I would do a Spring order from DA of the bare root if your friend is a gardener and capable of handling a bare root rose. If it is a gift to a nongardener, the potted plant might be worth it if it was a really nice plant.

Thanks Sheila. I should have mentioned that I would like to give her the plant now, rather than waiting for the bare root season. Some 2 litre potted plants are available but not for Gertrude Jekyll.

Can anyone please recommend a garden centre or nursery where you can order online and they deliver?

What a thoughtful (fragrant!) gift for a dear friend :)

I don't know of a source but do anticipate the high cost that you found at the place in Rochester. At many garden centers near my home in NH, potted David Austin roses are sold for $50. I'd expect that to be even higher near a major city like NYC.

Unless they are on sale though, with shipping its probably gonna be $50 or more, for a gallon sz from Heirloom. Last year, I got a Strawberry Hill from them that was on sale for $35 but prob close to $46 or so w ship. If my order was $50, my ship was free so I added a garden knife, that was cute, to make my $50 order and got free ship lol.

Thank you for your wonderful comments ladies. I did check Heirloom Roses and they no longer sell Gertrude Jekyll!! Can you believe it???? Anyway, I managed to get a plant from Rogue Valley roses and the total was $42.15, including shipping....and this is for own-root plants grown from cuttings. I love own root and have propagated my own cuttings so no issue other than it is very cheap and easy to do so this is quite a mark up....but hey-ho, my friend is more than worth that billions of times over. :)

I am glad PO was able to get it. I was looking for Jude the Obscure everywhere, but couldn't as I missed DA's bare root season.

If I want to get a head start, should I order an own root from cuttings now (assuming rogue Valley has it), or wait until next spring to order the bare root from DA?

I am in Zone 6, central jersey.

Sean, I’m so glad you found it. Roses are a great gift—-your friend is lucky to have someone so thoughtful, and the rose will always remind them of you!

Wifi, if you find Jude I’d grab it—it’s hard to find the exact rose we want and I’ve learned to grab it when you find it. Good luck to you! :-)

Well Wi-Fi, they both come with a guarantee. Rogue Valley says that they stand by the quality of their plants and are determined to replace ones which do not establish. I would giver them the head start now, as they come already potted up, they can strengthen the root system and be in a much better position to ride out the winter.

BTW I LOVE Jude!! The scent is just unbelievably fruity...petals aren't as sturdy some of the others but for me , it has no other DA rivals in that scent category.

Finally, you CAN get potted plants from DA's USA website but only limited ones and the only 2 that could possibly tempt me are Boscobel (which I already have) and Alnwick Rose (which I'm not blown over by).

Perma, thank you for the advice! I just checked and Rogue Valley doesn't have it. I guess I'll have to wait :-)

Hi Sean,

Thanks! I am looking for a deep pink rose (one shade deeper than Queen of Sweden).

My local nursery carries both 3-gallon Gertrude Jekyll and Alnwick! Gertrude has a sweet sweet scent that I cannot resist, and the Alnwick rose has a perfect cup form and petal packed! . So I am still debating which one to get!

Boscobel seems lovely too! I have yet to smell one. Cheers! Your friend is very blessed!

Wi-Fi and Perma, thank you both- very kind.

Wi-Fi, I can make the choice for you if you like- get Gertrude! Hahaha. I have Gertrude growing in a pot and the performance has been superb! Gertrude repeats flower very well, as you know the scent is amazing (Gertrude was all the rage at one point in the UK to make rose water- I made rose petal jelly for the first time last week and used mostly Gertrude flowers) and you can either get the climbing form or the shrub. Yes, it is thorny and the pink isn't as dark as Alnwick but there is a reason why I made so much effort to get my friend the Gertrude- I try to give no less than what would excite me. Gertrude is also a healthy specimen. Strange that Heirloom has stopped carrying it....

Indecision tortures me- I would go buy the Gertrude to satisfy the current plant lust. I would then prepare the sire for the Jude in advance (incorporating well rotted manure, compost, bone meal and bury some banana peels), cover it with some cardboard (held down by weights) to suppress weeds and then I would order the Jude now for November delivery to plant. Come next year, you will be the Belle of the Ball with your Jude blooms!! :)

Sean, Rose petal jelly...that sounds yummy! and thank you for ending my tortures! I wish I could run to the nursery now to get my Gertrude before it's snatched by someone else! Repeating is very important to me, only second to fragrance!

The spot I picked for Jude is now filled with scarlet sages.I will copy your good advice to my gardening journal and start preparing for Jude in the fall :-)

Gertrude Jekyll though a lovely color gets a lot of blackspot on it in NY. especially LI. It's a combination of the humidity and the plant itself.

Are you wed to getting GJ or would you consider a similar rose which is more disease resistant & fragrant? I recommend either the McCartney Rose or Beverly. Both are a lovely pink color with McCartney growing to 6’ high & Beverly topping out at 4’.

Oooh.....Jazz, you've given her MORE options? You've undone all my hard work now! Hahahahaha!

Thanks for the insight about the black spot though- that is unique info I wouldn't have, from here in the Netherlands. I don't know Beverley but the flower form is very nice...more hybrid tea shaped though, rather than the whorly old-world charm of GJ and the other English roses. McCartney's flower form though just can't compete with GJ...Beverley is far superior in flower form to McCartney to my eyes.

I had 'The McCartney' rose for many years and its a hybrid tea with fragrance. In the spring by us, depending on weather conditions it got powdery mildew. I had to remove it a year ago as I found out it was grafted to Dr. Huey! Saw a red rose among all the pink and knew! The graft was failing. It always reached the top of my 6' fence. So last September I bought 'Beverly', also a hybrid tea, from Heirloom Roses which carries own root roses. One of the parents of 'Beverly' is 'The McCartney Rose'. This year it has doubled in size to about 1.5' wide and high. It has put out 2 blooms so far. Own roots typically take a while to grow as large as grafted roses. but are worth the wait especially with really cold winters. You don't have to worry about the graft union freezing (usually planted below ground) but you do have to worry about the suckers coming up from that graft rose root.

David Austin when he grew his English roses in the States, he initially was surprised about all the reports coming back of his roses getting black spot! Since then, he has looked to creating more disease resistant roses such as his 'Queen of Sweden'. And for all the new rose folks -- disease resistant means just that-- disease will hold off on the rose but it could eventually get disease possibly later in the growing/bloom season.

Sean, I also make rose jelly with Gertrude Jekyll. I love it! That way I can enjoy the rose's scent, even in winter (it is wonderful on yogurt!) She doesn't blackspot for me terribly in Seattle (a tiny bit of blackspot, but nothing dire). I love this rose, and wouldn't be without it!

Just so your friend knows, the rose from Rogue Valley will be a tiny band -- just a small, rooted cutting. It should grow quickly, but they ought not be worried or disappointed when they see the small size of the plant.