Ok. I called Nicole and placed a small order. Very nice lady. This would be my first time ordering from them. Looking forward to receiving my order in mid-April. I ordered - Quadra, Parade and Rural England.

Hi summersrhythm,

They DO have internet in the wilds of Hawaii! My sister and brother in law have wi-fi in their home, where we were staying around 600 feet high on the slopes of one of the volcanoes. And so I connected our tablet through their wi-fi and found this thread.

I have been corresponding with Rick about Cressida and other Austin roses. He believes strongly in helping to preserve a number of these earlier roses that we both feel are well worth saving from extinction. I have been collecting Austin roses for around 30 years or so and have been struggling to find some of their earlier roses that I had been growing in my garden in another home. I had 3 Cressida own root plants in the early 1990's in my garden. Over the years, I have grown around 130 different Austin roses-not all have been excellent, but some of the early ones that are becoming difficult to find, are worth saving. I put Cressida in this group.

I have been able to find a good number of these earlier Austins from Rogue Valley Roses, Chamblee's, Hortico, and Pickering since moving to our new home 6 years ago. I had been corresponding with Nicole at Hortico for several years about Cressida before I was fortunate enough to get one of the 3 or 4 that were available. I planted it in a pot and then into my garden; it has flowered several times in the summer of 2015 in our California garden. It looked right and the fragrance (which is very unique) confirmed that I had the right one. RVR, a company that lists Cressida in their online catalogue, says that they are not propagating it because David Austin Roses, Ltd., has threatened to pull their license to propagate their roses if they continue to propagate their earlier "inferior" roses. Some feel that it will take a "grass roots" effort to preserve these precious early Austin roses that are becoming very difficult to find. If you are not able to find a Cressida, perhaps I can help you.

This thread has turned out to be very interesting. Thanks to all participants. I believe I have much more confidence in Hortico now. I am heartened to hear that "Rick"--I take it that would be one of the sons who are now in charge at Hortico--is interested in preserving some of the older roses.

Hi John, Glad you had wifi near volcanoes, that's sounds pretty wild right there. :-) The ash from the volcanoes is good for garden (I heard, not sure if it's true), some people here are buying those online. You could start a business right there selling volcanoe ash online, you got wifi. :-) Did you guys try the Honda Ruckus scooters there? I heard there are everywhere for rent in Hawaii . I have 2 of those in different colors. Those are really fun to ride (100mpg, 40mph). I am happy to hear you're like Rick collecting the wonderful DAs, I'm new on collecting DAs, old garden roses, they are beautiful, just finding out the older DAs are so hard to find.....a new comer on the same path which you and Rick are way ahead. I hope Nicole could find me 2 Cressida, she is a wonderful lady. Right now I am waiting on Hortico's owner John's email regarding the inspection fee. He coded me $100 for inspection fee (for crossing the border), I am bargaining with him since Palatine only charge me $25 for the inspection fee. :-) Wish me luck! I want to pick up the roses since I love the Ikea there which is not far from their nursery, it's about 1.5 hr driving which is no big deal, and I could pay everything in Canadian, the exchange rate is good for buying things in Canada. It could save me $100. :-) Will have to wait and see, hope The Hortico John is not an accountant, he'd want my $60 for his revenue ($40 shipping). :-) Lol, life is interesting. Thanks a lot for the offer, it's very kind of you. I will keep you updated when I hear anything from Hortico. Many thanks! :-)

Hi summersrhythm,

Where do you live? I have had at least 10 shipments sent to me in California from Pickering, Palatine, and Hortico over the years and have never been charged an inspection fee. $100 sounds very steep. For my orders, the inspection fee was included in the shipping charge, which was something like $30 for 9 roses. I have spoken with Nicole on the phone and emailed her; I found her very nice and willing to please. I checked the Hortico site and did not see Cressida in the new listings. I was checking not because I wanted to order another one, but rather to see if Hortico was able to produce any Cressida plants from the bud wood sent by Rick. I do hope that they are able to propagate this rose with his bud wood and plant a mother plant, so that they can continue to offer it to more people over the years.

Another one of the older Austins that they carry, is English Garden, a short (3 feet here) plant with large (4 inch), flat flowers with a high petal count. Prospero is also outstanding. So many great roses, so little time, space and . . . .

Summers, here's their shipping chart, which includes phytosanitary certificate, customs & inspection. Thinking if you order in advance & pick up your roses later, a small charge for certificate & inspection, with you taking care of customs when you return would do. www.hortico.com/admin/shipping.htm 

Hi John, I am not far from The Great Lakes-Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, an hour drive to Palatine, 1.5 hr drive to Hortico. I go to Canada all the time during the summer, in car or on my scooter. This is my 1st time ordering from Hortico, and it's Hortico's 1st time to have a US customer picking up rose order. :-) Last year I found out about Palatine from this forum, boy, I visited them a lot of times, it's a beautiful drive to get there, each time I stopped at Niagara Park's Botanical Garden on my way back. I paid $25 for inpection fee at Palatine for each order, it came with a certificate for crossing the border, I took care the customs by myself, it was about 20-30mins extra wait each time, no big deal. If you order online there is no extra for inpection fee, it's all included in the shipping cost. I am just trying to go there and pick up the order, this way I save about $4 each rose by paying in Canadian and about $40 in shipping, total it would be around $100! :-) There is a Ikea there, I love Ikea's modern chandelier lamps. Love the English Garden and Prospero! I have to wait for Hortico John's email, right now if I have to pay in US dollar plus shipping, this order is about $350. If he still wants me to pay $100 for inspection fee, there would be not much savings by going there to pick up the order( compare to paying online in US dollars plus shipping). He is pretty good with maths too. :-) I think there is a great possiblity they have a few Cressida, I will keep you updated on this rose order.

Vasue, Thanks but the link doesn't work though. :-)

Summers, try this link to Hortico's home page & click Shipping Costs as the last entry on the left column under Ordering. https://www.hortico.com/default.asp

Thanks Vasue! I am hoping for a a small charge for certificate & inspection, not $100 though. :-) I am searching an Agriculture Canada inspection station, may be that's another way around, I could go there with the roses, got this idea from an old thread in antique rose. I also emailed my Canadian friends in Niagara Fall. I am doing my home work on how to bring those beautiful roses home. :-)

You're welcome, Summers. Don't see how Hortico could bill you more than their shipping charges when you'll be picking up.

That's Ok Vasue, it's not easy to run a nursery these days. I still feel we are lucky to have Hortico to order roses from, they have so many wonderful roses on their list. Per John_ca's post, I emailed Nicole to add on English Garden and Prospero to my list. I will find a way to get the roses inpected and bring them back to the US. It's a rose journey, but for the love of roses, it's a piece a cake, I will get it done! :-)

I got good news! Contacted Canadian AG inspection office this morning, I can get the roses inspected on the same day I pick them up, just need to make an appointment a few days ahead and drive to their office, and it costs $7.00 Canadian. :-)

Called Nicole this morning, she doesn't have English Garden and Prospero, I will hunt for them another time. :-)

Persistence pays off! Good for you!

Thanks Sue. :-) I am a rose seeker, keeper this life time, there is always a way to seek through............and I have to....... my summer car might need a new clutch. :-)

I got my roses today!! 2 baby Cressidas were in the box with a pile of roses !!!!!! :-) So happy!!!!!! :-)

So what were the others in the "pile of roses?" We wanna know whatcha got!!

Ok Beth dear, here they're......

Evelyn

Fisherman's Friend

Geoff Hamilton

Abraham Darby

Cottage Rose

Eglantyne

Graham Thomas

Spirit of Freedom

Tamora

Winchester Cathedral

Yellow Charles Austin

Benjamin Britten

Hyde Hall

Munstead Wood

You're beautiful

Antique 89

St Ethelburga

Guy de Maupassant

I think that's all the pile for now, hope I didn't miss any. Bedtime now, sweet dreams guys! :-)

Wow! Nice list! We'll be waiting to see pics!

Speaking of Hortico, has anyone had any luck obtaining Canadian White Star? Hortico is the last place to have carried it, but I no longer see it on their site. :c

I'd love to see an answer about Canadian White Star, as well as Bella Renaissance that Hortico (and our dearly departed Pickering) used to carry, but I think Hortico has reduced its offerings recently, and only lists the roses they have available to sell. That's a good move, but it does remove the only North American source that had even the potential for those two roses.

My suggestion is to email our Canadian sellers (Hortico, Palatine) and put in an advance request to consider these for future offerings. They are forced to market what will sell, and our best bet is to present the potential for a market to encourage them to put the work into grafting these low frequency roses. I've already begged Rachel and Rene at Palatine for Bella Renaissance, but they say they don't have access to mother plants for most of the Poulsen roses (sigh).

Cynthia

Well, my order that arrived in November is starting to bloom now. One is mislabeled, of the ones that have bloomed so far. I ordered Sunstruck -- which is yellow/orange -- and the blooms that are appearing on this plant are red and white, kind of like Double Delight. Hmmm. Wonder what that really is?

I've begged Palatine for more Tantau. Wonder what Hortico did with all the old roses they used to offer?

I have to admire all of you who order from online nurseries. I live in the same province as Hortico and Palatine and I have reservations from ordering any roses online.

jjpeace, I don't know about Hortico as this would be my first time ordering from them, but I can tell you that Palatine is a great nursery. I've ordered from them multiple times and have never been disappointed. They send large, healthy bareroots that have done really for me in my Zone 5 US garden. I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Free St Patrick rose @ Michigan Bulb today only! Sorry for the off topic. You have 2 hours left to get it! I just finished planting the roses from Hortico tonight under the spot light! :-)

My Hortico roses will be here the first of next week. I have ordered from them for years, occasionally get a mislabeled rose but they replace it no questions asked. I would recommend them highly - and they have roses no one else has. I am still thrilled with my Golden Border I got from them a few years ago - its full of buds and healthy as can be. Glad to know someone else gardens at night - I just got inside, its 11pm. I have lots of lights so its easy to do just "one more thing" and the next thing I know, its midnight. No wonder my back is sore and I'm tired - been at it since early this morning!

@summersrhythm_z Oh man, I could not pass up that free rose, I've had my eye on the Saint Patrick rose for a min ; ) Thanks for posting!

@ nippstress Emailing them is the last thing I've yet to try. Sigh, maybe if at least 10 of us email asking about Canadian White Star, then they might consider. I just wish a single person in the U.S. already owned it, then I would just pay for a clone with permission from George Mander first of course.

If someone in this forum has 'Canadian White Star' and is willing to send a little budding materials to Hortico, they may be willing to propagate it for you. I recently asked Nicole whether they can still provide 'Bloomfield Courage' since Helpmefind lists them as a source. She told me that they had it but not since 2009, and suggested that if I can find the material for them to bud, they can consider propagating it, it needs to be done in mid-summer.

Folks -- I've grown that rose (Canadian White Star) before and it won't even survive in Southern California under growing conditions that include regular spraying and lots of TLC. Too bad George Mander wasted a good rose name on a rose that is not so good. If you tell me what it is that you like about that rose (aside from the name) maybe I can recommend a substitute that is a better rose??? It is a fair commentary on that rose that the ONLY pictures anyone has seen of that rose were taken by its hybridizer. Apparently no one else could grow it well either.

Moreover, the quilling of the petals shown in Mander's pics of Canadian White Star would actually be considered a "fault" by current hybridizers, because the quilling is caused by petals that are very thin (i.e., no "substance"). Current hybridizers generally toss any seedling that does not have wide, flat, willing to stay open (not quilled) petals. Therefore, if it is quilling in a white hybrid tea that attracts you, go to nearly any of the older white hybrid teas -- they mostly do that, and for that reason. See, e.g., Garden Party, Pristine or John F. Kennedy. Or, maybe try Pascali for that quilled look.

@kstrong I really like how pointed the petals appear, it seems to be the most that way of any rose I've seen so far. I already have JFK, but it looks nothing like CWS to me. Any recommendations for very pointy star like roses are appreciated, I think it's my favorite form. I didn't know it was referred to as quilling.

I just received my order. The plants appear to be a good size. I'm hoping to plant them out tomorrow - just got home after 7pm CT. First time I've ever ordered from them, so I excited to see how the plants do.

I ordered 3 plants from Hortico this past February and I was more than pleased. Nicole was so helpful and pleasant to deal with. I potted them up and they broke dormancy immediately. Right now they are in full bloom already. I would definitely order from them again.

Suebelle

Ok, so I got some roses from Hortico this year, and all in all I was reasonably pleased. Except for one of them, I got exactly what I ordered and at or about the time they said they would come. The funny thing was that I ordered a rose called Sunstruck, which is a yellow/orange Hybrid Tea, and I got a rose with that label on it, but when it bloomed, it was obvious that the rose they sent with that label was actually a pink-edged white florrie named Nicole. The funny part is the salesperson I was dealing with at Hortico was Nicole. So . . . I guess she wanted me to have her namesake rose?

I think you got the better rose. I love Sunstruck when it first blooms - it fades to an unattractive whitish color as it ages - I got rid of it for that reason. Nicole, on the other hand, is one I had at another home. It was a vigorous bush, beautifully colored and did not fade. All my Hortico roses from this year are potted up and doing very well. I will not hesitate to order again.

Today I received my order from Hortico. The two Austins I ordered look okay, but the other two are tiny, black and moldy. They also charged my credit card for $11 more shipping than the chart on their website shows. I took pictures of them. I've left roses packaged for a week and they never looked as bad as these do. They could not have looked acceptable when they left Hortico. I'll contact them and come back here and update...but what do you all suggest I do to try to save the black moldy ones? There's only about an inch of green. Is there any hope?

Yeah -- there's hope -- you'd be amazed what can be saved. Clean off as much mold as you can with a hose and then soak them overnight in a 5 gallon bucket with maybe up to a cup of bleach in it. Then plant them and keep them out of anything too windy or too hot or too sunny until the roots start doing their jobs, which can be awhile. It also helps to pile up mulch, almost to the top of the canes, while waiting for the plant to decide if it will survive. Hack up a cardboard box to make a open bottomed ring that fits around the canes and fill it with mulch, which you need to keep damp, but not soaking wet. Then leave it be for a month.

I am sure Nicole will make it right. I got a 2 cane rose from White Flower Farm recently, not molded but not sure it would make it. I potted it up in good soil, mounded mulch around it, 1 of the canes died, the other is leafing out nicely and there is a good basal break coming. If roots are OK, bet it will do fine. I have made a very workable mulch ring out of folded up newspapers, made them about 6-8' wide, stapled the ends together and placed around rose, filled with mulch. This worked just fine. Good luck!

Well, all of my new Hortico plants are doing pretty well. Still waiting on some of them to bloom tho. Got one mis-marked so far. I ordered ROTARY SUNRISE to replace mine that died back to a tiny stick during the septic re-do last yr. The rose that just bloomed is pure red. So I assume it's either ROTARY ROSE or ROTER STERN? Their mislabeled roses usually are something with a similar name or a rose with the same name only a different version. FREE SPIRIT and CHESS bloomed and are both beautiful! THE MAYFLOWER and HUNTINGTON ROSE look great. Still waiting to see ADMIRED MIRANDA, SPIRIT OF FREEDOM, CROCUS ROSE and FREDRICK MISTRAL. Seems like there was another one... forgot what tho!

I also was pleased with my order from Hortico, though we had to resolve a problem with their website first. The bare roots that I ordered by name (Belami, Dronning Ingrid, That's Jazz, and two others I can't recall at the moment) were notably smaller than Palatine bare roots but healthy with a decent root system.

I'd also ordered a climbing collection with 5 named roses online for $75, since I particularly wanted Nahema as a replacement for mine, but it turns out that was a website error. They sent me 5 random climbers only one of which overlapped with my collection order (Ilse Krohn Superior). Nicole was very nice to deal with about the mishap, and after some discussion they sent me the roses from the website order even though it wasn't supposed to be active on the website, just for postage. I thought that was fair, and I was able to keep or give away the erroneous climbers. She said they're also fixing the website.

I think they've genuinely cleaned up their act in recent years, and the fact that many recent posters mention talking to Nicole means that there is more consistent communication than in the past too. I'd say it's a good place to order.

Cynthia

Cynthia, did you get a Nahema from them? I hope you got one.

I placed 3 orders from them this year so far, I love their collection in DAs and climber/ramblers! Will order more next year! :-)

I'm not Cynthia, but I did get Nahema from them. It's the one that was most moldy and puny. I potted it, cut it back, and set it in a protected area. Thanks for all the help!! When I cut them back, I did find that the pith is nice and green. Right now, they are all getting a good slow rain, along with some free nitrogen!

Thanks Cindi for the info. I have 2 Nahema on Hortico waiting list along with 6-8 other roses for next year. I didn't know they had it all these time. When I placed my 1st order, there was none. I will wait for next year since it's getting late for rare boot roses. Good luck with yours. I got a Nehema from Ludwigs 5-6 weeks ago. I think my zone 6a garden is too cold for it after hearing one of my friends in NC zone 7 lost hers this spring, I am growing mine in a pot now. Good luck with your Nahema, it's a beautiful rose indeed. :-)

Summersrhythm, coolroses.com had Nahema quite recently as a gallon container. It was $20.

Cindi - interesting that your Nahema was moldy and in poor condition, as so was mine (yep summers, that's why I went with them at all)! The others were fine, but I thought it was because Nicole told me I was getting their last Nahema. Now that Kelly and others have let us know coolroses stocks something other than fortuniana roses, that's another good option if we can't find them elsewhere. I didn't know Ludwigs had Nahema - looks like I'll need to check their website again!

Cynthia

I ordered from them for the first time and was really excited. Nicole was able to find me a couple baby pretty jessicas!! Except one of them bloomed-

Had the same experience - my Alec's Red bloomed - no scent so not Alec's Red. They send nice plants - Nicole is really nice and helpful......don't understand the mixup on the roses......not all mine have bloomed, so might have other mistakes.

I know how much we would like to see Hortico keep doing well. However they have been sending lots of wrong roses ever since I've been growing them. Moldy ones also.

Here is an updated picture of my Pretty Jessica's blooms!! So glad...

Hi guys, Hortico will ship out fall shipment this week, there is only 1 shipment for the fall. If you want any roses please call Nicole today. :-) Roses for Christmas?