 mini roses), and the shipping cost came out only $25 from California to my Chicagoland. With other nurseries, I spent $20 just to ship 3 roses.

Leong Burling, the owner of Burlington Rose Nursery, is very prompt in customer service. Dave's Garden on "The Scoop of ..." gave her an excellent rating. With prices like $10.95 for a big rose, and $7.5 for a mini rose, plus many of Kim Rupert's creations - I'm happy with their service.

Thank you for supporting Burling, Strawberryhill! She's a good lady and excellent plants person. I've known her for long enough that she'd prefer I not tell to keep from giving a hint at "our" ages! LOL! I've long teased her she can bud match sticks to broom poles and they grow. If you have the opportunity to visit Hearst Castle here in California, pay particular attention to the hundred plus HT standards they've used to recreate Hearst's garden. She budded them all. HTs introduced from 1951 and before, all of which are fragrant and exactly what WR Hearst demanded in a rose.

She knows how to "do it right" and takes the time to DO it. Excellent customer service, beautiful plants and a highly valued resource, particularly in these days of rapidly dwindling resources. I know you'll be pleased with your order. Thank you! Kim

I LOVE Burlington roses too! Burling is great at communication and customer service :) Plus, her prices & shipping are low :) I just placed my spring order last week...

1. Wedding Cake (I've heard mixed reviews, but had to try it!)
2. Greensleeves
3. Purple Buttons
4. Senegal
5. Route 66
6. Arthur Bell
7. Little Butterfly
8. Lavender Crystal

Strawberry, Out of the one's you've listed that I have, here's my take:

BLUE MIST: I would REALLY reccommend Blue Mist! It's my favorite mini. Always in bloom, vigorous, healthy.
CUPCAKE: Which was mentioned by Lyn, also a wonderful mini. Its in a terrible location, and still produces!
CHRISTIAN DIOR: Very, very slow repeat for me, but when it does bloom, its beautiful...lots of BS for me though
MUTABILIS: This is one of my top 5, but I don't know that it would be hardy in your zone. I worry about it here in 6b, but its make it 3 years. Vigorous, healthy, but I don't remember it having a scent (although, I'm not really into scents on roses. I might smell them if they come out of the box blooming, but thats about it)

Also, I didn't check if she carries it, but Candycane is another climbing mini that I adore! Its just a really cheerful little rose! I got mine from Angel Gardens...they're also reasonably priced and shipping cost is good too.

~Tammy

Lol, I just emailed Burling for a copy of her 2012 availble roses on Monday! Got an email right back too that it was on it's way! I've ordered from Burlington many times and the service is excellent and the roses, though smaller than some places send, have always taken right off.

I just wish they'd get that web site up and running! It's rather trying to go hunting on HMF in their rose list (which is dated like June of 2007 or something), pick out what you really want and then find out when you call or email that they don't have that one this year. That's why I now request the availability list first. But it would make it so much quicker and esier if the site were working and current. Well, maybe that wouldn't be such a good thing after all. I'd probably order way too many!

Thank you, Kim, Tammy, and Seil for your feedback. Tammy, I'm glad you mentioned some names so I can check them out. Being a newbie, I kept changing my order on Burling and she is a saint for putting up with me. Here are the ones I ordered for FRAGRANT cut flowers, please let me if they are NOT fragrant or don't last for more than 2 days.

Marchese Boccella, Benjamin Britten, Annie Laurie McDowell, Crimson Glory, Apricot Nectar. For minis: Electric Lady, Jennifer, Scentssational, Sleeping Beauty, Love Ya Dad, Irresistible, Double Gold, Moonlight Scentsation, Norwich Sweetheart, Sweet Arlene, X-Rated, Yantai.

Some from other nurseries: Comte de Chambord, Heirloom, Charles Darwin, Evelyn, Bewitched, Firefighter, Crown Princess Margareta, Teasing Georgia, and Sonia Rykiel.

If any of the above are not fragrant or don't make good cut flower, please let me know. I already made up for my sins of changing order on Burling by refering my neighbor to her. Thank you.

mmm...Charles Darwin...Like I said, I'm not one to buy roses for their scent, but Charles Darwin, I can't walk by him without sticking my nose into his blooms! Excellent excellent lemon scent and he is healthy!!! You'll love him!
~Tammy

Strawberryhill, Marchese Boccella blooms like a weed here and has a marvelous fragrance, but the flowers only last a day or two, at least here. For garden use, amazing! Cut flowers? I wouldn't thinks so. Kim