I love your choices and High Country Roses. You are going to love them! Please post pictures.

I love High Country Roses! They are super helpful and send healthy, good sized bands. I've never had one issue with them or their roses. I don't have any pictures sorry.

The gentleman I spoke with at High Country Roses was very helpful in answering my questions about own root roses, when I was first starting out. I was very happy with the plant I received. He said they only carry roses that they believe do well on their own roots.

Somewhere I should have pictures of Ispahan and Rosa Mundi, but beats me exactly where. Isphan is extremely well behaved, very nice rose. It naturally grows to about 6 ft, but can be kept shorter with pruning. Rosa Mundi will spread a bit, and should probably be encouraged to do so. It will revert to the Apothecary Rose if stressed. It will get to about 3 ft or so.

The Burgundian Rose is one I haven't grown, but I've seen it around. It isn't quite like anything else. For one thing, it is quite short, 2 ft or less. It also blooms quite early, with the Scots Roses. It will spread. It always reminded me of red clover. Definitely something not quite rose about it.

I have only ordered a few roses from HCR because my climate is not their target climate, but I have been very impressed with the roses I got.

I got my 'Nastarana' from HCR and it's been a champ. I have always wanted to grow 'Agnes', but have never been in the right place at the right time...

Thank you all for your feedback so far. Lovely photos Anne. Mad Gallica, thanks especially for letting me know that the Burgundian Rose suckers a lot. Definitely rethinking that choice now.

I assume AnneCecila means that Leda has a lot of spreading basal breaks. From my understanding, own root roses can't sucker, which is a benefit. Suckers originate from the rootstalk that is grafted onto a different plant and must be removed.

Your Leda is a beauty, AnneCecila.

Oh dear no, jasminerose, it's the other way around for some kinds of roses. Damasks, Gallicas, and Albas, for example, can run like rabbits on their own roots (my Alba, Sappho, would regularly send up shoots 5'+ away from the original plant - yikes. Ditto Autumn Damask, Rose de Rescht, my found moss rose, etc., etc., etc., and don't even ASK about La Belle Sultane...). THOSE sorts of roses you graft onto to rootstock to PREVENT them from running amok.

Jasminerose, the confusion is the word "sucker". A sucker can be from any type of rose root, and is basically just the root deciding to put up a new cane. When a grafted rose (like a modern hybrid tea) puts out suckers they are from the rootstock by definition, and are undesirable. Roses which grow on their own roots can sucker from the roots too - it is just that what you get is more of the same rose. Some types of roses, as described by catspa above, sucker madly on their own roots, while others never do, and some only do once in a while. Wild roses developed this habit as a survival trait.

Jackie

Thank you for the clarification. I knew that a new cane can come up from the roots and it might not always be desired, but I didn't know this is also known as a sucker.

I'll be receiving my first orders from High Country Roses in April. Most are for my cemetery project, but I threw in a couple for myself.

:-)

~Christopher

I agree with what Jackie said. But of course I have to add my own 2¢ worth.

Lots of plants can sucker, not just roses. My tree-form-trained crape myrtle sent up suckers from the root for its first 10 years or so, and still tries now and then. There are 4 redwood trees near our house and I cut root suckers off those All.The.Time.

In my personal experience, the worst offenders in the rose world are the gallicas and the rugosas, also pretty much any kind of species rose. Damasks and albas follow after that. Rose de Rescht will sucker after it is well established. So will Grandmother's Hat, though so far it stays within a foot or two of the base. The difference between own-root suckering and grafted root suckering is that if you allow a grafted plant to sucker from the rootstock, it will eventually kill the scion rose and the rootstock will take over. With own root suckering you just get more of the same rose. Sometimes more than you want.

I am having a similar problem with one of my oranges, 'Midnight', a Valencia-type orange. It must be less vigorous than my other oranges because it is the only one that is doing this. I've had to cut off rootstock suckers several years in a row, and boy, that rootstock is nasty to handle. Two inch thorns all over!

Rosefolly

I also placed an order from High Country last week. I was so excited to see that they had Boule de Neige back in stock, and I snapped it up!

I ordered from them last year and all the roses I got are still alive and doing well. I do live where it gets snow so it is comforting to know they come from a similar place.

I ordered two from High Country Roses last week too - Leda and Souvenir de la Malmaison. Sounds like you're getting some good ones!

I've grown five of the ones you listed, and only have two of them still. Ispahan is a winner all-around -- healthy, fragrant, and vigorous. Can keep it to 5x5 or let it get larger if you have the room. Leda is fragrant and beautiful. It will get some "damask crud" on the leaves but does not defoliate too badly, but mine is runty (2.5' tall), maybe due to the crud or not liking some afternoon shade.

I no longer grow Rosa Mundi because it ran far and wide -- worst Gallica in terms of suckering for me. It also tended to sport to Apothecary rose and lose the striped coloring I wanted. I had a bed of Apothecary rose and only one tiny clump of Rosa Mundi left so dug it all out, eventually.

Zephy I got rid of because it would totally defoliate every summer and look bad when it wasn't in bloom. It's not a good no-spray rose. But it had lots of vigor so the BS didn't kill it, and fragrance was superb.

Boule de Neige died, probably weakened by blackspot. I didn't have it long enough to appreciate its fragrance.

My order from them shipped today, and will be coming by the end of the week. Things are getting rather full in the little paved area of my back yard.

:-)

~Christopher

I ordered from them two years ago. One was damaged in shipping and they replaced it immediately. At that time they were the only place I found Fairmont Prospertine. I would order again.

Love them. My plants from them are fabulous.