@forever_a_newbie_VA8

I just received some information from a member of the local rose society that Jim Mills might not be easily available these days because he is caring for a family member who is quite sick.

@Kristine LeGault 8a pnw

Do you mind if I asked you when you ordered the Dave Bangs?

Thanks Artist.

I inquired about a week ago and received a reply that roses will be available the end of October or November.

K&M like so many other wonderful nurseries is basically a one

man ( woman ) show with elderly owners so sometimes tough to get replies.

I gave up trying to email and called but this was late spring and if he has family issues even that may take time. Super nice owners, I wish them the best.

Artist, I ordered .my Dave Bangs late spring and they were out of my top picks but they may have more now. Those roses are pretty popular so keep checking on availability.

Shipping for me is too pricey so I will be happy with the ones that I have. Both are wonderfully healthy and bloomy .

Artist-FKA-Novice Zone 7B GA Firefighter does well as own-root in an air pot. I bought it from Roses Unlimited this mid-May, and it gave me over 10 blooms in a 7-gallon pot. It got too big, so I transferred to a 12-gallon air pot. So far zero blackspots after 2 days of rain and 90% humidity as of 9/15/22.

I mixed in pelletized lime with potting soil, and constantly top with such. Firefigher HATES salty granular fertilizer (even organic chicken manure) and prefers to be watered with sulfate of potash and alfalfa tea.

Artist,

Firefight is also one of the roses I requested. Did they reply whether they have it? thanks

I am certainly sending prayers and good thoughts to Jim and his family, I would hate to lose him or his knowledge. I talked to him about a week ago. He sent me 4 wonderful ownroot gallon old DA's. He is has a long list of Old Austins on ownroot. They will be listed by AUS designation as the real names are trademarked. He is growing them to 1 gallons. He is very overwhelmed with the amount of demand and his available list was changing daily and even hourly.

He would appreciated any cuttings of show roses that people could send him for budding to Fortuniana as he lost lots of his show rose stock. He also would love old DA cuttings to root, since they are saving his nursery after losing his rootstock and now many of his overstock. Call him to send them. He is hoping that next year he will have more DA's to keep up with demand.

forever_a_newbie_VA8 How are your propagations skills? I have Firefighter and it is off patent. It is not super easy to root being a HT. (High Country has it too in the spring.)

ann @ann beck 8a ruralish WA

thanks for asking me. I consider myself a little better than newbie regarding rose propogation. I was able to root a couple costco roses. one fake tiffany, and one coral noid hybrid tea.

How did you find out high country will have fire fighter in spring? Their site only shows out of stock.

If you have extra firefighter cuttings, I would love to give a try. I am willing to send any cost. Thanks so much!

so sorry to hear about Jim losing root stocks. I hope things will turn better for them

IIRC, he experienced a huge flood a few years ago that wiped out a lot of his stock.

K&M had constant rain this year and wiped out most of his overstock too!

forever_a_newbie_VA8 Firefighter is one that HCR almost always carries. He doesn't stock until around Jan. I would call him and ask if you are really counting on it. Otherwise, now is a fairly good time to root a rose.

@ann beck 8a ruralish WA

Ann, I ordered a few roses from HCR and am eagerly waiting. I actually called them a few times, adding roses, changing orders. Just called them a 2 hours ago changing the delivery date. I feel awkward to call again. But it is great to hear they often carry firefighters and probably will restock it next January. Considering they have a few roses I really would like to order but currently out of stock, I definitely will check back next spring.

Thanks so much for the help.

Forever, if you're thinking of buying from HCR in the spring, look for their gift card sale in December.....you can buy a gift card at a discount and then use it to order roses when they fill their stock in January. It was a great way for me to affordably try a bunch of roses.

HCR has a 20% off coupon code right now (for in-stock roses) FALL20

librarian: thanks for the tip. I will definitely do so in December

Meg: I just missed the sale by a couple days! well, by ordering early hopefully I might get better plants :)

Update for discussion. As of today, Jim at K&M in Mississippi is still in business and growing roses. Just celebrated his 80-something birthday last week. Last week, he sent me 4 Austins (out of patent). I was so impressed with the plants - I just ordered 4 more. The shipping is pricy, but he is shipping plants, not bareroots. The base charge per DA plant is less, there's a $6 box charge for every 2, and then the actual shipping via UPS. Overall, it's a couple dollars more, but I get actual plants in pots, and on fortuniana. Good deal.

Which Austins did you get?

@sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish) Heritage, Pat Austin, Charlotte, Gen. Gardener, Tess, Abr. Darby, Scepter'ed, Molineux - all told. He has on hand right now: Benj. Britten, Mary Rose, The Pilgrim.

Sigh .

i am still waiting for any reply .. i dont mean to be impatient but i have to set money aside and it was either order from him or the jalberts i want from chamblees . i am hoping he has st cecilia ( and evelyn but who isnt hoping haha )

i did email and i left two very friendly voicemails and theres not much else i can do .

ive gotten wonderful plants from him before ! i hope to again . i dont even need them shipped right away , i just want to know .

Kimberly you hit the jackpot!

I tried to get Evelyn from them a few years but they were always out. It did take a long time to get replies via email.

I have several fortuniana rose plants now thanks to pulling off suckers from my fort grafted Abes & planting them lol. I have a few Evelyns on Doc Huey so I have decided to start grafting my own fort roses of the varieties I want.

@Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca, I know he does not have St. C ready to go yet, and I think he might have sold out of evelyns. He can't keep them in stock. If those are the only two you want from him right now, I'd go ahead and order from Chamblees...

There's a tampa nursery with NO website, and as far as I know.. .no shipping. Reported to sell out of patent Austins on Fortuniana. The Tampa Rose Society people mention them. I'm going to track them down and see what else I can get. It's only.. .what... 3 or 4 hours from me? ROAD TRIP!!! lol. The Yelp/Yahoo listing has comments from people that they HAVE roses on Fortuniana (HTs, FLs and such it looks like from the pictures).

EDIT for info: That Tampa Nursery is Hardin's. No website, and only open on weekends?

Address: 6011 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, FL 33611
Hours: Closed ⋅ Opens 8 AM Sat

Phone: (813) 839-6151

Any Tampa rosarians on here? Can you confirm this info?

Also FYI, I talked to one of the owners at Nelsons Florida's Roses yesterday - they seem to be the main supplier of Fortuniana grafted roses for nurseries. (Doesn't sell to public) She said that they only graft Abraham Darby. Every now and then they will graft Tamora, if asked for it (ordered). That's it. She says that in her experience, it is too hard to keep Austin's in Florida, too hot and humid. (I was like really? Hum.). So now I'm looking in to Southern California nurseries.... lol.

@Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca I was at K&M Monday and he has plenty of Evelyns. The ones I saw were all 1 gallon plants. They may have had 2 gallon available too. I also saw some Judes.

There were literaly thousands of roses. I spent about four hours on the property going through the greenhouses and checking out what they had and I still didn't get through all the houses before I needed to leave. I saw all the Austins @Kimberly Wendt (Florida Z. 10b) mentioned above plus the Evelyns and Judes.

There were also a significant number of roses I saw that were not listed on their website. Of those not listed I grabbed a Bliss, Wild Blue Yonder, and some OGRs they don't have listed: Vicktoria, Francis DeBrueil, Mrs BR Cant, Spice, Baronne Prevost, and Clotide Soupert. They had more OGRs and none are currently listed on their website.

This is obviously a great time to order because they have a ton of everything!

@Lilyfinch z9a Murrieta Ca when you call, make sure you call Mr. Jim's number (listed on the website) first thing in the morning. Go to the "About" page then scroll to "Contact". His number is the second listed. They never answer the office phone bc they are always pulling orders, etc.

I also saw Earth Angel, Bolero, Francis Meilland, and Princess Charlene de Monaco as some off the top of my head that are in stock but not mentioned on the website.

He actually has Fort Grafted AND Own Root roses available!

Where in MS is K&M nursery? North or South? If its south, it'd be a straight shot from me (I am in the FL Panhandle). It might be worth the trip.

Sultry,

They’re in Buckatunna, about 70 miles north of Mobile AL

Now that's a cool name!

That is awesome! Thanks for the In Person report!

I’m guessing the Jude’s must have been own root…

@Kimberly Wendt (Florida Z. 10b) im not sure about Jude’s rootstock. I forgot whichgreenhouse I was in when i saw it. they had at least two greenhouses of own root if not more.

@sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish) if you make the drive get Liz to help you! she is amazing! And check out the greenhouse that has for sale 3-Gallon roses (too big to ship). K&M is a five-hr round trip for me. I hope it is a reasonable distance for you. I highly recommend packing a pair of short rainboots for romping around the property.

For those of you interested in roses by the breeder Steve Rousell, I saw a few Liz’s Charm roses.

I think i also saw a Falstaff

And Easy Spirit

Easy Spirit is an awesome rose.

Soooo… Must be that he doesn’t ship the 1 gallons (like you said) just the two gallons. That may be why he said he ‘didn’t have any’ Jude, St. C or Evelyn’s when he and I spoke. I wish I was closer!

I have a question tho. Why is it that ppl are crazy for Evelyn?

Kimberly

K&M does indeed ship one gallons, I’ve received them before. In fact, he is only permitted to ship one gallon to California due to agricultural restrictions. But perhaps the current crop of 1 gallons is too young to ship.

I like Evelyn because I think she is one of the few Austins that stands up to a hot Southern summer, the majority fade/crisp/fall apart too fast for me. The bloom is especially large, the form complex and beautiful. The scent is strong and delightfully peachy. The plant grows strongly and repeats well.

Edited to add: I spoke to Mr Mills today (Feb 23) and he said he is all out of Evelyn…he told me everyone in the country wanted one!

Sunny

Your report is much appreciated!

Sultry, I’m in love!!!

AWWW Sultry what an adorable baby. What a sweet face. I would never leave the barn.

For me, this is why. She is absolutely stunning. Fragrance is awesome but the blooms are so romantic, so perfect. There are a lot of beautiful, beautiful roses but I believe she is the Queen

Thanks Our steelers & Kristine. If you can find a goat yoga class near you (apparently really popular now), I highly recommend going. If nothing else, just for the baby goat snuggles & laughter. They are like little puppies all over you and nibbling on your clothes, hair, ears lol. Heck if I know how they would get any yoga done, with all crazy baby goat fun. You can feel the stress just melt away when you hold these little guys. They are comical to watch with their crazy antics, hops & skips.

Our Steelers, Wow that is gorgeous!

Oursteelers that is phenomenal

No wonder that Evelyn is so popular .

I lived in Mountlake Terrace back in the early 90s and had a 3 bedroom apartment and paid $350 a month. I cant even imagine what that apartment would rent for now.

Kristine, rent is just bonkers right now.

My oldest son just rented a loft studio apartment in Redmond (which admittedly is crazy expensive) for 2800!!!!

I about died.

Our Steelers.... oh my, that is ONE gorgeous rose! No wonder people want Evelyn. Sigh... She goes on my short list... At this rate, I have to purchase the house next door, bulldoze it, and plant the property just to hold all these roses I want to grow now. You all are feeeeeeeeeeddddddding the addiction! lol

$2,800 studio loft? Seriously? wow. Where do people that work in retail or hospitality live?

@BenT (NorCal 9B Sunset 14) to be honest the reason i spent four hours at K&M and didnt get to all of the greenhouses is not many roses were blooming. I had to search by finding the ID tag of every rose I came across. They were partly in alphabetical order, but quite mixed around too. And i kept finding roses that were not listed on their website. If you call back in a month or so once the roses start blooming, Im sure he will be able to find the Evelyns. I saw at least four in a sea of thousands of green plants. There were only a few Judes. Once the roses start blooming it will help! Maybe you could get on a waitlist? Not sure if they do that or not..

@sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish) the nursery is open year-round. I usually go late fall October when many roses have already been soldout. But you get to see all of the mother plants in bloom then. And what an adorable kid! I need some snuggles!

Sunny, whenever I dream of moving, it is to .Mississippi.

Ancestors from Natchez and Hattiesburg.

The humidity would probably be hard on this old gal but I bet that my skin would be lovely .lol

K&M is a great nursery. I have been dealing with them for a long time. I just received 2 Crystalline's from them a few weeks ago.

Kimberly Went----Scepter d' Isle is one of my favorite Austins. I have 2 bush's of it. One is 4 years old and the other is 16 years old. On Fortuniana it gets very large. Give it room. Here it a photo of my 16 year old bush.

Hi Ken, Thanks for the tip. Lovely picture of your rose bush! I've got Scepter'd in the plan for a 5' space. That's 1' bigger than the listed 'width'. There's room for it to spill out a bit onto the path and back towards the bird bath. I love the look of it and hope it does well. I also love the look of Sharifa Asma, but haven't found it yet...