I think the whole problem here is that we are trying to compare apples to oranges. HT's and Shrub roses are two different classes for a reason. If you are expecting HTs to grow and bloom in the same manner as Shrub roses then you surely will be disappointed. Same is true the other way around. If you are expecting Shrub roses to give you the large beautifully formed blooms of an HT you'll be disappointed too. You can not compare them to each other. That's unfair to both classes. In my experience if you try to even compare one HT against another you come up perplexed. EVERY variety of rose is DIFFERENT. They each have their own habits and no two are alike. You need to just enjoy and appreciate each one for it's own unique characteristics.

I take it you ordered bare root roses from J & P? You could probably heel them into the ground, just be fore to keep the soul somewhat moist so the canes don't dry out, until such time they are ready to be planted. Good luck!

Thanks you so much Bgrose, Carol, and Jim! Carol, Folklore is always supposed to be a bicolor but the camera fails to capture it because I don't take it under the optimum lighting. It is a brilliant candy-tangerine orange on one side and a lemon butter cream on the other side. It looks nothing like Disneyland. Disneyland is very floribunda-like but Folklore does consistently "spiral" and is a classic HT. Bgrose, yes, Lincoln is my favorite rose! but the next one in line will almost 98% be Ferdinand Pichard. Both roses have the most AMAZING FRAGRANCE!!! Great news people, Crescendo's color is deepening, and may revert to Gemini coral. I am so excited about this... But if I post new pics that would be breaking my promise about saving everything for the next Lumpy batter batch, haha! Which is another reason why I stopped myself from posting my photos of my Scottish heath and heather. I absolutely love those new plants but we will see if they can flourish in my soil which is very ill-suited for heather/heath...They need sandy and acidic and not clay.alkaline soil so I'm trying to feed them tea leaves for the acid... lol, Jim, I am having a ROTTEN DAY TODAY, lol, today of all days, and yes! I did try to clean out that mailbox, lol! Hope you got my email about how horrid of a day I'm having with Kansas IRS. They are refusing to send back the money they made a mistake on back in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Their error too! Missouri got it straight, but Kansas didn't!!! So frustrated!!!!

here's one from my 82 year old Dad, king of forwards and jokes: I'm sending him the jokes above one at a time, I usually don't have anything for him, thanks . Ed and Dorothy met while on a singles cruise and Ed fell head over heels for her. When they discovered they lived in the same city only a few miles apart, Ed was ecstatic. He immediately started asking her out when they got home. Within a couple of weeks, Ed had taken Dorothy to dance clubs, restaurants, concerts, movies, and museums. Ed became convinced that Dorothy was indeed his soul mate and true love. Every date seemed better than the last. On the one-month anniversary of their first dinner on the cruise ship, Ed took Dorothy to a fine restaurant. While having cocktails and waiting for their salad, Ed said, "I guess you can tell I'm very much in love with you. I'd like a little serious talk before our relationship continues to the next stage. So, before I get a box out of my jacket and as k you a life changing question, it's only fair to warn you, I'm a total golf nut. I play golf, I read about golf, I watch golf on TV. In short, I eat, sleep, and breathe golf. If that's going to be a problem for us, you'd better say so now!" Dorothy took a deep breath and responded, "Ed, that certainly won't be a problem. I love you as you are and I love golf too; but, since we're being totally honest with each other, you need to know that about the last five years I've been a hooker." "I see," Ed replied thoughtfully. He looked down at the table, and was quiet for a moment, deep in serious thought then he added, "You know, it's probably because you're not keeping your wrists straight when you hit the ball."