I think they don't know how to store them as Ann said, but worse yet is they don't know how to package the bareroots for shipping. My plants arrived around early February, bone dry, with no damp paper, filler, or anything to keep the roots moist. There was a sheet of plastic (not a bag) draped over the end of the roots. It was kind of like they stuck the plants in the box up-side down and then put this piece of plastic just over them and tucked it in the box. Thankfully, the roses appear to be making it, however, they are taking forever to break dormancy. I've had to cut off the upper portions on almost all of them because they've died back so much. There is still some hope, but, if they don't start sprouting soon, I will be asking for replacements! (This time!) I would not have ordered at all based on my experience with them last yr, except that I wanted ADOLPH HORSTMANN and they're the only place that have it, other than Hortico, and they didn't have it available this yr. I had gotten AH last yr from Edmunds to replace my old on that died a couple yrs ago. That one never did break dormancy and dried up into black sticks. I should've asked for a replacement last yr, but didn't. This time if these don't grow, I definitely will!

I would be very leery of buying any Delbard roses if I was in zone 5. Even in an English 8, they are iffy roses, suffering horribly in a cold winter and taking forever to recover lost ground. Confession time - I am most definitely not a fan of them and grow only 1 (Nahema....and that is on the compost list) but my long-suffering neighbour persists in her love affair with unsuitable tea-noisettes and miffy HTs (latest failure - Dioressence). Maybe in a warm and sheltered spot? They are probably great roses for the south but I learned some time ago that it is essential to consider the 'place of origin' so roses bred in Lyon and other warm French locations are not going to be happy with the chill and arid fenland winds of East Anglia (a bit like Kansas, I imagine...without the summer heat). I never order from nurseries where the climate is kinder than mine either and am always curious about Californian orders from Canadian rose nurseries - how does that work out? It would surely be impossible to do this in reverse (Texas to Ontario for example)?

If you REALLY want to see a forest of Dr. Phooey, go some time to Las Vegas, NV, and drive through the older suburbs. There, home after home is, in springtime, a mass of fountains of dark wine-red blooms. While it lasts, it's almost magical. I don't like to think what it looks like, later. One other factor in whether you see him or whether you don't seems to be how careful a job was done of de-eying the rootstock. We planted a local municipal rose garden with roses J&P donated. None No. 1 plants, but healthy. Almost ALL of them suckered like crazy. A couple of plants were so un-controllable that we had to replace them. What else suckered badly here on Huey??? The worst were a Weeks 'Fourth of July' (we tamed that one) and an Arena 'Tradescant', which we gave up and removed. Jeri

I am pretty sure they are on Doc Huey. So far so good on these. I just remembered, that I did have an issue with one of the Distant Drums. It had some cracking around the base. I notified Edmunds and they sent me a new one right away and told me to keep the old one. So the customer service was really good for me with that issue. I am in NE FL so the nematode issues arent as bad as in So FL. Our soil is different. I believe we have some nematodes in the sandier areas. There is a lot of forest land with thick oaks, pines, etc here so the soil in those areas is rich. Some areas are a combination of sand and richer soil. I have some areas on our property that have straight orange clay and poor drainage. I have been using manures and do vermicomposting etc and try to be as organic as possible (although not 100%). I think all that has helped alot. We have mostly wooded areas on our property but there are some sandy areas where it is more challeging to grow stuff. But after 6 yrs of compost, those areas are much better than they were.