Ta Svenka.

You dribbler :)

Where have you been, and how has the rose gone?

I also just got my rose orders from Reliable and also from Thomas. The roses are sensational, many with pink buds and healthy new purple growth (not like the white starved of chlorophyll ones in the supermarkets) - put in 5 Marie van Houttes, 2 Comptesse Calyas and a Mrs BR Cant today and many more roses to bed in tomorrow and the next day. Seeing this superb quality from Reliable and Thomas, well why would you go anywhere else? I am not longer tempted at all by the so-called "specials" in the supermarket - have a few of those that I succumbed to sitting in compost and struggling compared to these healthy rooted specimens. Can't wait for summer to see them all heading onwards and upwards.

My orders from Treloar and The Rose Garden were impressive also. Besides someone at Treloar has a Border Collie and a pic. made it into to last year's catalogue...how could I not order from such a discerning group of people.

Great to hear these good reports.

SallyBC,
I like Treloar's specials; also, I have always received friendly customer service, thatÂs why I also order from them.

I have been knee deep in dirt all weekend with my orders, I am lucky it is has been a beautiful sunny weekend here in Brisbane.

Cheers,

Brissy

I just received my new babies from Rankins and they are also of excellent quality .

On the other hand, my mother bought roses from Treloars 2 or 3 years ago, and out of 6 or 8 roses, only 2 were not diseased.

The agreed to replace TWO of those that were diseased, but the replacement plants were no better. In the end she found follow-up and customer service to be so poor that she simply gave up on trying to resolve the situation.

I must say my nineteen mail order roses from Magic Garden Roses (Vic) are very healthy looking plants.
In spite of the rough treatment and being lost in the Post MGR rang and e-mailed me often
The seven standards have all thick grafts with plenty on them too, not like the Variety Stores ones.
And I would order from them again. I am very pleased with the plants Cheers...MM.

My orders from Reliable Roses and Treloar are healthy also :)Thanks Jean and Lozza. Can't wait til spring.
yoda

We purchased a lot of different roses this year to try out in the ground.All roses purchased from Treloars,Ross Roses and Trewellyn (Bundaberg) were high quality plants which have all started growing at a pleasing rate.
However for the first time this year we purchased some new bareroots from Woolworths and Bunnings.Every single plant we obtained from these places was a disappointment. They all without exception began growing immediately only to drop all the new leaves before they were even one third mature. This was followed in all cases by a degree of dieback, which varied in severity from minimal to severe and to the point where one plant actually died!
This is a sure sign that all of these plants were heavily infected with black spot prior to digging.I'm not totally against bare rooting plants,in the growing season, prior to dormacy but carrying out this practice on diseased plants destined for home gardens is just a plain rip off. If the chain stores and the growers who supply them cared for their customers and their own reputations they could have allowed postponed the digging of the roses until they had endured at least a short period of dormancy. By this stage the disease will less likely to establish itself in the new foliage.
I am offically fed up with chain stores and certain other multinationals who are hell bent on monopolising markets at any cost.I will personally never by roses at these places again on principle.
Angry Mr Thrip Grrrrr...

Dear Angry Mr Thrip,

I am on your chain of thought! I don't have any knowledge of the breeders treatment of these bare roots in chain stores but I see first hand in most of these stores the disregard and lack of treatment most of the b/r roses get from the casual staff. (90% of the time, not at all stores)

So for quality and variety, I stick to mail order roses, also, I prefer giving my money to a hard working Australian family business.

Brissy

My birthday pressy was a trip out to John's World Nursery at Trentham where I collected 4 Crepiscules, 2 Renaes, 1 Summer Snow, 1 Wedding Day, 1 Rambling Rector, 1 Awakening, 1 Albertine and 1 Mme Carriere. They were all in beautiful condition, with lots of shoots, and well wrapped in damp newspaper and plastic, for their journey home in my car. The proprietors were helpful and very patient as I explained what I needed. I was too late for Lamarque and a couple of others I noticed the Forum praised, but it's only another eight months to April and I'll get my order in quickly. Thanks for all the helpful advice I've been reading up on, for my new rose garden. I've got a lot of climbers as I have an inquisitive Jack Russell and her friend, a Maltese X Shih Tzu. They love racketing around, digging huge holes to nowhere, and chucking out whatever is in a flowerpot and parking themselves in it.I've erected barriers around my new roses and so far they're still there, looking good.

wow hope you have a huge lot of space on your fences!
Wedding day is a huge octopus monster with the sharpest thorns that spreads and grabs all unsuspecting persons married or not! We have covered our cattle yards from view with it and we have to get the trimmers onto it every season! I can see your doggies strung up like christmas decorations lol!Rambling rector also grows up trees! Albertine is also huge but can be kept in a shrub like state with growth over the fence. The others I have covering various fences and water tanks.
Obviously you have lots of fences too.

Happy birthday belatedly! no better way of celebrating it than buyibg more roses!
Lynne

Dear Lynne 1 - Thankyou for your good wishes- not belated as my birthday is on 10th August. My daughter is quite taken with your description of Wedding Day and Rambling Rector that I relayed, and wants them on her chain mesh fence at the back of their suburban garden which faces onto an isolated piece of land that was cleared of houses years ago and left to grow wild. Occasionally a truck arrives and they trim the grass down, but it is unnervingly empty, except for a willow tree that she loves looking out at. An official truck was sent to cut it down on the grounds that it was not a native tree, but with efforts almost culminating in tying the entire family to the tree, they went away, never to be heard of again. These terrible roses would deter trespassers, she feels, so out to John's World we'll go again. She also has a puppy, but unfortunately he is totally deaf. Apart from that, he is delightful and very intelligent, but he is too young to see if he will bark at intruders, so on with the roses. I don't have a lot of room, just a suburban garden, but I have inherited an ancient apple tree and the biggest fig tree in the neighbourhood, also a shed and a tin garage. The Albertine can ramble away up a brick wall and into another tree and along to a paling fence. I am looking forward to the vegetation, flowers and hips, but it sounds as if we need a chainsaw at pruning time. My little dogs really should stay out of the fenced-off garden, but they beg to get in to chase away birds, hunt for anything, and dig holes under the fig tree, so perhaps they better stay out. Your letter was very funny, lol, thanks for the advice.

I must admit that all the rose nurseries that I have ordered from have supplied terrific roses. This year I have only ordered from Treloar, Thomas and Rose Cottage. Treloar's sent me one of their recent releases as my free rose and personally I have found their customer service has always been great. I have been dealing with them on and off over 20 years. Thomas for Roses has always been terrific and Arthur at Rose Cottage is also always helpful, good quality roses from both.
After dealing with proper nurseries I would never again buy from Bunnings or Big W unless I am looking for a rosefix on a bad day!!!

Wow, for a very new rose person I must have had very good luck. I bought 3 3ft standards from Big W about 4 weeks ago. The whole 3 of them cost me $8.00. So was not going to complain.The catch is that I have no idea as to what colours they are because there were no labels. However the garden dude at Big W who is a uni student doing horticulture (and very knowledgable) seemed to think they are freesia, given that most of the standards they had were freesias. He pointed out that they have even distribution around the grafts and they are nice even plants. Since they have been in the ground they are producing very even foliage which looks extremely healthy and abundant. I compare this with 3 roses I ordered from magic roses and there is absolutely no difference in quality or growth whatsoever. Maybe I was just lucky to have met such a wonderful young man at Big W. However I will think about buying from a supermarket style again because of the point you raised about supporting family businesses. I had not really thought about that aspect before. I suppose I thought those nurseries supplied the chain stores as well. Happy gardening and thanks to all for an interesting thread

Perhaps if I could add a little perspective. Yes, of course some growers supply chain stores, but there is a limit to the number of cultivars available. They don't want to be left with the unpopular, unwanted, or unknown roses. Very middle of the road, so many "family businesses" provide the rarer plants as well as some of the common cultivars. We feed from the scraps around the edges.

I won't enter into the realm of quality. From what I see quality is similar. What is different is the demand for early supplies from chains, which sees plants chemically defoliated before dormancy with an associated poisoning of immature canes. These will die back, and this phenomenon has been reported here. It is not good practice, but they want the impulse buyers who buy at a price, and not necesarily for quality. In other words, the latest "gimmick" roses. The "latest must be the best" syndrome.

Thank somebody there are discerning rose growers out there who want the more uncommon roses. Those with planning skills who take pride in making gardens of culture and pleasure, with roses of historical significance, away from the maddening (sic) crowd. It does keep bread on the table.

Here is a link that might be useful: some classic roses

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" I do not choose a rose for historical significance, I buy them to cope with QLD climate, for flower colour and most importantly for scent. My garden is very pleasurable, obviously not cultured enough for a Victorian fancier....Brisbane is very different to Melbourne though. I know this as I lived my childhood in Armadale and Malvern and was educated at Lauriston, thus culture is definately not something foreign to me. Pomposity and snobbery does not sit well on the shoulders of anyone. If you want perfectly planned gardens, visit some of the newer suburbs with the $20,000.00 perfectly planned, professionally styled gardens which my huband's colleagues (all other barristers) take great pride in showing. That is not what gardens are all about. I am only 35 and fairly new to gardening, so my trial and error method is fine by me, as are my crepuscle, bonicas, friesias, blackboys, icebergs, summer snows, masquerades etc. etc., I will buy further roses with absolutely no significant historical, or cultural significance at all, simply because I love the flowers and love getting down and dirty in my own planned and tended gardens.

Curses, I am undone.

hee hee touche Lozza.. well I love em all!

Lol, That's why your Happy Jacq and not Frustrated Forever Jacq!!....I have to thank this year for some great roses, Reliable, Magic Gdn and Walter Duncans. All were terrific and very healthy even though I was a little late to order. Looking forward to another spring and the anticipation of my new friends becoming newly acquainted with my old pals already established in the garden.

Garry

I started off buying from the chain stores, that is all that is available up in Nth Qld. An impulse thing, see it, buy it, then try to prepare a place for it. It worked all right and now I am hooked. Bought more chain store roses the following year and had a look again this year but by now it is 'Ho Hum, same ol' same ol' stuff". So I have ordered from growers this year, some from Hedgerow and Reliable Roses. Hedgerow's are in the ground and Reliable's go in today (huge plants Lozza). Here I have been able to really look at what I want in a rose and order to fulfill (hopefully) that wish, something you can't do with chain store stuff.
Cheers and happy rosegrowing, whichever way you choose.
Judy

I am similar to Scubamid,

I started off with my first rose from a small rose nursery then in my first winter I went crazy at chain stores buying HT's - Double Delight, Freesia etc. Then I was told about mail order during winter with all the 1000's to choose from. I believe you learn more about your ultimate preference in where to buy and what roses to buy as the time passes.

I remember some wise old growers telling me at a rose show you will not buy many more HT's if you keep your passion up for roses in a few years you will mainly want the old fashioned roses, I didn't believe them ...........that's exactly what has happened.

I still love my HT's and do order some but my great love is buying the beautiful old world roses now and mail order is the only place you can track most of these treasures down and the variety.

So I say ..whatever roses give you joy, keep buying and growing them.

Brissy