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jameshawes5

Question about heirloom roses

James Hawes
7 years ago

I often order the roses I need for the spring in January. I usually order most of what I need from heirloom roses, and they usually have most things back in stock by the middle of January. I've noticed that heirloom shows most of there roses as in stock for the gallon size containers ($10 more) and almost nothing in stock for band size. I have about 20 roses I want and adding the extra $10 to each is a lot of money. This seems unusual to me for what they usually do. I'm curious if any one has any insights or thoughts on this. Thanks.

Comments (29)

  • AquaEyes 7a NJ
    7 years ago

    I don't know this for a fact, but I do recall someone else saying something about Heirloom Roses moving to gallons only, and doing away with bands. If you really want to know, call Heirloom Roses and see what they say.


    :-)


    ~Christopher

  • trospero
    7 years ago

    Maybe call and ask?

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  • James Hawes
    Original Author
    7 years ago

    Actually, I emailed their customer service and got a reply that sort of danced around my question without giving any definitive answer. It seemed a little dubious. I'm bummed out because I've always gotten my roses from them and have been happy, but $38 and up for a Rose is too much, especially if you are ordering several. I guess I'll need to try out some other vendors. Heirloom isn't the only game in town, although they have some things that others do not.

  • bethnorcal9
    7 years ago

    Yeah there's a couple of roses I had that died and I want to replace them, and Heirloom is the only place in the US that carries them. Both are out of stock, altho one was in stock a few weeks ago in the gallon, but I just couldn't bring myself to spending that much money. And now you have to order $50 worth in order to get free shipping. So that means having to order two roses, but there's only a handful of others I want other than the ones they're out of. So, I didn't end up ordering, and now the one I wanted is sold out again. Actually there is a third one I want too, but who knows when they will ever have them available again. It's been almost two yrs waiting for one of them. BTW, they are FRAGRANT DREAM and GITTE, and the other one is GREAT EXPECTATIONS. I doubt they will ever have all 3 available at one time!!

  • smithdale1z8pnw
    7 years ago

    Try Northland Rosarium(WA) or Burlington Roses(CA) or Antique Rose Emporium(TX).They all have great plants, service & reasonable pricing, I am a former longtime Heirloom shopper who has switched to the above sellers.

    Jane

  • modestgoddess z6 OH
    7 years ago

    Roses unlimited has a wide selection but you have to email them what you want and they will tell you if is available. I'm closer to them so it works out to about $25 each with shipping. I also order from Chamblee and Northland Rosarium .

  • nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
    7 years ago

    I was the one that got a straight answer from the Heirloom folks about band plants, in conversation with the wholesale representative. She said pretty unequivocally that Heirloom will be discontinuing band roses except for landscape roses and minis. Any bands that they have now are only existing stock and it will not be replaced except with gallons. Apparently this policy is influenced by whoever they have growing the roses, as well as an administrative decision surely.

    I've very clearly expressed my own dissatisfaction with this policy and noted that there are a lot of other rose growers who share that concern. $35-40 per gallon rose is just too expensive, when Roses Unlimited or ARE or Chamblees all sells gallons for half that cost or less. Rogue Valley and Burlington and Long Ago still sell bands, and Northland has something a little larger than standard band plants.

    Last year I did a bulk order of 40+ roses from Heirloom, and I'm really glad I did so when they still offered the unusual varieties. I still have about 40 roses on my Heirloom wish list that like Beth I don't think will ever become active (like Kaffe Fassett or Imperatrice Farah). They seem to have made the decision to only offer the same roses everyone else does at a higher expense, and frankly I don't know how well they'll be able to survive that decision. I wish them well, as the roses arrive in terrific condition and are well grown and in my experience accurate (in the last few years), it's just that it's no longer unusual varieties that are being offered.

    This year I have 2 landscape roses and 4 minis on order from Heirloom - that's it. Quite a change from last year, but the gallons simply aren't unusual enough for me to fork out that price.

    Cynthia

  • Moses, Pittsburgh, W. PA., zone 5/6, USA
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Heirloom has Quietness for sale at $38.00/gallon, the only size available. To get, "free shipping," you must make a minimum purchase of $50.00. That means two roses. Two Quietness gallon size, sent, "free shipping," will cost you $76.00.

    Chamblee's Roses has Quietness, gallon size, for $10.95. Two will cost $21.90 plus shipping. If shipping from Chamblee's for these two Quietness gallons costs more than $55.10, get them from Heirloom, and save on shipping!

    Yes, I am being facetious. I can assure you shipping two Quietness gallon size from Chamblee's will cost you considerably less than $55.10, no matter where you live in the lower 48 States.

    Could it be Heirloom is ripping us off?


  • Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
    7 years ago

    No one is getting rich on this, I bet, except David Austin on volume.

  • Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
    7 years ago

    What if immigrants aren't here to graft? What then?

  • Holly Webster(7bNC)
    7 years ago

    There's a new or nursery called Classy Roses, run by a retired educator named Thomas Smith. Email address is tls3454@yahoo.com, website has been in flux & I haven't checked it lately. He has propagated a Cary Grant for me, and I will probably order more from him. He is a very nice man and is willing to search for cuttings of requests for propagation. He has answered all my emails quite quickly. Can't remember the price, but it was in there with RU, Northland, RVR

  • vesfl (zone 5b/6a, Western NY)
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    modestgoddess79, I recently ordered from Roses Unlimited and was very happy with communication; they were quite helpful and have a wonderful service. I also learned then that they just recently launched a new website with the list of available roses in different classes:

    http://rosesunlimitedsc.com/

  • SoFL Rose z10
    7 years ago

    Roses Unlimited and chamblees are the way to go. Also Rogue Valley Roses.

  • SoFL Rose z10
    7 years ago

    Angel Gardens and Rose Petals Nursery are also good

  • Alana8aSC
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    I love Burlington and Longagoroses first. Then Roses Unlimited, and High Country Roses are my next favorite.. Angel Gardens, Rose Petal Nursery, Antique Rose Emporium, and Chamblees, are GREAT as well. I love Rogue Valley Roses for the sheer number of roses they carry, they are alittle more expensive for me, but have a outstanding inventory, much better than Heirloom IMO. So what few RVR may not have I'm sure one of the other nursery's do. Burlington has the biggest selection of minies, old HT, and just a general great selection of everything else, prices are awesome, Linda at Longagoroses, has the best rooted roses, IMO, and although her prices just went up, is still my favorite, and High Country Roses and Roses Unlimited, I always buy from their sales, unless it's something I really want and pay full price for, HCR usually has a Spring sale, I think they have a 10% off sale going on now, and RU has a Summer sale. Pricing I find to much for me to afford at the new owner's of Heirloom, I haven't bought from them since they went up. I only have bought from the old owner's. However I do understand what Paul is saying, and I too hope they can compete, adjust their pricing, we don't need to lose anymore nursery's. .. but IMO Vintage, who had a lot better selection of roses, and who I dearly miss, had high pricing, and that could have been what caused there downfall. They also had a high price to custom propagate. I only got to order from them at the end, but they were high. They were a place people probably only used to get roses that they couldn't get else where, much like how I use RVR, since they now have the biggest selection of OGR. I try to spread the love around when I order, but do mainly stick with the first four , because I can better afford them. I hope not to lose anymore nursery's, but most people cannot afford those kind of prices. Maybe people with money might can , but I know I for one am poor, but rose rich. I understand how much time it takes to grow roses own-root, as Paul is saying, but with everyone's prices, about the same, heirloom cannot, IMO, expect people to pay two-three times pricing for the same product that you can get somewhere else for cheaper.

    It's supposed to read, However I do understand what Paul is saying, every time I was trying to correct a different part of the sentence it was erasing what I had typed so I got frustrated and just stopped. I just stopped trying to correct mistakes maybe tomorrow I will try, this computer or GW one is acting silly and I can't deal with it now. I hope it was understood what I was trying to say.

    Bottom line, our nursery's are precious, but we as the consumer, can buy better where we can afford, especially people like me on a fixed income :) This is the way I see everything, I could be wrong a couple of things, this is just my opinions, on the nursery's that I have dealt with.

    Back to the original question at hand- if Heirlooms pricing has gone beyond what you can afford, branch out and find another nursery, If you have a question about a particular one, just ask, and everyone will let you know their experiences, which I'm sure are great with just about any of them. I think we all have our favorite or go too nursery's though :) ~smiles~

    I finally got to get my post fixed, IDK what was up with it last night.

  • Alana8aSC
    7 years ago

    Vesfl, Thank you for letting us know there new website is up at RU. I am checking it out now :)

  • farmerduck NJ Z6b
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    The Heirloom folks might just be trying to make ends meet. Not sure how big the band/gallon rose market is. I hope that their business survives.

  • Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley
    7 years ago

    I've never used them, but their prices actually seem cheaper than last year since there's free shipping over $50. At least for an unusual rose. So far I've ordered from Chamblees, who made good on my crushed ones, DARoses which were fantastic and well worth the price and Burling from whom I'll order more polys this Spring. I also put in a large (for me) order at ARE when they were offering free shipping. That was a great deal for large roses. I hope they have it next year for the beds I'm clearing out this summer.

    I would think it's cheaper for Heirloom to offer the bands given the time it takes to grow to a two gallon size.

  • nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
    7 years ago

    Holly, thanks for posting the email for Classy Roses. They don't list the email on the website, just the phone number, and I can rarely get the time in the day to call so it doesn't get done. They are taking the opposite approach of deliberately hunting down roses that aren't offered elsewhere to offer as well as taking custom orders. For that kind of uniqueness, I'm happy to pay premium prices, and I was happy to pay whatever was reasonable for our dearly departed Vintage and Uncommon Roses.

    Paul, thanks for reminding us about the multiple costs involved in running a rose business that have to be passed along to the consumer in some way. I remember Paul Zimmerman at Ashdown posting an analysis of why his shipping costed what it did and how he didn't even break even on the shipping costs, and that's useful information to have when making decisions. The added personnel and storage costs of producing the gallons however makes Heirloom's decision even more puzzling to me. Why sink twice as much time, energy, and storage into producing the gallons for 2 years when they can move out inventory more quickly within one year at more industry standard pricing if they continue to produce bands? If a propagated rose doesn't sell, that's yet more non-returned expense sunk into that gallon if it sits around, and bigger pots to store and maintain as well. I do have a rose or two that's available that I'll probably pay their premium gallon prices for, but that doesn't make sense for the run-of-the-mill varieties for me.

    Incidentally, Heirloom is having a sale of up to 30% off selected roses (6 pages of roses) that clearly are the band plants they're moving out of their inventory. These are quite reasonably priced if you get beyond the $50 free shipping - I ordered 5 roses and stayed under $100 for the total bill. If we want to make the argument that band plants are viable products for Heirloom, we can speak with our wallets while the bands are still available.

    Cynthia

  • Holly Webster(7bNC)
    7 years ago

    For those of us across the country from Heirloom, Northland, etc, the prices are not outrageous, if buying 2 or more roses. If you are buying from Heirloom, there was another thread last year about several of us losing roses from Heirloom. I can't remember the details, but it is something about the planting medium in which they ship. You need to get as much of it off your rose as you can. I think it holds too much water? Anyway, it is worth the search for that thread, especially spending a fair piece of cash for a rose you might not be able to get anywhere else.

    Cynthia, I am glad you checked out Classy Roses. This will be the first time I have ordered from them. I really wanted an own-root Cary Grant, and they were my source. Cary will arrive this spring. I will try to remember to do photos & post about the size & condition of the plant.

  • DrumRollPlease
    7 years ago

    FYI - If you do intend to browse the sale roses on Heirloom, do not use the "Show # per page" feature as it does not bring up all of the roses listed for sale. Maybe it is just my browser (Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge in Windows 10), as I have not tried it using other browsers.

  • C.j. Kammerzell Peets
    7 years ago

    Was wondering about Heirloom. I've not purchased from them or visited for two years, since they raised their prices. Now they are discontinuing bands and raising the prices again. Just can't afford them. . .I miss the good old days of the Clements. I buy elsewhere.

  • C.j. Kammerzell Peets
    7 years ago

    Sheila -- With regard to your question about immigrants. . . do you mean "illegal" immigrants??

  • Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
    7 years ago

    I'm not sure about their status. I know many immigrants do work in agricultural jobs and apparently growers need them badly.

  • flowersaremusic z5 Eastern WA
    7 years ago


    I'm another fan of Northland Rosarium. They often have roses not listed online or in their print catalog - just call and ask. Their own root bands are comparable to other grower's gallon pots. I've ordered from two mentioned here, and will never do that again. Some may be fine, but the two I ordered from sent me roses (more like cuttings) in teeny, tiny pots. I didn't know they even made pots that small.

  • Alana8aSC
    7 years ago

    Which two nurseries were that?

  • flowersaremusic z5 Eastern WA
    7 years ago

    I honestly don't remember for sure and I wouldn't want to disparage anyone by mistake. That's probably a good thing because over the years, nurseries can change. We've seen that a few times. I just feel more comfortable with Northland Rosarium because I know I will get quality, healthy and virus free plants big enough to go right in the ground. They are consistently rated in the top 5 on Dave's Garden's Watchdog List and I understand their packaging is the best. I live close enough that I pick my roses up at the nursery.