I've always removed the flowers on young potted nursery stock but but this year I'm doing it alittle different. Last spring I got a bunch of tiny tissue culture plugs and they grew very strong so I'm going to leave a very light crop on them this year. I pruned out all the small twiggy wood and any branches that grow in ward to the middle of the plant. From there I left only 2 fruit buds on the the tips of the remaining branches. Hopefully it's not a mistake? We shall see! It won't hurt my feelings if I lose few anyway cause I got too many as it is. Emerald is great plant but will need protection in your zone. I put up a PVC frame around mine and cover with plastic if I need too. It only takes a few min to assemble and then place a small propane heater in there with it. Here is recent pic of my Emerald and it's just about in full bloom now. How much fruit can expect from a Emerald this size? It's 6ft x 5ft and loaded with buds. I will thin it some but I know Emerald is in a class of its own production wise. It leafs out very strong and can handle huge crops. This will be my first real harvest on this plant. Does the 5 or 6 bud rule per branch still apply here to this variety???

The big advantage of buying at a local nursery is that you get to pick out just that plant that appeals to your aesthetics as opposed to the one sitting next to it. But I pretty much agree with Ken: buy locally what's available from local nurseries, mail order what you can't find. I do think mail order plants tend to be smaller but after a season or two they catch up. Then again, most of my mail ordering is done in the spring and a lot of it comes dormant. And you need to figure in the shipping costs when you price things out. The last couple of years, shipping has really gotten out of hand at some mail order places. Great local nurseries often offer easier to use guarantees and speaking with their full time staff offers a wealth of information about how that plant does in the local area. And nothing beats seeing a plant in person for deciding if you like the color, leaves, etc. The Washington DC-Baltimore region is blessed with a number of great nurseries of the "marvelous" kind. And if you are willing to make a day trip of it, there are even more within reach. And from early March to June, there are a huge number of local plant sales ranging from garden club�s to the rarified ones like at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington DC and Paca House in Annapolis. Over on the Mid Atlantic Gardening Forum, you can find several long-time threads on local nurseries like the one on the link here. And that thread doesn't mention about half of the nurseries worth visiting. There are even more if you search by local nursery and a particular type of plant--evergreens, azaleas, etc. Almost all of the nurseries will have "going into winter" sales with great bargains. You have to go with an open mind because you don�t know what will be left. But last fall I got six perennials at the Beltsville, MD, Behnke�s clearance sale (not far from you in Annapolis) for $4 each, the cheapest of which was regularly $15. One caution on mail ordering: If you aren't "recently" familiar with a mail order company, always check it out on Garden Watchdog (just do a Google search on the name and the website will come up; Gardenweb won't allow links to anything on D*vesgarden). The website will give you a good idea of the quality of mail order company's plants and customer service. For example, a couple of years ago I ordered some hard to find stuff from what had been a great mail order nursery�Wayside Gardens. Turned out terribly. When I posted a review on Watchdog, turned out I wasn�t alone in finding that they were no longer a great plant place. Wish I checked before I ordered. Of course, my favorite way of acquiring plants is swapping, either locally or by mail. That has the lowest costs (which fits my budget really well) and you would be amazed what people will offer. Check out the Plant Exchange Forum on Garden Web and the exchange pages on specialty forums. Wow, I can�t believe I wrote all of this. Back to my day job. Here is a link that might be useful: Just one of many threads oon great local nurseries

I'm seconding the recommendation for Well-Sweep Herb Farm; it's one of my favorites in the entire State of New Jersey! www.wellsweep.com

My name is Don Rogers, my wife, Jan and I own A Reverence For Roses Inc. I wish to thank Linda Perry for her kind words and letting me know of this discussion. A little background about us. My wife wanted a rose garden, I had been retired for 11 years and needed a purpose in my life. We attended a rose lover's gathering at Angel Garden's in the spring of 2011. We enjoyed what we learned from Pam and got further insight into the history of different rose varieties and species. At that meeting we were introduced to Gene Waering and purchased a book titled "The Sustainable Rose Garden". Gene invited us to GROW East, where Ruth Knopf was honored. We enjoyed meeting Pat Shanley and many others associated with roses. Now starting the first 6 months with this type of exposure to so many fine people elevated our enthusiasm. Ralph Moore at some point signed a copy of his book titled "All About Miniature Roses" . I purchased the used book online ( not knowing it was signed ), absorbed what he so openly shared and thought if he was active at the age of 100 then I had 40 years ahead of me ( one has to aim high in life to hit high). We joined 3 rose societies, one being the Central Florida Heritage Rose Society. CFHRS gave us more exposure to the world of Heritage Roses and OGR's. Jan and I were two enablers soaking up knowledge and buying dozens of plants at a time. She was going to have her garden, I now had a purpose in life. Now space started to become a problem, hiding several hundred plants in the back yard of a deed restricted community required clever placement of the pots. We decided that this garden would need more space. We found 9 acres with an old oak tree that my wife fell in love with. It also had a "house", which I spent the next year, six days per week renovating into a home, then we moved in. The following 6 months were devoted to establishing a rose garden of some 5-600 plants and building 3 arbors some 96' long each. Did I tell you that I like climbers ? This garden was planted in preparation for a stop on a bus tour by members of the Heritage Rose Foundation for the conference held in 2013 in Lakeland, FL. By this time we knew that we wanted to do our small part to become a source for roses to allow another generation to enjoy the many historic varieties. This summer we hope to finish the 3rd expansion of the garden. Plans slowly evolved as to how propagation would be done and then construction was carried out, finishing last spring. Propagation began last summer and web site development started in November. I have always found roses to be rewarding , website development, not so much. I would like to explain the out of ordinary web address. When I decided on the business name I wanted something that expressed the feeling my wife and I have towards roses, Reverence seemed appropriate. Then the company name was established and I knew very soon that I was going to cause confusion to anyone that I talked to for the first time, especially on the telephone. A Reverence For Roses, the person on the other end of the phone always said "What ?". I then started gathering web addresses with what I thought might be variations of Reverence. This led to roughly 6 addresses. To get all of these addresses to the proper site they had to be linked ( I have no clue how they do it ) thus we ended up with. http://tvnfd.szdhg.servertrust.com/Default.asp  Now however if you use http://www.areverenceforroses.com it also takes you to our site as will a handful of variations of this. We appreciate all of you that have submitted orders and your kind comments. Please show your support for HelpMeFind, the work they do could not be duplicated.