Esther, where are you? My RU order is on it's way (shipped 6/12 they said) and I hope it doesn't arrive before we get home Monday. Last time it took 8 days.

I feel like RU can make the ordering process easier if they set up a PayPal account and start accepting payment through that. This would eliminate the need of a phone call and they won't have to handle our credit card info directly. Less work and more secure for everyone.

Both Long Ago Roses and Burlington Rose Nursery use Paypal. When I ordered from them last year, they sent me the invoice thru Paypal after confirming the order. I just had to log into Paypal and ok'd the payment.

Hi Erin. I have been buying from RU for quite a while and they do have a busy line quite a bit but I've also visited them in the past and they work,very hard with just a very few of them and highly recommend emailing Pat. She's always quick to respond. There's a chance the two roses just weren't mature enough to send out. They will def hold them for you if that's the case bc they've done this for me quite often. Please give them another try.

Yes all in all RU does have a great service & roses! Sorry to hear your experience was not up to par...

I meant to email today but work was crazy, I'll call or write tomorrow. I'd love to still get them though. I just worry about me then wanting to add more roses if there is to be a second shipment!

I want to share a story about RU. Last year three friends and I went there to get some roses. We called and asked if they could be there since they are not usually there on a Saturday. Jim was there and met us. He walked us around the green houses and helped us pick out roses. It was a good day for him too since we went home with 54 roses! There was one rose I was interested in, Golden Wings. I went to the spot where it should be and there was on pot with a sickly looking stick in it. But I saw it was still alive and it was GW. It also had spider mites on some old leaves. Jim gave it to me for free (I left the spider mites there....). They are just wonderful people. Most nurseries are mom and pop shops and when it's spring or they have a sale it gets crazy. So while I understand you being upset, I'd cut them some slack. And my Golden Wings bloomed this morning!

Erin, things have a way of working out. There have been roses that I thought I must have and later they were duds in my garden. This will allow you time to rethink about those bushes. Good luck!

Sorry about your experience. I'm sure that's not the norm for them. I did not order from their sale this yr. I did order 6 roses in the spring tho. Thankfully only two of them ended up in the sale!

BTW, I got AUTUMN SUNSET from Northland Rosarium

I emailed them with my order Thursday of the sale. Pat responded later that day and said they were overwhelmed with orders for the sale roses and were not sure what they had at that time but would let me know. The next day she confirmed my order. I added more the next week and she was out of Autumn Sunset at that time. Luckily I got one in my first order. I get faster answers when I email.

I have ordered several times from RU. Almost always get healthy plants though some might be small. I have tried calling and usually get a busy signal but emails are always answered promptly. Pat has always been professional and courteous even putting up with my constantly amending my order to add more to it. Maybe the stock was pulled and the staff forgot to make note of it or the remaining roses were too small or not healthy enough to sell. I had one of my roses cancelled for this reason and Pat offered to send it later or reserve one for the following year. She is usually very accommodating and generally ships very healthy and nice size plants.

Sharon

I wish Roses Unlimited had a normal website with online ordering and paypal pay option. I will almost always order through those kinds of sites first unless they have a bad reputation. Only if I need a certain rose or other plant no one else carries, then I will go the old school emailing or calling route lol. I guess I'm part of the right now, order and be done with it generation lol.

never mind

The thing is, countrygirlsc, not to beat a dead horse, but, we emailed Wednesday and got our order confirmed on Thursday, the day you ordered. Looks like they gave mine away. There really is no other explanation for it. I get that things happen, but this is what happened.

The initial reply back by email by Stephanie (I think) was fast, and she confirmed on Thursday June 8th, the same day countrygirlsc ordered, that all 12 of the roses were available, including Autumn Sunset, and that we should contact her with cc info which we then spent 7 days trying to do. And by that time she changed my order. She didn't even tell us this, she simply changed the order from 12 roses to 10. That week of emails and phone calls to give her our cc info was just really too much. No one should have to work so hard to give a business money. We kept leaving our phone number in messages and emails and then we were told we sent them the wrong number. Obviously we have copies of our sent emails and the number is correct but they asked us to email our number again so we did, several times! My husband personally believes Pat or Stephanie might have dyslexia. During that week we even tried to tell them to please just use the same cc info from last year. And then, after all of that, to have our order changed on us without even an explanation or acknowledgement, I think that's what still sticks in my craw, so to speak. If she had offered me a raincheck on the sale price of those two roses at that time it would be one thing, but they didn't even acknowledge that they changed our order on us. It's not comforting to know that some customers are treated one way and others (me) are treated another way. I get that it's a small family business, but it's also just that, a business and I'm a customer. A business needs customers, and customers have to want to go to a business for that business to do business, this is the reality. I just sent them a lot of money and I do Not feel like we were treated decently. I'm sorry but it's actually really not comforting to know that the rose that was confirmed available for my order on Thursday was then confirmed and held for someone else who ordered it a day later than me, that's not ok with me.

Let me put this a different way. I would rather attempt to breed my own roses (I can't even root cuttings) before I would go through this experience again! Honestly, it wouldn't be so bad if I had a smaller order but I just think that with such a large order I should have been treated the same as others.

They should've just been up front about it, told me whatever happened and that would've been fine. I think what gets me is the absolute lack of communication on their part in changing our order, which was still a substantial order.

Let me put this a different way. I would rather attempt to breed my own roses (I can't even root cuttings) before I would go through this experience again!

The owner recently lost her husband, and was overwhelmed with the sale and all the work that entailed. Apparently they are a wonderful small company with a great rep, but the sale swamped them.

There was a great idea here about Paypal, in the future perhaps they will consider its use to save time for everyone. I think constructive suggestions are great. I liked the constructive suggestion of asking for a rain check.

Something that not everyone thinks of is that solid skills, talents and abilities in producing nice healthy roses, and the skills involved in orders and payment, are two entirely different skill sets both requiring experience to develop. There are big commercial enterprises that have the order process and taking your money down pat but then send scrawny no account roses, this company has nice roses.

I went to look at their site and it is 'under construction.' I actually considered sending some suggestions, maybe a TOS, I'm not good at website creation but I am very good at TOS ideas, but then I thought maybe that was presumptuous. I bet though that if anyone has website skills and is willing to donate a little time that this company might well be happy with such a gift.

People understand your frustration and venting can sometimes help. But putting your annoyance a different way and continuing to rag on them might not be constructive. I know that if I'm doing my best and people rag on me it just makes me feel bad.

Update: I checked out Paypal's site and sent RU the link for commercial applications. I also volunteered to donate TOS help. I decided it might be better to be seen as a little presumptuous rather than be seen as all talk and no action. So many people on this forum freely give their experience and rose expertise. I am not as experienced as they, but we all can offer what knowledge we do have that might help.

Paypay is expensive. Even for a non-profit it's $30 a month. Many small places simply can't afford it. And you pay more for the roses.

I believe they have a new site, and the old one under construction is still there. I had Roses unlimited bookmarked at http://rosesunlimitedownroot.com/ and for the past year I could never understand why they didn't update it! (Except I knew of the passing of Pat's husband and thought that may be why.) Only recently did I do a search and find their site is now https://rosesunlimitedsc.com/  The crazy thing is when I do a search the old site comes up on first on the list, and I wonder how many people miss out seeing their actual correct site because of this.

Paypay is expensive. Even for a non-profit it's $30 a month. Many small places simply can't afford it. And you pay more for the roses.

I can understand that. But could part of it be written off as a deductible business expense? I am certainly not here to make decisions for anyone, but I see no harm in presenting information. After all, while Paypal may be an expense, losing business because people can't get through to pay may be a counterbalancing consideration.

I'm sorry you had a frustrating experience! I have to say I was thrilled to get 6 roses I've really wanted. They are healthy, a bit small, but for $12 I wasn't expecting huge roses. Two had blooms on them!

At this point in the season I'm tapped out and couldn't spend $30-$50 on roses I still wanted. So all in all very happy.

I hope you can give them another chance, sounds like they were maybe not equipped for the volume they got.

I'm sorry you did not get two of the roses you wanted, and that there were communications problems. I do believe it was an honest mistake...they miscounted inventory, not that they gave away your roses to a preferred customer. Still, at the end of the day you didn't get the order as promised, and that's frustrating.

They do have an absolutely huge inventory of rose varieties, more than the big companies, perhaps more than anyone else, and a tiny staff . Personally I'd be willing to absorb the additional costs if they used PayPal...easier on me and on them, but that's their decision, not mine.

I suppose I hold little specialty companies to a different standard than big firms. If J&P did this , I'd mostly think they were poorly run. But if it's these little companies with 'hard-to-obtain' varieties, I'm mostly happy I got some of the roses I wanted. I think the little places are doing a labor of love first, the big ones are business first. Not sure if that's fair, but I do think that way.

I have been searching high and low for affordable dark desire and it was either unavailable or at heirloom super expensive. Someone suggested that I contact Roses unlimited . So I emailed them even though Dark Desire was not listed on their sale list. Sure enough they did have DD and it was on sale.

They took my mailing address online and said someone would contact me to get my credit card information. And they didn't call and they didn't call and I was getting nervous that it would be too late because she said they wanted to get everything mailed out by Monday or Tuesday. Yesterday after work which was Monday afternoon Pat got a hold of me got all of my credit card information and told me the Roses had already shipped that morning before she even had payment. I thought that was really cool so in my opinion, and , this is my very first time dealing with roses unlimited I am more than thrilled.

I got to speak with Pat herself and she is an amazing woman and she's been in the business for 30 years so it was a nice experience getting to spend some time speaking with her.

I got mine in decent shape today! Shipped 6/12 and arrived 6/20/17. The four are from the left Jessie Hildreth, La France, Comtesse Emmeline de Guigne and Comtesse Festectics Hamilton. Some yellow leaves understandable after 8 days on the road. Now in 2 gal pots. Really appreciate RU.

Wow Sheila those look great don't they? My goodness I've never received roses that looks so good coming through the mail

Kristen, they kept your order the same?

It's not really a question of the product though is it? People keep bringing it back to that and that's why I keep replying. To me it's about the business practices that led to this situation. I am not the first, there are other threads on this site describing the same type of thing. I read those, along with everyone else, and then decided to buy ̶1̶2̶ 10 roses from Roses Unlimited plus shipping this year after purchasing 6 last year because I thought it wouldn't happen to me. That was because I like their product so much. It is up to each person to decide what's right for them. For some people, no matter how nice the product is, this kind of behavior would lose RU their business. Im close to that, but I'll wait to decide. My experience happened and I'm putting it out there so others can benefit from knowing what could happen to them, because it could. Now, here are some pictures of my Roses Unlimited roses that I got last year:

The quality of the product does matter though. The higher quality the more you're willing to put up with questionable service. I think you're probably getting frustrated that your post (intended at rallying people who are also frustrated with RU, and possibly had similar experiences) is instead doing the opposite. It is filled with customers expressing how unique your situation is. I understand you are upset that your order did not go as you wanted but at the end of the day it's a plant. It is not worth all of this anger and frustration. I myself have always had excellent service with RU and will continue to shop with them. You didn't have that experience so if you choose not to go ahead. But to continue to bash them I think is a bit much. They're humans and mistakes happen. Maybe they could of handled it better but I am not there to know the circumstances.

I think all plant companies have made an occasional mistake. It is so sad when it happens, Erin. I have made an occasional mistake myself, or I wouldn't be ordering my third Jesse Hildreth. At least I'm keeping the economy going.

Lol I am so not the rallying kind! I think I made my intention clear in my last post actually: I love their roses but the transaction was unnecessarily hard and I love their roses. The only thing I could possibly be getting frustrated at is being mischaracterized in my own post. But I'm not frustrated, really, but I am going to keep setting the record straight for anyone researching this company in the future: Roses Unlimited : great roses, really hard to buy, for me, this time, but really great roses.

Erin, another wonderful company is Greenmantle if you start to get really good at ordering from hard to buy from companies. The owner Marissa is great. No email. No credit card or paypal. No plants I needed ready to ship for a few months. One orders by phone and sends a check ahead. All the plants have been great, from a band size start. It is like going back in time to when I was ordering as a child. I ordered HTs from J&P to be sent to Minnesota, where I grew up. Now these rarer plant nurseries are a treasure.

Erin, another wonderful company is Greenmantle if you start to get really good at ordering from hard to buy from companies. The owner Marissa is great. No email. No credit card or paypal. No plants I needed ready to ship for a few months. One orders by phone and sends a check ahead. All the plants have been great, from a band size start. It is like going back in time to when I was ordering as a child. I ordered HTs from J&P to be sent to Minnesota, where I grew up. Now these rarer plant nurseries are a treasure.

One data point does not make a reputation.

but I am going to keep setting the record straight for anyone researching this company in the future

You are doing them a service, then, by keeping the subject active, because this thread has buyer after buyer complimenting this company. Heck, you yourself complimented them:

I want to also say I had a fantastic experience buying roses from them last year.

So anyone researching this company will see your compliment as well.

Lol Sheila, I checked them out and you know what, they have a fruit section too! And as far as ordering options go, I don't really mind the phone and sending a check. In the absence of online ordering I believe email only confuses things. And, sending checks is something I can definitely do!

Erin, yes my order was taken as requested. 2 Dark Desire

And yes I agree that they take payment in an odd manner not being able to do it online however that being said they have the lowest prices with their sales and from what I understand some of the finest roses being sent so taking that all into consideration it's still worth dealing with a family company. I would like to keep them in business so they can continue to offer some of the Roses that nobody else does at a really fair price.

but because of your post I was forewarned and I was ready for the difficult ordering process through roses unlimited so thank you for that.

Pat told me they've been in business for 30 years and the business has really grown especially at sale time so things happen. I'm in a business where I get mixed up and messed up sometimes too and all I can do is apologize and hope to do better next time because 99.9% of the time everything is just perfection and goes as it all should so I tend to give people a lot of Mercy because I've been there

I do wish RU would get a modern computer system and enter their inventory in the system daily. Ordering from them is frustrating as hell. The first email had the response of " I'll have to check the bench for these, so list substitutes". I sent another list and didn't hear back, so I took the advice of Gardenwebbers and tried to call. Tried and tried. Finally was able to leave a message. Sent another email to Pat saying PLEASE call ME. She did, and we went through my long list and had a lovely discussion on roses. She is charming and knowledgeable. Once again, she wasn't real sure about what she had, and now ones she promised me earlier were no longer available. Some sale ones were gone, but she did have them at FULL price. Ok, so I order some at full price.

I explained I was ordering for a few people, and I can't just give a blanket sub list because it is a little more complicated. She was going to have me call back again in a day for credit card info after she checked her "bench" but I said no, no, no, you take the info NOW because your lines are always busy. She said she had a hundred emails she hadn't read yet, and she was getting eye surgery that week, and phone messages she hadn't listened to, etc, and sounded really swamped. After hearing that, I said just pick 12 from this list and let me know so I can inform others if they want to buy elsewhere. Tried to make it a little easier for her, but thinking she really needs a better system.

So I get the confirmation on what she is sending and deal with that....and it's nothing like the first list....but the email did say she was shipping to my daughter and gave me a total charged.

Well the roses got here today. Nice roses. Here. Not at my daughter's house. AND there is an extra $24 on my credit card because it cost me that much more to have them sent to the wrong state.

I also have a business that sells online, and we get super busy at times, and I've learned to double, triple check billing and shipping addresses on 100 orders a day, with just 2 of us running the whole shebang.

I believe even a small family business should have basic software that tracks inventory, handles sales and controls shipping. It's not expensive or complicated. It's way easier than sending emails back and forth, and much less money than paying someone to answer the phone and tell customers you might or might not have what they want. I'll update when I hear back from the email I sent today.

Each year, I order from 8-10 different online rose sellers. I'm not new to this. Mistakes happen, I get it. I just chose to ignore it last year when Northland sent roses in a box that was too big and I had to pay $15 postage due to get the box from the post office. I just swore to never order from Hortico again when they sent me tiny black sticks that hadn't been green for months.

Normally I don't publicly complain, but I do think this company needs to use a modern system that fits with their size of business, or scale the business down to a size they can handle.

Just so you understand what the 'bench' is, this is a picture of one of their greenhouses where the roses are kept. They are kept by class and then by alphabetical order. So yes, they will have to check their stock manually to see if they have one to sell you. Most nurseries are the same, and even if they have an online 'inventory' it's often wrong.

This is the mother plant greenhouse. I wish we could buy these!

I've ordered twice for spring shipment and had no problems. I'm sure sales time is hectic.

Cindi, your experience sounds so similar to my experience, except when Pat returned our call she called the wrong number, which probably tacked on a day or two to the confusion. I agree, a more modern system would probably not only be good for business but also good for her overall stress level. It's good to know that other companies also have issues. I'm starting to think I should just buy roses locally.

You probably should Erin. These OGR specialty nurseries may work best for rarer varieties one can't find locally. I have RVR locally and have great roses from them, but they don't have everything in stock.

I am so thankful for mail order sources that are available, that's my primary source for the roses I really like. Personally I like dealing with people on a more personal level. Knowing what Pat has been through in recent months, I don't know how I could have any other kind of feeling but compassion for her at this time. I think they do a great job the majority of the time. While the way they do transactions might seem antiquated, it might not be that easy to change. I like the idea of ordering roses from someone who is knowledgeable and loves them as much as I do. This should be a time for customers to be encouragers and building up RU, and perhaps in the not too distant future they can make the needed improvements. Personally, I want them to be around either way!

I agree completely, I want them to be around! I have nothing but respect for Pat and compassion for her knowing what she's gone through this year. The thing is though, both my husband and I work and it took the two of us a week to order these roses. He has a mom that's about to move into a home, I just found out I have a half brother I never knew about, lol, we all have stuff right? And, ordering these roses was just really stressful this time. It really seems like it was unnecessarily stressful, for us and had to have been for her too. It shouldn't be so hard to give money to a business, right? Maybe the problem was the sale? I wonder what it's like ordering from them at a different time of year when there's no shortage of roses? Do they have a retail shop? Do they take checks? I wouldn't mind actually going to the nursery, I'd love to see her Delbards.

Buford, that's the actual RU greenhouse? How cool, thanks for sharing!

Erin, yes we all have stuff going on, sounds like there's a lot on your plate right now. i think that is something I should keep in mind in every situation.

Years ago, I didn't have a good experience with Roses Unlimited. It was my first ever rose order. The lack of success had a lot to do with weather, shipping delays and because the roses were in the box too many days during transport. Roses Unlimited has such overwhelmingly good reviews, so my experience was unusual. I didn't complain, because the winter was awful that year and I knew they took a hard hit. I learned that roses from nurseries closer to my side of the Country do much better, so I purchased roses from different sources from then on. I'm sorry to hear that Pat's husband died. He is the one that phoned me about the shipping delays. He sounded like a nice gentleman. I think they could benefit from a different ordering system. They used to only take checks, so there is some progress.

I can't imagine running a nursery and producing a living product that is dependent on so many factors. I think we need to have patience with nurseries, because what would we do without them? I ordered Alakazam from For Love of Roses in December of 2015. However, when the rose proved to be difficult to propagate, my rose that was "in stock" became an additional mother plant out of necessity. Of course the owner offered me a refund or another rose, but I told him I wanted to wait as long as it takes. They expect to fill my order sometime in 2018. I appreciate that they haven't given up.

I have stories about other nurseries as well, but this is already becoming a book. Rose nurseries are in business, because they have a love for roses and will do what they can to please their customers. Give them a chance to fix the issues and they will. I've ordered from a variety of nurseries and now have my favorites, which is our prerogative as the consumer.

yes, that is one of the greenhouses and I always go into the mother greenhouse just to look and smell. Buford, I wish they would sell the mother plants sometimes, because I have see a couple that I would love, but they must not have rights to sell as yet. I think they have nine greenhouses in all, but not sure.

countrygirlsc- What a treat to be able to visit such an incredible place!! It must be difficult to keep from buying one of every rose. It must smell heavenly!

Sharon

Yes, it is and it does smell wonderful. I usually go with a list and come home with twice as many.