gpburdell, No doubt you expect the clerk who sells you your roses to be young, slim, trim and have a perky smile? Oddballs who can't afford expensive state of the art websites have no business being in business?? And, while we are at it, why can't all us little people just buy whatever McFlower the nursery industry is pushiing this year??? Many of us appreciate our small vendors precisely because they are islands of commerical integrity in an ocean of commercial schlock. I don't expect 800 numbers, I take responsibility for doing my own research, and I don't really care about fancy websites. I have learned enough, by myself, about roses to know what I want. I do like vendors who know what they are selling, and take the trouble to share their research and observation. The kind of fancy setup you want usually conceals a shockiing lack of attention to detail which results in mislabed roses, deliberate selling of virused roses without telling the buyer, and misleading zone and culture information. The fancy websites often have, along with the fancy pictures, descriptions which are nothing more than advertising hype, and the selection is usually quite limited. I mean, I ALREADY have MAC, SDLM, La France, Parade, Cl Devoiensis, Gloire de Dijon. Smaller, scruffier nurseries, the kind of places where the owner(s) support their obsessions by propagation and sale of hard to find varieties are my vendors of choice. I wonder at your motives in "getting into" OGSs. I would suggest that this NOT a field which is "ripe for consolidation" (I believe that is the busniess label for the practice of muscling your way into a business where someone else did the work).

Buford's photos could both be herbicide damage. At present there is not a simple field test to determine if a rose has RRV or does not have RRV. Excessive thorns is thought to be a good indicator of RRV infection but lack of excessive thorns does not rule out RRV. Buford's photos do not show excessive thorns, and the one that he feels is RRV is similar to one posted for herbicide damage by Plant Pathology Department Extension Service at the University of Arkansas. http://plantpathology.uark.edu/Number5-2009.pdf From Ann Peck's web book: "There are no laboratory tests to confirm a diagnosis of RRD; graft transmission tests can confirm the disease when the recipient plant (R. multiflora) develops RRD. A lack of transmission does not prove lack of the disease, just lack of transmission. Dr. Jim Amrine (personnal communication) suggests that graft transmission tests are more often successful in spring than in other seasons. This, to me, corresponds to the time that multiflora puts on most of its new growth (when its growth isn't affected by RRD)." -------------------------------- H. Kuska comment: Until a simple lab test is developed, we simply do not know from a single field examination in some/many cases. There are too many variables: type of herbicide, concentration of herbicide, rose variety, weather, etc. to say for certain from a single observarion in all cases this plant definitely has RRV, this one definitely has herbicide damage. Here is a link that might be useful: Ann Peck's chapter Recognizing Rose Rosette

Nancy, I have an availability list sitting here in front of me. Like I said somewhere else, I have a tough time with latin names. I know them by other things like Columbine, not Aquilegia. And I certainly don't know a lot of the varieties. But I do know that people are tired of seeing the same trailing phlox year after year. They're tired of being offered May Night Salvia every spring. I heard it from two regular customers today. "Why don't they ever have anything new?" Tomorrow I will be placing my first order. I've decided to bring in some early coreopsis and a few other things I marked on the list while browsing google. I would buy these plants if they were available to me. Why? Because they're pretty. They are covered in blooms and will hold up to the summer heat. I'm also stocking up on perennial grasses, which always seem to sell out just when it's time to have something in the garden that provides interest and can handle the heat. Our store has not sold zinnias either. I plan to order a rack of them when they are available. Why not? They're bigger than marigolds and can make a bigger punch. The manager has told me that he's going to let me choose. He knows very little about the plants, and he's happy to give me an opportunity to see if I can do better than the previous LNS. I'll still order Boston Ferns. We sold 294 from Friday at 5pm til today at 6pm. We had 6 left in the store when I clocked out. We will get another shipment tomorrow. Lots of people are buying edibles this year too. Trees, plants, everything. Tomatoes are a hot item right now. I don't order those, but I have to make sure they're tended for until they sell. Tropicals will start arriving next week. Mandevilla is a hot item right now. We got in 48 last year and they were gone in a single day. 8" pots for $6.95 each. I'm ordering 144 this year. He doesn't know it yet. But I remember being asked over and over the next day what happened to them. People were buying them in twos and threes. All my plants will be delivered by local independent shippers and grown locally. Metrolina is the largest supplier of ours. They employ hundreds of people. I wish they had more selection, but they can only grow so many varieties. Another nursery is Layman in SC. It's not really local, but it isn't too far away. A few hours. If we had a good local nursery that sold more than trees or sad little hollies, I would want to work there instead. But we don't. It's either this or Wal-Mart, and they don't have anyone on their staff that has a clue about plants from what I can tell. They hardly water anything. We have a system set up to make sure every table gets attention at least 4 times a week, usually more. We turn over a lot of plants each week. My budget for this week, a transition period between cool annuals and summer annuals/perennials, is in the mid 5 digit range. That's one store and I'm talking wholesale costs. And like Cameron pointed out, Lowe's is a NC based company started in North Wilkesboro and now headquartered in Moorseville, NC.

Oh yeah. If it isn't blooming they won't buy it. Could be a 6-pack so root bound and heavy with flowers that it keeps falling over, but it will sell. It's also when they will find the plant for sale. Come in September looking for forsythia? Good luck, they were available in April. All 6 of them. Over 30 years ago when I first started the nurseries tried a campaign to encourage people to plant in the fall. "Fall Is For Planting!" posters were put up everywhere. It's the best time to plant in CA except for tropicals. The weather is starting to cool down but it's still warm. You usually only have to water until the rain starts. The plants have a long cool wet winter (well, most winters, lol) for the roots to grow well and get established before the heat of summer. Well, it was a total failure. Most people, being from somewhere else, just couldn't wrap their head around the idea of fall planting. Plus most of the plants were NOT in bloom. Even with pretty pictures of the flowers on the tags, just couldn't imagine the flowers. They'd rather buy them in May when they're blooming so pretty, stick them in the ground, forget to water them in June, cause it was just raining wasn't it? Then wonder why they were dead in 95*+ July. Heh heh, I'm not cynical after all these years, am I?