Guerrero Rose Farm in Ontario is pretty good about letting you know on the phone if they have the roses on your list before making the drive over there. They are on Euclid off the 60 or the 10, not too far from you I think. (909)988-0015

Local nurseries try their hardest to stock what the rosarians want. Jude the Obscure was offered by Bakers Nursery, 40th Street & Osborn, last year. They usually stock some 7000 roses each December. Berridge Nurseries, 46th Street and Camelback, also stocks several thousand roses in December with sporadic shipments through the year. Harpers on Scottsdale Road (south of Thomas), Summer Winds on Tatum & Bell and A&P Nurseries in Mesa all stock roses most of the year. The West Valley has a Summer Winds on Bell Road and Star Nursery on Thunderbird. I understand that Sunset Nursery on 59th Avenue is still open although I haven't been in there for years. Up until a few years ago, nearly 70% of all roses sold were grown out west of Phoenix. Jackson & Perkins had fields out there before they moved them to CA. There are still hundreds of acres of roses near Litchfield Park but development is encroaching at an ever rapid rate. The nurseries place their orders in September and should know if they'll be getting certain roses. Star, Weeks and J&P are the usual vendors so there isn't a lot to choose from in Austin, mini or OGR offerings. I get most of my Austins from Bakers or batch an order with other rose society members or attend a rose society auction. The first rose show of the season is Nov 4 in Green Valley, south of Tucson. Nov 17 is the Mesa/East Valley Rose Show at Mesa Community College and the West Valley show is Nov 24 at the new Glendale Civic Center, 57th Ave & Glenn, during the Glendale Glitters opening weekend. All of them open to the public at 1pm.

Hi Cori - I planted Twilight Zone last spring and I'm seeing the first flush start for the first time. The blooms are lovely. But before you rush out and buy that standard, read on. I'm seeing that this rose doesn't have that many canes. The canes that are there have a lot of these star burst bud clusters. I'm not sure this type of growth habit makes the best tree standard. To have a nice shape, I think it's better to have lots of flowering branches, top to bottom rather than just a few canes with tons of flowers. Typically I think floribundas and shrubs are better for standards rather than hybrid teas and grandifloras like TZ. So don't be sad - I think you made the right decision! Ann

CJ I appreciate your quest for top quality fruit. You won't find it at a supermarket or farmers market for stonefruit. You can get excellent pears at the grocery because pears are best picked hard and let to ripen off the tree. Even a home grower does this. Pears that ripen on the tree have the texture ruined. Stone fruit is picked under-ripe/hard so it can be packed & shipped. Notice even at the farmers market they are piled on each other in boxes. You can't do that with ripe fruit! No home grower of stone fruit picks them early unless they are processing the fruit. When a person (like Chloe for ex.) says the great peaches they are getting at the store it's a red flag to me they have never had a properly managed tree ripened peach. My yard is very fragrant with the smell of ripening fruit. A ripe peach will come off the tree with a gentle twist. Just grabbing it will indent on the fruit. There is a strong smell. I stay outside to eat the peach because it is messy. The flesh melts as you bite into it, juice spills down your chin and onto the ground. It's very sticky because there is a lot of sugar in it. You can't believe how good it tastes. You won't be able to buy a peach at the store for fresh eating after trying this. It sounds like you are in bay area. I would offer you one of my fruits but I sold my home in San Jose last summer. I hope the new owners are enjoying all my stone fruit. Like you I can't bring myself to buy the rocks at the store. So if you are in the bay area: https://www.facebook.com/JandPFarms/ I was lucky enough to live down the street from this guy. He has an honor system fruit stand. The best fruit ironically is the cheap bruised/damaged items because they are the ripest, hence the damage. A lot of the pretty fruit is picked too early because birds hit his trees hard. Still they will be better than what you find at the store because he is not packing them and allows them to ripen longer. https://andysorchard.com/ Go on a tasting tour at Andy's orchard. You can do sampling and then go pick fruit direct from the tree. Even there I was underwhelmed. Water is very cheap for him and he pumps his trees full of it. The fruits are huge and watered down. He sells by the pound so it works for him :) https://www.sccl.org/Locations/Los-Altos There is an apricot orchard in front of the Los Altos library. It is the cities and unfortunately most years the fruit just falls to the ground and the city does nothing with them. You can get excellent apricots there even though you are not allowed pick to I used to hate seeing them rot and would pick a grocery bag full myself. http://www.davewilson.com/product-information/category/fruit-trees If you have a yard in the bay area you can fit a fruit tree and keep it small. Plant one! If you want some excellent Florida mango order some from here now: https://tropicalacresfarms.com/ And in the fall superb dates: https://7hotdates.com/shop-usa_single.html Good luck on your quest!