Well I went to visit Mr. Mills at K&M today. He was a very friendly man and patiently showed me all of his different roses. He has several huge rows of all the different plants he sells. Almost every bush was close to or taller than 6 feet, and none of them looked like sticks with a bloom on the end. They all had plenty of leaves and were very full. Even in July, almost all of them were covered in blooms. He had a small greenhouse where he has special varieties in large pots that he said his wife will be using for cut flowers. He also showed me his small greenhouse with all of his fortuniana stock. He showed me some small pots of some cuttings he said he started only a month ago, and you could already see the white roots growing out of the bottom of the pot. I don't know why it completely slipped my mind to take pictures! I was so busy trying to figure out which plants I wanted. I ended up not really getting much in the way of the old fashioned varieties, but went with his recommendations for plants that he liked the best and said performed the best. This is what I ended up buying: Bronze Star (AMAZING strong fragrance, beautiful color on a very large thick plant. This was in a 5 gallon but he gave it to me for the 2 gallon price) Neptune Gemini St. Patrick Elina (a creamy yellow--the best looking of all of his bushes in my opinion. Was the best looking as far as foliage and bush shape--I got 2 of these) Marlon's Day (a pinker sport of Moonstone) Hot Princess Medallion Heart of Gold Carolina Pride Jema There were so many beautiful plants, it was almost impossible to choose. I really would love to have a Peace on fortuniana, but he said he really doesn't grow those anymore because they just don't perform well. He also said he coming to an agreement with David Austin and will probably have them available next season, so I'm really looking forward to that. Mr. Mills said the difference between fortuniana and any other rootstock in the South is like night and day. I am really excited to see how it works for me. All the plants I got were covered in new growth with NO blackspot or any other blemishes. Several had blooms and buds. Even the couple of 1 gallon plants were quite large. It was interesting to see how much smaller the fortuniana stock is compared to the much thicker and knobby stocks like Dr. Huey. I can see why it is recommended to stake. Anyway, now I am really motivated to get my bed ready and am counting the days to plant out in the fall. That way I'll have almost 6 months of growth before next spring's first flush.

K&M sells a large medium pink rose called New Orleans that does exceedingly well in the S.E. in hot humid climate. I think it is a found rose. Very vigorous and a very good bloomer that for me has had no disease problems. It is on Fortunia. I can recommend this rose highly if you are in the hot humid part of the country.

I do love their rose sale though. Hope he has some hardy own root roses in the future. The $8 per own root rose is a great deal indeed. If you guys see him next time, would you please ask him to have some hardy own root roses, so the gardeners from the north also can support his sales. I'd be happy to buy from him in the future.

I've ordered several roses from K&M and they have been great. I love how I can get very hard-to-find roses off of their list without having to hound a nursery. About your questions... I find that there is a slight difference between the one and two gallon sized bushes, but there is a difference. The two gallon bushes will set in right away while the one gallon can take some babying. Like my good friend Denise share, the shipping is a $%^&*. I would suggest getting with a friend that has a commercial location and having the roses sent there instead. I recently had some shipping priced out and there was a significant difference between shipping to my house (residential) or the warehouse where I work (commercial). They will still stick it to you on the box fee (yeah, they charge you for the packaging apologetically) but at least you can save a bit on shipping. When I priced my last shipment out, it ended up running close to $35 a rose when all was said and done. Okay, in the spirit of transparency, let me state, I do NOT make money off of what I'm about to say. I am a bargain hunter and with that said... If you're in North Florida, you should really check out Nelson's roses. They sell the varieties that you mentioned and they have an online retail website. Also, consider going there in person since you're probably an hour or two away from them anyhow. Also look into Cool roses. They ship roses as well and are pretty reasonable with their shipping charges. Good luck and keep us posted! -Adrian.