Sara Ann, I am no expert but I can speak from personal experience. For me the advantage to own root roses is they usually grow more leaves at the bottom of the plant so that the rose is less likely to have "bare legs' (canes). The plants tend to be fuller for me when mature. I like grafted roses when I need more vigor to establish a rose quickly. Many modern hybrid tea, grandiflora and floribunda roses are only available grafted because they lack the vigor to easily establish themselves own root. Some are available eventually own root if they are vigorous enough. Some examples are Icebergs, Julia Child, Livin' Easy, Gertrude Jekyll, Golden Celebration, Carefree Beauty, Bonica, etc. These more modern roses are available both own root and grafted. My goals, my past personal results and the shared experiences of those who are kind enough to share their thoughts and are more talented than I (like Kathy and Catsrose), help me to optimize my results. What I have heard many times on this and other forums is what does not work for many others in your climate zone most likely will not work for you. So I try to pick wisely and hopefully end up dealing with fewer problems. Sometimes advice is also not "absolute" as my results vary somewhat from the experiences of others. The answer to your question is "it depends" on your goal(s) for growing your roses. Personally, I have different motives depending on my goal for a particular area of my yard. I don't spray and I try to garden organically so I try to pick roses that are capable of thriving without protection. This limits my choices a lot but I am not exhibiting roses and I like not having to spray regularly. I have an area where I am growing all grafted modern hybrid teas along a fence. I was looking for high vigor, immediate bloom production and plants that would establish themselves quickly. I planted companion plants around them to cover any bare legs. In pots, I like own root roses when I can get them because in my experience they are fuller, better looking bushes when mature. I have to be more patient with them because they take some time to build out as previously mentioned by Kathy and Catsrose. All of my Old Garden or Antique roses, like Reve d'Or, Reine de Violettes, Maman Cochet, Mon. Tillier, etc. are own roots because they grow vigorously that way and they are widely available for purchase. I have areas of my yard that are all own root old garden roses and some that are all grafted more modern roses. Most of the old garden varieties are widely available own root but can be ordered grafted from specialty nurseries willing to graft plants for you, like Burlington in Ca. If I had the goal of huge plants and larger flowers, had a lot more space and did not mind staking them I would choose roses that are available grafted on Fortuniana root stock. I like seeing pictures of mature whole plants to see how they look and with further research about what grows well in my local climate shared by others on this site and Help Me Find I believe I am making better decisions when deciding what to plant where. I believe more gardeners today are 'requesting' own root roses and the growers are now responding by offering those varieties that can be grown either way. That's not to say own root is better than grafted but it's really up to you based on your gardening goals. I also personally believe it's cheaper in the long run for the grower to produce own root roses if the plants mature fast enough. The growers have to be careful that the casual gardener does not judge their roses negatively if a neighbor is growing the same rose grafted and their bush is performing better so the growers pick and choose those varieties where the difference is minimal. Good luck and happy gardening.... Lee This post was edited by leezen4u on Wed, Sep 25, 13 at 14:52

Just Google images of RMV and a pile will appear in your browser. It generally shows up as jagged/zigzagged pale creamy yellow to golden yellow marks on foliage, but the yellowish marks don't follow veins like they do with nutrient or hydration deficiency problems. Just FYI, oodles of roses have been grafted on RMV infected stock over the years, and countless others have been propagated via cutting from roses grown on infected stock. I grow a number of obviously RMV infected roses and a few others which surely must be infected even though they've shown no signs. All are thriving. Sometimes, RMV significantly weakens a plant, but given the number of flourishing infected plants I've seen over the years, I don't find RMV to be the greatest of worries. I'm guessing that there's a fairly good chance DA's own root Munsteads may be infected, too, but that's just a guess. Please keep us updated on your Munstead's progress! I'd love to read reports from your climate. I hope you enjoy your MW as much as I have mine! Carol

Heirloom has New this year South Africa, but Chamblees had it last year. I find the price difference an insult on my intelligence. It's not double the price, it's more like 4 times. One of the last google reviews I read on Heirloom said they were the only place that sells own root roses. I don't know if the person was lying, or really doesn't know any better. Where would they even get an idea like that? I asked my husband how much those huge bags of Black Kow cost from last year, after seeing they had 1 pound of manure for almost 9 dollars. He informed me that the 50 lb bags were less than 5 dollars. Being a little overpriced doesn't annoy me that much, but that's not a little. They are ridiculous. I feel bad for anyone that is shopping there, if they think those are normal prices. I know it's probably a last resort for people that really want something not available elsewhere, but I wouldn't give them a dollar. The warranty description kind of contradicts it's self too. Everything that rings an alarm bell for shadiness is on that website. (at least for me) No judgement intended on anyone that likes them. Edit I agree Moses it can't be so expensive. A good example is ARE. Huge plants, for less than half that price. My order from ARE had canes as large as bare root grafted, yet were more than 50% cheaper than their 1 gal. I don't see how they are staying in business, but I guess you don't have to sell much at those prices.

R. Multiflora is hardy to zone 4b, and Dr.Huey-rootstock is hardy to zone 6b. Dr.Huey-roostock can live forever in my zone 5 since its roots is at the end of a long-stick (1 foot deep), so it can survive deep underground while the upper-own-root dies. The temp. at DEEP underground is 32 F, while the above temp. is -20 F in my zone 5a. The secret of Dr.Huey's living forever is its roots are at the end of a long stick to be at 32 F underground. I saw only one multiflora shoot appearing at local library, versus countless Dr.Huey-taking over. Leaves are acidic when not fully decomposed, so I consider that peat (Peat forms when dead plants are not fully decomposed). Once time I buried a bunch of leaves underground when I fixed the planting hole of Wise Portia. IT GOT WORSE !! I dug that up and the leaves turned into pitch-black & acidic peat. Wise Portia as own-root hates it (it likes alkaline with dark-green leaves). Multiflora-roostock can take acidic leaves on top better than grafted-on-Dr.Huey or own-roots. Multiflora-species thrive in high-rain & acidic soil. But Dr.Huey was bred in dry & alkaline CA. Back in 1998 I winter-protected a dozen hybrid-teas (grafted on Dr.Huey) with acidic maple leaves (not decomposed to neutral pH). They all got black canker & died through the winter. But my neighbor's dozen hybrid-teas (grafted-on-Dr.Huey) were winterized with dry & alkaline wood-chips and they survived winter great. Own-roots absolutely hate acidic leaves on top when their roots mature to be chunky & woody like Dr.Huey. When I winterized 10th-year-own-root Golden Celebration with leaves, it was only 4" tall in spring & gave me 4 lousy blooms for spring flush. So this 11th-year winter, I switched to DRY & ALKALINE wood-chips, and Golden Celebration had over 1 foot of green cane, with 20+ blooms for spring flush (in only 4 hrs. of sun). Multiflora-rootstock prefers loamy soil since it's a cluster root (spaghetti strands), versus big-fat & woody chunky Dr.Huey for dense & thick clay. Multiflora-rootstock declines in my salty & dense & alkaline clay. Dense clay need a thicker-stick like Dr.Huey to push through. Here in rock-hard & dense alkaline clay (similar to CA), Dr.Huey-rootstock is the choice but folks plant it so deep that Dr. Huey lives forever.