Happy Holidays, Michael! 1. How long do they usually take till they usually have their first blooms? Six weeks to never. Some can flower within a month and a little more. Some never flower. Not all are able to flower. 2. I'm not so much concerned about color as that can be a left as a nice surprise but I would like highly fragrant roses, so should I only be growing rose seeds from fragrant varieties or is that also left to chance? Pretty much left to chance. Two highly scented roses can easily produce one without scent, and vice versa. There are many things which affect scent. An old article of mine on Help Me Find - Roses helps to shed some light on scent. There are likely more recent discoveries, but the basics are still there. 3. Could I winter sow seeds? It's my first year trying that with other seeds so I figure why not rose seeds? lol Winter is when you should sow rose seeds. Their germination slows to a virtual halt once temps rise much past about 70F. Some will continue germinating, but MOST will stop. If you live where winter is really severe, you may have to plant them indoors in a basement or greenhouse. I live in "The Land of Endless Summer" (Southern California) so my planting time is right now. Most of what will germinate this year must come up before the summer temps hit. A few continued germinating in the high heat this summer, but they are the exceptions rather than the rules. Good luck! Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Fragrance: Much Ado About Nothing?

Sometimes new growth is vigorous and blush/redder colored. It looks happy :) If it is an own root, then it can't be from a 'root stock' due to it not being grafted onto anything. It should be from the roots of the original plant. It would be putting up a new basal cane from the base. Dont break it off.

Mary, this is a very good question. If this is your first clem, I want to caution you about the fragility of the stems. Once bent, they may not recover, so leaving them attached to the nursery stake may help prevent that. Some are super hard to remove. Also, even though the stems at the base may be brown or gray and look dry, they're not dead. There are lots of green stems and leaves attached to the dry, brown stem, farther up. You are no doubt a lot smarter than I am, but I learned that the hard way by cutting out all the parts I thought were dead, only to find I had cut off all the new growth.

HighCountryRoses! There are many others and it's not too later for own-root roses. AntiqueRoseEmporium is still shipping for the next week and NorthlandRosarium. Also Burlington, but you have to email her for the list . BurlingtonRoses@aol.com Some no longer have paper catalogues, but you'd miss out anyway if you wait for that now. Many will soon be having sales so watch this forum for posts.