I ordered over 30 bare root roses this year and have been pleased overall with my experience. My roses came from Edmunds, Witherspoon and Palatine. It seemed like for the most part mine were a nice size, although Moonstone from Witherspoon was kind of puny, but hasn’t struggled at all and is looking good.

Edmunds was the first order I received, all Hybrid Teas and Floribundas. I’ve been very impressed with how they are doing, no issues at all with them breaking dormancy. They were planted after mid March and nearly all of them have buds and will be blooming soon.

Witherspoon, mostly Hybrid Teas with a Munstead Wood and another Zephirine Drouhin, very pleased with how good both of them are doing. Most of the Hybrid Teas are doing fine, but some were slow to do anything, but have all broken dormancy at this time. I had also ordered a Graham Thomas which wasn’t shipped, they determined it was of inferior quality, which I appreciate, although I was disappointed because I really wanted that rose. They were planted in early April

Palatine, I’m always pleased with their quality. They took off like gang busters. Savannah is totally leafed out, others aren’t far behind. Two Floribundas, Bliss Parfuma and Solero are all leafed out. Two OLD GARDEN ROSES, Yolande d’Aragon and Variegata di Bologna look great. These were probably planted not quite three weeks ago.

I ordered three bareroot, ownroot DAs from Burpees, and they were all three packed just as you described yours, Ikaye. Two of the three leafed out, but only on two canes and required cutting out a lot of dried out cane.

I ordered one bareroot, ownroot DA from Northland Rosarium, shipped in a clear plastic bag, with no packing material. It was very green, and all canes leafed out quickly. The Northland rose is already forming buds, and it was planted a week after the Burpees.

What I learned from this is that some vendors know roses better than others, and how to best store and ship them. Yes, the Burpees were on sale and therefore cost less, but it appears Northland roses are more consistently healthy. :-)

Palatine is always top notch. My Edmunds order was fine, packed well and is growing well. I ordered from High Country for the first time last year and was really pleased. Those fall roses are doing great - Purple Splash in particular is huge. The spring order is coming on well. These roses seem to really take off once repotted. David Austin, just got another order and tried the potted roses and they are very nice, I have repotted them and they are growing very well. I have always gotten good quality from DA. Roses Unlimited is another favorite - just got an order - am in process of repotting them; they always take off and grow well.

Judith

• LKaye,
  This is an important conversation; thank you for getting it started. For two years now, I have been a lurker and student of roses at Paul Barden’s the Uncommon Rose, Houzz (Kim Rupert was kind enough to provide me very specific advice when I asked him – thank you, Kim.) and HMF, forming opinions on what I want and a plan of how to organize the garden. 2019 was the year the ordering got done, and this is what I have – 22 roses from 4 different vendors. I am calling out shipping costs and best quantities as these can sometimes make or break an order.
  1) Rogue Valley Roses: My shipping cost/ plant - $6; most shipping-efficient order size – 6 plants
  The company is located in Oregon, and I am in Massachusetts, so shipping is high and this was one of my more expensive (per plant) orders. 6 plant order is most efficient for shipping (cost/ plant), so aim to pick 4 as they throw in a free rose and mystery rose. Plants were shipped with care to prevent moving, in 4 inch plastic pots with some potting mix.
  You are allowed to pick the free rose from 2 or 3 options – 2019’s were Basye’s Purple, Oakington Ruby and Cl. Cecile Brunner. I want the ever-blooming form of Cecile Brunner (Bloomfield Abundance), and dislike the flower form of Basye’s Purple. Oakington Ruby did not seem like anything special, so went with the Cl. Cecile Brunner.
  The mystery rose is another way of saying unlabeled/ mislabeled rose that the experts at RVR are unable to peg. You take it as-is, but the plant is of the same high quality as the others. Mine was a mildly thorny, mini-flora-type yellow rose (two blooms so far) – at 15-25 petal count and open bloom form.
  Now, the order:
  Danny Boy – needed this rose, and they are the only ones who carried it. Driving factor behind ordering from this vendor.
  Duchesse de Brabant – needed a blooming fool
  Grandmother’s Hat/ Barbara Worl – same as above
  Madame Isaac Pereire – needed this rose, unbeatable fragrance
  Note: This vendor specializes in hard to find OGRs, and also inherited Paul Barden’s inventory of roses and seems to be the only authorized seller of his stock. If you are buying from them, choose from these two categories as you can backfill things like Cecile Brunner, Zephirine Drouhin etc from other vendors.
  
  2) Roses Unlimited: My shipping cost/ plant - $6; most shipping-efficient order size – 6 plants
  The company is in North Carolina and was my most expensive order (per plant), even though you would think with shipping to Mass right up the coast, this should have been cheaper. 6 plant order here is most efficient – they ship in 8-inch custom cardboard boxes which can hold 2 plants per box. Three boxes are then packed into the main shipping box. They are packed with a lot of soil + potting mix, and this drives up the cost. I had initially planned for a 6-plant order, and thought the Andrea Stelzer I originally went to this vendor for, could be combined with 5 roses from their June sale. The Andrea Stelzer was supposed to ship May 29-31 and the sale orders would have shipped June 10-15. When I asked in March or April of 2019, they said no to this and that the yearly sale is not a guaranteed thing, so I had to order the other plants at full cost. Considering my budget, I cut the order back to 4 plants. This worked out as I was able to get 4 plants elsewhere for the cost of the 2 I cut back here.
  Now, the order itself:
• Andrea Stelzer – needed this plant, driving factor behind ordering from this vendor.
  Stainless Steel – initially wanted Sterling Silver, but I am woman enough to admit I can't handle that one yet. Stainless Steel seems to be more my speed.
  Bolero – be sure to specify 2004 Meilland Floribunda on this, as they also carry an HT Bolero. The 2004 Bolero is the bullet-proof one.
  Quick Silver – saw the photograph on Jackson & Perkins, and practically swooned. Also sold on the idea of no-spray, no-winter protect, tough weather conditions and only then to market model Kordes has.
  
  3) Long Ago Roses: My shipping cost/ plant - $2.75 (that’s right, hold on to your hats, folks!!); most shipping-efficient order size – 4 plants
  This company is in South Carolina and Linda, the owner, carries a curated list that fits like a glove for my expectations/ needs for my rose garden. I have bought from her before – my first order, which I expertly killed off (100% user error) last summer. She also has an EBay auction and allows you to combine shipping for winning bids with other items from her inventory. The prices are beyond reasonable and the shipping is tres favorable as well. All in all, perfect company whether you are just starting to play around with roses, or growing in your knowledge and discovering varieties you now just cannot live without. Her Kordes and OGR-heavy list is for the less-adroit (*ahem) rose-growers among us, but her unique, stood-the-test-of-time beauties are just as strong as well.
  Note: These are smaller bands that you absolutely should pot up for a couple of months before putting in the ground. But though the plants are tiny, they have grown for a year or more, are branched and all have bloomed for me within the first month.
  
  From Linda, I ordered:
  Nahema – between this girl and Evelyn, how much more reading about but not having can I take? Also, regrettably, someone broke off the main stem on this one the month after I got it. So I am still Nahema-less.
  Golden Celebration – near thorn-less plant needed near heavy traffic area
  Clothilde Soupert – same as above
  Sharifa Asma – replacement for the amazing plant I destroyed last year
  
  4) Jackson & Perkins: My shipping cost/ plant - $2/ unsure; most shipping-efficient order size – 8 plants.
  The company is located in Pennsylvania – way closer to me than anyone else. This was a replacement for a previous problem order - a gift from family, and safe to say, between my personal experience and from reading the more-often-than-not negative reviews online, I kept my hopes severely tamped down.
  This was my order:
  Sunsprinkles – AARS winning mini
  Enchanted Evening – Impulse Buy
  Burgundy Iceberg – Same as above
  Lavender Veranda – ditto, oh my!
  Beverly – tall girl, very well-reviewed and strongly fragrant, nearly thorn-less HT
  Iceberg – replacement for the one I killed last year, the only bare-root rose of my order
  Winter Sun – said to bloom all the way to winter, and needed a spot of cheer at the top of my driveway as I come home to the 5pm darkness of Massachusetts.
  Tangerine Skies – Pair up with Winter Sun for some extra brightness, and then add Quicksilver for loud/bright/interesting combo.
  
  Well, the four orders that arrived in May 2019 one after the other, all earned the watchful, inquisitive regard of my children. The J&P order was the last to arrive, and was declared the best of them all. Fully branched out, bushy 2-quart own-roots with buds and blooms on all but two (Tangerine Skies (climber) and Iceberg (bareroot)). The foliage was glossy and clean, nary a spot or discoloration. I actively avoid bare-roots, but as a point of reference to the OP, the Iceberg bare-root was large enough that the roots filled up the barrel of a 10-gallon paint bucket, and the crown and 2 feet of cane stuck out at the top as I left it to soak. At least at this company, the bare-roots must not have gotten smaller.
  Here is my ranking:
  1) Tie: Jackson & Perkins: Took me by storm with how healthy, disease-free and well-grown all the plants were. Started blooming the day after they were potted up and didn’t quit until the dog days of August – even then, Sunsprinkles and Burgundy Iceberg bravely persisted.
  And
  Long Ago Roses – clean, healthy roses, great selection, amazing price, ease of ordering, all-around great vendor.
  2) Rogue Valley Roses – slightly higher priced plants, but thankful they saved the Danny Boy and made it available to order. Plants looked to be about 2 years old, extremely tall and extra stems were cut out to conserve energy for the main stem. It worked, all the plants bloomed and are healthy.
  3) Roses Unlimited – slightly higher priced plants, but made more expensive by shipping. Grateful that they saved Andrea Stelzer and made it available to order. All bloomed, but only 1 (Bolero) of 4 came and stayed without disease problems. Stainless Steel arrived with blackspot, but to say Stainless Steel gets blackspot is to say burgers and fries make you fat. (What, you didn’t know?). Andrea Stelzer came clean, was potted up and situated close to Stainless Steel – and inherited the black spot and secured a good bit of chlorosis as well (she was in full sun, so lack of sunlight was not a problem). A tad surprising since this is a Kordes rose, but granted, an older variety that came into commerce before Kordes began its pull-the-bowels-of-the-earth-inside-out-to-get-you-a-strong-rose trials. The kicker though, is that Quicksilver, which went through said trials, black-spotted heavily as well and did not bloom at all (being a climber can explain this part away, I guess). As for the black spot, I can’t chart it to just being a flimsy lavender – since Lavender Veranda and Burgundy Iceberg (fine, fine, this is not totally a lavender), both Kordes, continue to be healthy and were blooming machines for the bulk of the summer. Enchanted Evening, a J&P lavender, is strong as a horse as well.

• If you made it this far, please know that I want to thank you and all the active users of the site for teaching newbies like me so much about rose-growing. Sharing this info is my way of giving back, and I hope you find it helpful while placing future orders.
  
  Regards,
  Nancy

Nancy:

Jackson and Perkins in Pennsylvania ^^^ - where in Pennsylvania?

Was it drop shipped from a grower?

J&P is located in North Carolina, along with its sister companies, Wayside Gardens, and Park Seed, so this Pennsylvania location is very puzzling. diane

I ordered 4 roses from rose's unlimited and it cost me with shipping $144 their shipping is super high.

I hope that I get the right Bolero

Thanks for the likes, Bayareagirl and Sheila!

Park, J&P, and Wayside ultimately ended up in North Carolina. I think it was always Wayside's home; back in the 80s, I ordered from Park Seed, and it was in N.Carolina, too. J&P started as a southern Oregon company many years ago, and was one of the most famous rose producers in the US. After all kinds of business moves, and bankruptcy, J&P, sadly, ended up in N Carolina, too. I wish it were still in Oregon. A lot of us feel that way. I hope all your new roses grow successfully. Next big expenditures will be soil amendments and fertilizers. More of my money goes on those at this point. It never ends. Diane

Diane,

That is very informative to know about J&P's history; thank you for sharing. I am getting into composting to cut back on the amendment expense, and stay out of commercial fertilizers anyway. I have seen your posts and pictures - you are amazing at growing roses and I bet they give you a lot of peace and happiness at the end of a long day.

For me, the fragrance, the colors, the feel of the petals, and the sound of the compliments are like instant therapy. If I started eating the petals/ hips, I'd hit all 5 sense!! :)

Regards,

Nancy

I asked the girl thatl I spoke to at Rose's Unlimited if there was a break for shipping with 4 roses and she said no

It worked out to $20 per rose to ship. I think that's just crazy. Last year I canceled an order because of that but right now they're the only ones shipping the roses that I need

you're right it's not just the roses it's all of the soil and the compost and the fertilizer . But to me it's my therapy. I don't drink or do drugs or smoke or hardly ever buy new clothes it's all roses so I don't feel too bad. But I sure thought that was a pretty spendy amount for shipping.

Maybe I will call in the morning and make sure that I am getting the right Bolero

Jinx!!! We posted the same thing at the same time about therapy!!!

NC seems to always get the credit

https://www.mapquest.com/us/south-carolina/jackson-perkins-365449091

For what illness or disorder might “drink or do drugs or smoke” or “buy new clothes” ever be considered a therapy?

Henry did recently provide a link https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5780162/why-doctors-are-prescribing-gardening-rather-than-drugs#n=1

about gardening as a Rx for depression.

I imagine rose buying “gone wild“ could be explained by disorders described here

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-5

Disorders such as https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive–compulsive_disorder

But effective treatment for such a problem would hardly include buying more roses.

Did I mention that I am not a psychiatrist? (credit to Lionel, from As Time Goes By. Interestingly, Marlorena just started this new discussion https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5780455/dame-judi-dench#n=8)

I didn't mean that any of the above are therapy lol,

I meant that I pretty much only spend money on my roses .

That being said, after all that I spend
On roses I can't afford any bad habits although the baby is driving me to chocolate overindulgence.

Chocolate is big in our house, too.

Unfortunately, Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate 85% Cacao bar recently became “unavailable” here. TJ’s Pound Plus Dark Chocolate (72% cacao) is fine with me, but not with the rest of the household.

Great reviews everyone!

Sadly I'm not that picky about my chocolate milk or dark either way cheapie chocolat, expensive chocolate . You know what, when you have a new screaming baby any
chocolate will do.

Kristine,

You must be my twin I just didn't know about - I was definitely overdoing the chocolate when my first one was born, till the visiting nurse cleared it up that the caffeine/ sugar was making the baby fussier. At that moment, with all the night-waking and sleep deprivation, chocolate was my only go-to. So I am completely with you on this one. And like you, garden spending (controlled, I think), is my only outlet! I recently read this on Swallowtail Seeds' website -

"One of the healthiest ways to gamble is with a spade and a package of seeds.-Dan Bennett, comedian and juggler "

https://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/tips_lists/floral-fun.html

Hope you were able to talk to RU today and confirm that the Bolero was indeed the 2004 Meilland Floribunda. Here's something that may make you feel better in case you didn't - when I placed my order this summer, I didn't know there was a Bolero HT also. Found that while rummaging through Houzz (thank you, kind poster, whoever specified this) and emailed Pat. She let me know that the 2004 version was the one she was sending me even before I had emailed, and confirmed I will get what I wanted.

As I tried to doze off to sleep last night, I kept thinking about the numbers you had mentioned: $144 for 4 roses, but shipping was $20 per rose. I knew the shipping costs would get higher the farther out West one got, and you are at absolute opposite corner of RU. However, I had assumed that at $19-$21 per plant (for cost), your shipping was going to come out at $16. It definitely threw me off that it was $20. $80 of your $144 was spent on shipping - 56%. Throw in the $5 handling fee, and you are at 59%.

I work in the nexus of the food and transportation industries - I know shipping costs have gone up not just due to fuel but also driver shortages. (Sidebar: The average age of a truck driver now is 55 - young people just won't sign up anymore. Seeing the country for free used to be touted as a perk, now too much time away from home is seen as a tremendous disadvantage). Even so, 60% of something being transportation cost is unheard of, unless you are rush-shipping something. I would imagine the same would apply if it is extra delicate/fragile and has to be allocated more space for protection than it actually takes up.

My order was coming out to $161 for 6 plants, so I cut it back thusly:

Andrea Stelzer @ $21

Winter Sun @ $21

Bolero @ $19

Autumn Damask @ $19

Quicksilver @ $19

Stainless Steel @ $21

Total for roses - $120

Shipping 6 roses to MA @ $6 = $36

P&H - $5

Total amount due by check - $161

Took out the Autumn Damask and got the Winter Sun from J&P, and now the shipping for 4 plants came out to $30. My total was $115. It boggled my mind that with 1/3 less weight to the same destination (not knowing their shipping style prior to receiving my order), the shipping cost went down by only 6 dollars. However, once I saw how these were packed, I put it down to the amount of potting mix remaining the same and only the weight of 2 plants being reduced.

Thanks for the likes mmmmCOzone5, maslovesroses and totoro z7b md.

Nancy. thank you for the break down on cost. I was actually quite stunned that the price of shipping was as much as the price of the rose itself

It just seems like that's an awful lot and that there should be a price break for shipping four as opposed to one.

I really order from heirloom because of the price of their roses and their shipping even though they're fairly local and their roses are usually quite small when they come. Hopefully the ones from rose's unlimited will be a heartier size to be set for the Winter

Rifis,

Perhaps alcohol, drugs. cigarettes are not therapy, but (perceived) self-medication. I can make the claim my garden is my self-medication. Good to know that doctors aid and abet:). The saving grace is that once your body screams for you to stop with the other three, your mind may not go along. But after a couple hours of digging and weeding, mind and body are in perfect accord to just quit and go lounge on the recliner. Gardening does bring the bonus of burning calories, along with the peace and beauty more than one can enjoy.

The link about Judi Dench led to some interesting thoughts. I think hybridizing overall is good, but not when it gets to the point of being unnatural. The thorns on this rose and Marilyn Monroe draw comparisons, in my mind, to Schnauzers (whose body proportions do not suggest a descendant of the wolf family) or citizens of the Island of Dr. Moreau (less said, the better here). While there are thorns, and there are thorns, I don't see displays of this nature in species roses or old garden roses. Perhaps the hybridizers then did come up with a few of these, but chose not to go to market, or I am just ignorant of mega-thorny roses in the above classes.

Kristine,

You are very welcome. That's good to know about Heirloom - that the bands are fairly small. I only stayed away because of the pricing. I can tell you that you will not have a sizing problem with the RU plants - all are well-grown and between 1.5 -2 ft, except Bolero which will be about just over a foot tall, going by my experience, but strong nevertheless. Not sure how your winters are, but if you have planted in the ground right before the cold comes in and the plants have done well, you will be just fine with the RU batch of plants.

There are plenty of thorny species roses. It's hard to judge how all these aspects will play out in breeding. I expect thorns, but admit it is nice to deal with those a little less thorny!

Ah Vaporvac, I stand corrected. We do have the thorny Rugosas, don't we? And I am sure other roses in other classes that I don't know of. But the thorns being as evenly spaced, like uniform rows on soldiers on Marilyn Monroe, or this weirdly shaped long-hook of Dame Judi Dench looks off-kilter. Then again, I probably need to just look at more thorn pics.

Is true, people never take pictures of the thorns or even comment on them unless they're killer! I find so many of mine killer in different ways though. My Chestnut Rose has amazing Thorns all up and down it's canes but my swamp Rose is nearly thornless.

Heirloom sells 1 gal size roses now. They are much larger than bands. The former owners sold tiny bands, which usually did grow, but were the smallest roses I ever bought. The current plants are good size and do grow well.

Great post, Nancy! I can add my own experience, having ordered a number of roses this year, too.

My earliest orders did best for me, since here in N FL it usually gets quite warm by April. This year was particularly challenging, as we hit the 100s in May, at least a month earlier than usual, and no rain, so this may have contributed to my failures.

My orders from Antique Rose Emporium, High Country Roses, and Heirloom Roses arrived first. ARE & HR sent one & two gallon roses, which were the costliest to ship, but survived the transition to our hot spring the best. The quarts from HCR did fine as long as they got daily water.

My latest order from Burpee & J&P did not fare so well. Mostly bareroots, they did not survive the high heat. Only 4 of the 7 DA bareroots survived. I did attempt to hill them in using BenTs pot-in-a-pot method, but I think it was just too hot by mid-June when I got them.

For my area at least, I seem to do better with more established potted plants, by the time I can get plants here. It was a bit frustrating, because I also ordered from several vendors in the NW, and had to wait for temps to get high enough for them to safely ship out, but it was already in the 80s here. By the time they did ship out, it was super-hot here and they arrived quite wilted. Had a few losses due to this as well. Probably won’t try that again.

And I guess I need to relearn how to pot up bareroots and keep them alive in the heat. :-)

Actually the history of Jackson & Perkins goes much further back than the Medford, Oregon operation. It was started in 1872 in Newark, NY. It was in the early 1960's that the company was bought out by Harry & David and moved to Medford, although all their rose growing was done in California. That's when it became the monster of mail order and earned the reputation that still makes makes it a valuable commodity today. J&P has since been through numerous owners and no longer grows its own product, purely living off its reputation.

Thanks for the likes, Mustbnuts, Perma n Posies and Frizzycat!

Vaporvac,

You are exactly right. I am hurting for a good phone to take pics right now, but once I get that problem solved, I'll add to that thread so we can look at the thorns before making a decision on whether we really need something so desperately after all. If I didn't have the rugrats running around, I would probably decide differently - but as of now, I have one super-secluded spot for Gertrude Jekyll, and that is the only thorn-monster I am planning for. While we are on this topic, I lapsed in judgement and bought Easy to Please last summer - bareroot (not usually my thing), and pink (try to avoid since with all I want, I am going to end up with walls of pink anyway). Well, the good is that the thing blooms its silly head off, but the bad is that the thorns get progressively worse (more and more closely spaced) over the bloom season till they end up looking like a lab-created botanical weapon. This is the picture I gotta post first.

Sheila,

That is good to know that Heirloom now ships larger roses. As Perma n Posies mentioned, that was probably a major factor is how they withstood the heat stress and still continued to bloom. Sometimes I think that perhaps I should try local nurseries instead of Heirloom for more niche roses, you know, with buying local, reducing carbon footprint and all. But the nurseries where I live want $45 for a Joseph's Coat (gah...), and so on. I mostly just run away.

Perma n Posies,

Thank you for your kind compliment, and also for adding your insight to this thread. For a sudden spike in temps like you experienced, it makes sense that the larger roses survived. Even if shipping was higher, it ensured you didn't lose your entire investment. I am glad you brought up daily watering - I did water all the roses everyday during the height of the summer, and later on, when we started getting occasional rain, made sure that the soil was moist in between the showers.

Your post is tremendous in noting shipping methods and success rates - and I see an echo of LKaye's post as far as Burpee is concerned. Guess it is a major risk to buy rose plants from them; us rose-weak folks should keep this in mind when low, low prices are flashed on our pop-ads by Google.:).

Another thing you reminded me of is that I didn't make it clear in my initial post that I potted up all the roses I received. I got these right around the end of May, and they stayed potted up until last week when I put them in the ground. The last one, Stainless Steel, went in today, and I just have Cecile Brunner and the mystery rose from RVR to go.

Hugogurll:

I did not know that Harry & David owned J&P at some point. That is quite a bit of moving around the company has done, and I guess South Carolina must offer some good tax breaks for them to locate their HQ. Thanks for sharing more of the history.

I am learning so much from all of you. Thank you.

Regards,

Nancy

Re shipping, just a note that Heirloom orders over $65 ship free, which basically translates to you need to buy 2 full price roses or 3 sale roses (they often have 20% off sales). All the plants I've gotten from them have been 1 gallon and well rooted - they are often defoliated prior to shipping, but they leaf out quickly. (They are also packed nicely.) The roses themselves are on the expensive side - the sale price is usually about $30 each - but the free shipping helps balance it out.

Nancy - thank you for sharing your experience & research!

Cyndita,

Thank you for the kind words, and also for pointing out the fact that Heirloom does offer free shipping after a certain point. As you say, it does balance out the cost, and makes me keep Heirloom in mind since I paid $28.75 per rose at RU to get my roses delivered anyway. I think the kicker is that the sale would limit me to a very small range of varieties, and I haven't had two or three from my list concurrently on sale. This scenario is very possible: I get rose-weak and order something not originally on my list, and then I am toast because I have no space to put it or the space doesn't work because I did not research the rose well enough prior.

Anyhow, still good for me to visit the Heirloom site from time to time - thanks for making me think of this.

Had a busy weekend and my rose-buying spree continued - placed an order for 6 mins I needed (really needed, not rose-needed) for the front of a large planter from Mountain Valley Growers - an organic rose & shrubs nursery in Central California. They have a small selection of mini roses, all priced at $6.95 each for a 3 1/4 inch pot. They are having a fall sale going on - their only one of the year, and many products (but not all roses) are 30% off. I ordered one each of the following, 6 plants allowed for their best shipping cost per rose.

Magic Carrousel

Lavender Lace

Redwood Empire

Renny

Strawberry Swirl

Torch of Liberty

All the above were 30% off - a total of $12.51 off my initial cost. Shipping was going to be high - I knew this going in. But in this case, there are three mitigating factors:

1) The initial cost per rose is low to start with, and the sale makes it better.

2) They are all organic, which is how I do things

3) I do get, for the cost of shipping, the rose in 2 days (reducing heat stress)

Also, I do realize that I AM moving stuff from one side of the country to another, so of course it is going to cost money - $29.95 in this case, or $4.99/ rose. The total cost was $59.14 or $9.85/ rose delivered to my house. They do have Ballerina included in their rose selection, though not a mini, and it is priced at $6.95. Since I didn't get Sierra Sunrise, Ring of Fire, or Twister, I knew I would have to come back, so I finished up my order with 6 plants and saved the others for later. Note: I ordered on a Saturday and had a question I emailed them, they got back to me within a couple of hours, on a Saturday, during their only sale of the year. Now that is something!

Eden is a rose I have been looking for over the last 2 years, but somehow, not able to find it in stock or something else comes up while placing an order. Searching for this led me to Ebay and Etsy, and at $21.98 and $19.99 (shipping included). I am sure one would have to take precautions against disease/ quarantine the rose for a time etc, but I do wonder if this endeavor would turn out successfully. The Etsy seller states that she is an organic grower as well.

And speaking of non-traditional vendors of roses, we apparently have a new player in the game - Wal-mart!. Yes, they always carried the Knockouts and the Parade Minis, and it isn't too much of a reach to go on to Easy Elegance and Drift roses. But I found Lavender Veranda, Cream Veranda, Cl. America, Sun Flare, Zephirine Drouhin, Blanc Double de Coubert (!!), Hot Cocoa, New Dawn, Lavender Meidiland, Blaze, New Dawn and Fourth of July. Well, color me surprised!!! These are all from Hirt's Gardens, and I personally have had trouble growing one of their bulb products, but the good part is, if you did get the rose, you have the return guarantee from Wal-Mart.

Another rose that I found while loitering around Walmart.com was Brindabella. Now, this rose caught my eye at the local grocery store (a New England specific chain that places extremely high quality standards on incoming produce and floral stock), and I saw that it was not just one rose, but a new series. Off I went to Helpmefind.com, and see that Mrs. Sylvia and Mr. John Gray of Australia are breeding an entire new series of Brindabella, and the Pastel Tiger looks amazing! I do think the claim of stopping you in your tracks with the rose's perfume in inaccurate, as I walked by a Brindabella and hardly smelled anything. But, perhaps it was due to the most of the blooms being older. I will say this, the thing is fairly floriferous and seems to drop its petals cleanly.