Raft Island Roses has David Austins in spring and ships bareroot, they are grafted in Canada on Mulitflora which is goo for wet sites. DA sells grafted on Dr. Huey which is good for dry or well drained or hot. (I am well drained) DA also sells bareroot own root, which is fabulous for cold climates where it might die back to root stock. All of those are spring bareroot.

Now is going to be hard to find anything. Every place you are going to order has leftovers or fall orders. DA does fall orders of potted roses, I don't know if grafted or ownroot. Some small growers will have ownroot bands in fall, but you will need to be zone 7 or warmer to overwinter those. Heirloom has ownroot bigger, but the most expensive with shipping...driving several hours local might be cheaper.

Growing David Austin and Romantic Roses facebook or Rose Geek facebook (She also has youtube reviews of different vendors) are going to be you best option for finding any now. Planning for next spring and ordering late Nov-Dec will be a cost effective option since David Austin has a 5 year warrenty for the price. If you want ownroot bands, many of them go on sale Nov.-Jan.

I wasn't looking for roses to purchase now, just wanted to discuss reasons for buying them from places other than DA.

I mostly buy DA’s from David Austin, they are just crazy expensive from other outlets

@Reb Z6-KS one reason to buy David Austin roses from other places is that smaller nurseries sell out of patent David Austins that David Austin as a company has either stopped selling or carrying in smaller stocked numbers than the patented roses.

Curious for other opinions on own root in cold climates. I defer to your experience but what you're saying, @mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY), is contrary to what I've read elsewhere. And, since I have very little of my own experience, that's what I've been going on.

• For ex this is from High Country Roses: "In cold climates, roses on their own roots tend to be not only hardier, but also to remain true to the original variety should they die back in winter. The bud union of a grafted rose is the most vulnerable spot to cold and it can be easily damaged in a cold winter. In contrast, own root roses can freeze all the way to the ground and because they have their own root system, they come back as the same rose originally purchased."

ETA: Maybe you are speaking just about David Austin own root but I am curious to know why they would be different, unless we are speaking about the cold hardiness of the varieties.

Again, I don't dispute your experience just curious and looking to learn. Also I got several own root Austins this year and now I am nervous. :)

Which zone is the cut off for cold climate? I'm in 6b, but we can get winter storms with 2 weeks of minus 20.

In the dark ages, warm-climate rosarians, particularly Californians, were convinced the world would end if you buried a bud union. They were extremely vehement about this, but I could never get a real explanation about what they thought would happen. They naturally had a very hard time with the cold-climate rule that the bud union is buried. Always. Because if it isn't, the top scion dies, and you are left with rootstock. We have been doing this for a very long time, and the world has yet to come to an end.

However, it meant that there were rosarians in cold-climates operating within the Californian cultural sphere of influence who had a very hard time growing roses because they could not believe the 'experts' were so wrong. Mostly these people were west of the Cascade, or in the Rockies, so that own-root nurseries had a ready-made market in those areas.

That's very interesting!

I grew mostly own root roses in Alaska in z3. They were mostly species roses or rugosas or scots roses. The own root seemed to do best in the long run, but these were roses that were really hardy in that zone. High Country Roses is a great company.

Had I grown DAs, I might have had the experience Mad has that grafted would have worked better for a while anyway. Roses tended to peter out if they weren't hardy enough.

So, I guess I didn't know HIgh Country is all own root. I have 2 of theirs, doing amazing well for their first year. Also have 3 Austins, also doing fantastic.

So, my takeaway is own root for most things, maybe grafted for English roses?

You are z6 Reb so you can see for yourself because either should work.

I would not say all the Austins are the same in terms of growing on their own roots. Some are weak, some are strong.