This really is awful! I loved Pickering, they were always great to do business with, and they provided wonderful plants. It seems like we are quickly losing so many of our sources for OGRs and anything other than Knock outs! I think its a good idea for all of us to try to work on our cutting-taking skills so we can preserve the roses we love. So many of the beautiful old roses may become unavailable to American gardeners - in fact, with the passing of Vintage, a lot are already lost to us. Really sad.

Bare roots: Palatine for sure. Regan Nurseries has perhaps the largest selection of bare roots - mostly modern varieties, mostly grafted. Witherspoon is another resource, less selection but I'm often surprised to discover they have hard to find varieties. David Austin is pricey, but good quality and they sell several non-DA roses. I'd avoid Edmunds because of their habit of shipping too late, which is too bad because they have nice selection and their roses are reasonable quality if you could just get them in the ground a few weeks earlier. Own roots, I highly recommend High Country Roses and Northland Rosarium for their specialization of cold hardy roses and good sized healthy plants. Many nurseries that sell own root plants offer only bands and with our short growing season that can be a gamble. I have had some good luck with bands of very hardy roses, especially from Heirloom. They have a great selection and under the new owner ship they're offering many varieties in larger size. Locally, I like Roseland in Acushnet, MA and Unacanoonuc in Goffstown, NH. Maybe try Corliss Brothers in Ipswich, MA.

American Science and Surplus has one that they estimate will lift 10 lbs. Go to the site below and then type "soft touch grabber" in the search box and see if it seems useful. They appear to be out, but expecting more. Please keep in mind that if you NEED a grabber, work from a wheelchair or have a bad back (etc), a grabber that will lift 30 lbs may be a bad idea, as the leverage needed will put stress on certain body parts. Sue Here is a link that might be useful: American Science & Surplus

The issue Michael referred to was the same issue retailers have dealt with since the beginning of "shelf labeling". When products are priced individually, it doesn't matter how they're moved around on the shelves, as their pricing moves with them. When the SHELVES are labeled with no pricing on the products, moving them without moving the labels, results in confusion and miss pricing. There are laws in place preventing the public from being deliberately cheated using these issues. Reports from friends who visited them regularly at that time were that Heirloom didn't label the individual flats. They placed the name of the variety on the shelf the flat was placed on. When flats were moved, often the names were not, resulting in some serious misidentifications. Fortunately, that practice was corrected, but it took some time for them to admit the errors and fix them. Kim