Wow! Sweet Rose Of Mine is stunning

Based on Lilyfinch’s following reviews, I’m super excited about this rose... healthy, prolific, a rose that looks like a shrub variety of Eden Climber... what more could you ask for. I think she also mentioned it had a nice fragrance. She always gives me the best rose recommendations.

I hemmed and hawed on it until I saw Jen's pictures. Then I purchased lol

Aaron, me too!

I have Bordeaux Citiscape from Kordes. You might like it or ones from the Veranda series. They are compact and healthy.

https://www.heirloomroses.com/bordeauxtm.html

Believe it or not I saw Sonia R at Tractor Supply last year.

Ill look again this year and will get it if they have it.

No, JC, I absolutely do NOT believe you saw Sonia Rykiel at Tractor Supply! I’m afraid you’ll have to bring her home and have a pic with her to prove it.

Now Sonia Meilland, that old girl hangs out at Tractor Supply every spring wearing the same old body bags hoping for someplace to go.

I am so looking at Tractor Supply Center tomorrow for SR..just in case lol. The most exciting thing at our TSC is Blue Girl (besides baby chicks lol).

Princess Charlene de Monaco looks very similar to Abe Darby. Lisa had a thread on the antique rose forum having people guess who was who between Abe and Charlene. It was hard to tell!

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5058623/guessing-game-can-you-spot-abraham-darby#n=29

I just got a bare root of Sweet Rose of Mine from JP. It was huge! I couldnt fit the roots into any pot I have available right now so I had to plant it in the ground between and behind two Distant Drums lol. I hope it doesn't clash.

I posted about it last year and people were floored.

I believe the other surprising one they had was Paul Neyron.

I did not recognize most of the ones they had so I didn’t know any better. I ended up with Red Cascade and Olympiad.

I’ve seen Paul Neyron at Tractor Supply myself, along with Comte de Chambord. But Sonia Rykiel would truly be odd, a rose that never made it out of speciality sales in the US.

I scavenged 4 different Tractor Supplies this year, they had some really huge plants , and when I unwrapped them, I was pleasantly surprised to find long roots intact. Their plants were actually much nicer than what I got from Regan, albeit all more common varieties. Here’s my haul:

Maybe I really am thinking of the other Sonia?

I’ll look at my local ones tomorrow. I still think Sonia R is the one I saw.

My local TSCs let them dry out something terrible.

Wow, Ben!!! Those have really thick canes!!

Ben, those are wonderful looking roses. What did you get besides Angel Face and Just Joey? What do they charge for such top notch roses? We don't have Tractor Supply around here, just a small local farm/ranch chain that I patronize. Since this is a big farming and ranching area, I wonder why Tractor Supply isn't out West. Sorry, but Texas is Midwest/South to me. I'll bet Texans don't like my designation. Diane

Diane and Carol,

I picked up Double Delight, 2 Just Joey, Granada, Miss AAB, and Pink Peace from Tractor Supply. They’re favorite roses that I mostly already have, I thought it‘d be fun to raise them and give them away. They were only $8 each! They remind me of the roses that SpringHill grades call Jumbo (larger than #1). Best of all , the roots were weren’t lopped off , they were carefully wrapped in the that peat pot and 20” long. In recent years Regan has sometimes lopped off their roots to only 5”, like if the plant wasn’t sold to me they’d stick in a peat pot and sell it to some Californian for $60 (that’s you, Helen and Nick, lol!).

I got to Tractor Supply every spring to get my alfalfa, it‘s cheapest there , about $14 for 50 lbs. I can’t resist picking up a bare root or two or five! I’m surprised they don’t have them in Idaho, a state which must have many tractors that need their supplies.

Back on topic: Pink Peace can look a bit like an Austin, and smells spectacular:

@BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14) those are huge for $8! The $11 body bags at our local farm supply store were tiny tiny!

Can someone explain "body bags" to me? Is there soil in there? The term body bag seems like it has a negative connotation to me but many users here seem to buy or have bought them before so maybe not so bad?

Those look good...I think I'll see what my local Tractor Supply has. I've wanted a new Just Joey.

Body Bags have no soil in them but they have bark or peat moss. Often they are mislabeled, or have chopped roots or are stored improperly like sitting out in hot sun, or in too much shade. Most of the time they have waxed canes which I'd rather not have. But they are fun! I've had bad luck with a number of them and yet some of them are among the best plants in my garden!

Ben that made me laugh. $8 seems like a steal, clearly I’m shopping at the wrong places! Haha

Checked one of mine and the only unusual one was Cl Golden showers.

I got a JFK for $8

Fantastic deals, Ben. Yes, lots of tractors here, but I'm no !@#$ Californian-ha. I've never bought a body bag rose. Here, they're awful. Diane

One of my better body bag, or rather peat pot roses, Cherry Parfait:

I went up to Tractor Supply but they had no roses in yet. Picked up a bag of alfalfa. Saw a neat chicken coop. Sultry has sold me on at least the idea of having chickens and goats.

erasmus, How exciting! Have you decided on what kinds of goats and chickens you want to get?

Sultry,

I haven't researched it enough to form any opinion. I just like the way your goats look and I've seen other cute pics of goats. They seem to have a lot of personality. One of my grandsons especially likes goats and would come over here more if I had one! Or two. But I'm afraid goats would eat my garden and I would have to have a pen for them, which might not be much fun for them. How do you keep your goats from eating all your plants?

I've seen that people who keep chickens seem to like them. Namely you and Beth. I'd like to have some eggs. But I'd have to have a special pen for them with a roof because I have cats outdoors. I don't know if they can be happy in a somewhat small chicken coop. I have always wanted farm animals, since I was little, and I think I'd like to have a cow too but I definitely don't have the space for one.

Very cool! I love Tractor Supply C! I buy my cat/dog food and best dog toys! I bought 4 roses in body bags couple years ago from ... TSC all growing strong in my garden now....

My TSC roses:

“Moonlight Magic is a giant HT on my property... Pink Peace... All American Beauty a grandiflora very tall....... New Day.”

Moonlight Magic

All American Beauty

I‘m really excited to hear Comte de Chambord

may be at TSC! I have it on my wish list!

Lots of people have pens and feed their goats hay intead of having a large pasture.

If you get Nigerian Dwarfs or pygmy goats they wont need a ton of space if you just have 2. You defintely need at least 2 because they are herd animals and will be lonely without a friend. If you want milk and a small goat, I would go with the Nigerian Dwarfs, otherwise it wouldnt matter which.

I have pasture fenced off with field fencing and T posts. We mainly have Nigerian Dwarfs but we also have 2 full sized Lamancha does so they need more room.

We also have two bucks (one is still a technically a buckling) They have a smaller area than the does but its still good enough they can run around and get exercize.

You can give them things to jump around on like upside down tubs or those big wooden cable spools or old picnic tables or build something.

Have you seen the 'Weed Em and Reap' you tube channel? They have a bunch of chickens, several goats, kunekune pigs, and other critters on a city acre lot in the Phx/ Mesa area..I'm guessing its prob only a half acre or less once you subtract the house, front yard, garden and huge swimming pond. They seem to make it work ok.

Our cats dont bother our chickens at all and we have lots of strays. They might get tiny chicks though but we dont let them run around when they are that small. These cats are afraid of the broody mamas too..they go for blood if anything goes near their babies.

Its the foxes, racoons, and coyotes that are the issue lol. We made wood chicken coops with hardware cloth for windows and on the doors. They get locked up at night and let out in the morning for their own protection. You can make their pen out of t-posts and wire fencing and cover the top with chicken wire or even shade cloth. Since they go inside the coop at night, you only have to protect from hawks in the daytime with the top covered.

If you go to backyardchickens.com you will find coops and run plans that you might like.

Mischievous, I think body bags mean that they are a dormant rose. They are the ones usually found at big box stores in these plastic baggie type of container that holds the roots.... normally they are bare root with no dirt. At least that is my understanding. Maybe someone else can chime in on it.

Sharon you are correct. Here’s the one I bought and planted today. You can see all the packed ”stuff” just looks like sawdust or fine mulch.

some of them have dirt or bark, but none of the “body bags” come in pots and all of them are wrapped in heavy plastic bags as the only packaging.

That's interesting, thank you everyone who answered 💛

I just recently bought 4 clematis in a bag like this, only they were completely in the bag and the bag then inside a box, from Sam's Club. Bad idea? Probably. It was impulse that made me do it 🙄 but they were 4 for $12 so I decided to take a chance, not much to lose. They're potted up inside right now and at least 2 seem to be quite happy, 1 is going slightly slower but is alive, and 1 is looking pretty iffy haha. But the potted ones available in spring at the local nursery are something like $45 a peice and I'm just never going to want to pay that. I spent that much on a weigela last spring and I've got some serious buyer's remorse about that one.

Magpie, I bet your clematis will be just fine! They might need an extra year to put on some size but I can’t bring myself to buy the expensive ones either and mine have always been ok

A few other ideas for roses that look similar to DA roses: Guy de Maupassant, Leonardo da Vinci, Kiss me Kate, All Dressed Up.

Diane, do you have Sonia Rykiel? She’s a quirky little thing, takes after her parent Abraham Darby.

Bolero takes fragrance from her parent Sharifa Asma, but blooms more. A number of roses that look like DA roses have a DA as parent or grandparent.

Ben - yeah, those sound like great roses! Real salt of the earth "you'll get your money's worth" roses. :) I'm particularly fond of Pink Peace. :)

Erasmus - Wow! Your Cherry Parfait looks amazing! The first picture blew me away with the beauty of the flowers and the 2nd with the quantity!!

Kitty - your Moonlight Magic looks luminescent!! The name is perfect for it! Gorgeous!

I love all the goat/chicken talk!!! :) :)

Sultry, thanks for the info on goats and chickens. We really don't have much room . I wish I could visit your garden, meet you, see your animals and tiny frogs. Sounds like a paradise.

To be precise a body bag plant comes in a bag, but the peat pots in bags are almost the same...they often have chopped roots, are packed in peat, have waxed canes, and can be mislabeled and stored improperly.

It was always my understanding that bare root roses in plastic bags were called “body bags” because of the low survival rate of these products (imagine the stacks of these in box stores sitting in the sun) and because they referred to the zip-up bags used for corpses. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_bag

I, too, consider body bags to be a gamble as Erasmus says: the plant may or may not live, and it may or may not be the variety it is labeled as. In a milder climate they may be more successful, since when I lived in coastal California, they were fine, but the ones here have been more risky, even from the nicer nurseries.

Mischievous Magpie,

For future planting of bare root and body bag roses... I soaked for 24 hours the bare roots first before planting.... and all bareroots I have planted grew well! Roses, flowers and bushes in past. Gives the roses a boast of revitalization. And give them good soil and fertilizer!

@noseometer...(7A, SZ10, Albuquerque) That's what I think about when I read "body bag" too, which is not very appealing...

I think I'll stick with baby bands 😬 I say that now, hopefully I don't walk by a row of them at the store though, I'd be forced to look through the stock 😅

I just call them bagged roses. I consider them different to bands.

Erasmus, what zone/state are you in? I am just curious because you said a few days ago that bareroot roses haven’t come in to your local TS. I am sitting at the edge of my seat waiting for the first bare roots to come into the Lowe’s, TS and other big box stores to get my hands on the best ones as soon as they late stocked on the shelves! I want to get my extensive rose garden dreams started, (but we are poor to put it bluntly) so $8 roses is music to my ears! I live in 6a northeast Indiana and have been lurking around Lowe’s. They got in some bareroot berry bushes last week, but no roses yet! They can’t be far off though!

Madison, you should see them very soon.

For the last three years, they have shown up in this order for me, zone 7a:

Walmart

Tractor Supply

Home Depot

This is the first time I've seen Lowe's have the bagged ones.

Roses are not actually my hobby, I just like how fast they grow and how easy they are.

I have a handful of not-so-common ones thanks to this forum, but the $8 ones are great because they grow and bloom right away AND it's not that big of a deal if you accidentally kill it.

PS- the inventory at all the box stores was much more limited this year than in years past. Not sure if it's covid related or if they just aren't selling well.

Tractor Supply sells quality I have found! They may be bagged roses...and cheap... but all roses I bought from them and everything I buy there I love!

Thanks jc and Kitty! My nearby Walmart is absolutely horrific in the garden section, so I don’t think I’m going to bother with them. (If I ever want to feel disgusted, I just swing though the local Walmart’s garden section and get a hefty dose of angst) However, the nearby Lowe‘s has a fantastic garden section and seem to do a good job caring for their plants, so I have high expectation for them! I think the TS is pretty good as well, so I’ll cross my fingers in hopes for some good rose finds (and perhaps a clematis or two?!)

@jc_7a_MiddleTN I think we're going to see limited inventory at many garden centers and even mom and pop nurseries. Plant stock across the country is low because so many people did a lot of gardening this past year! Friends and family of mine in the industry have had quite the time ordering and receiving inventory for spring.

@Diane Brakefield I was reading through some of the older comments, and I just have a question on your Colette rose. Do you recommend it as a climber? Is it pretty free blooming for you or is it rather stingy? I’m just looking for a really pretty climber with nice blooms and likes to flower. I had my heart set on Eden, but after reading some comments on it tending to be stingy in colder climates, I might lower it from the coveted #1 position on my most-wanted list hahaha (if any other cold climate folks have personal favorites they’d recommend, lemme know!)

I should say my most-wanted list as well as the list of roses I’m willing to spend $25-30 on!!

Personally I have not been able to grow roses from body bags. I live in zone 10 in South Florida. I can never get the wax off the canes, and they just get black. I think maybe the wax encourages bs.... maybe someone else knows why I would have such problems..... but I now try to buy rooted roses that are growing and not dormant with wax.

I would guess if you have issues with body bag roses, one problem might be that the body bag has been neglected too long. They tend to show up a big box stores where they’re not treated so well, so it’s important to scout them out in the spring and buy at first opportunity.

I’ve not had problem with the wax itself, I don’t remove it, and think it helps against dessication.

Chicago Peace and Mister Lincoln are now living the good life after their humble body bag beginnings.

Ben, those are gorgeous specimens!!! I’ll say that they like your garden very much!!

Ben, how do you keep your Mister Lincoln so short and full?

Mine went 7+ feet tall their first year.

JC,

My Mr Lincoln gets very tall too, 10 ft if I let him...that’s just an early spring pic after I’ve pruned him to 30”.

Yup - Ben grows roses in the ground and in pots that are absolutely GORGEOUS!!! He's hard to beat...I know I can't. :) :)