Windowsill .. thanks for mentioning they shared this info on Instagram. I follow her there but I’m not on Facebook.. but just a thought out loud .. not everyone is on social media and companies should definitely keep their customers in the loop via email . I may not see her stories and miss this tidbit and now I feel silly that I emailed when they probably think they have it covered by sharing on socials . Those roses look great tho so I’m excited for whenever mine come !

Andrea.. I’m in 9b also ( just never changed it ) yves piaget is a great rose in our zone..Mine blooms a lot and even into December most years ! It’s fantastic. I have had a touch of mildew on it some springs but not this spring .

agreed Heather , just keep us posted about our orders and we wont have to wander !

Just got an email this morning thst they won’t be able to ship Darlington or Bloomsbury to me this year. They provided three options:

1. Wait to get the rose(s) in 2025, extra rose from the new collection, get $125 gift card for cut flowers, 3 day sneak peek of new collection.

2. Pick a replacement that is available now, refund any difference, 2 day sneak peek of new collection

3. Refund, minus discounts, 1 day sneak peek of new collection

Its not clear if you might have to pay the difference for the substitute if its more since they have raised their prices since I ordered last year. I’m also, not sure if you get a refund if the rose was part of a Buy X get one free since they subtract discounts from your refund.

I picked refund because I already have Evelyn on order for 2025 from them and am slightly regretting it based on my experience so far with GRF. Also, thats just too far out for me to be planning multiple rose orders.

Oh heather what an offer !

Did they say what is available now ?

I’m waiting on pink ohare , sweet flow

Georgia peach , noting hill and Mansfield park pink .

I wonder if I’ll get the email too ( secretly hope so )

Somehow I missed the Evelyn preorder ?! I thought that didn’t happen yet 😞. When was that ?

They cancelled several of my roses including ’The Ancient Mariner’ and ’Boscobel.’ They also didn’t have the ’Darlington’ rose I ordered in May 2023. Two years is too long to wait for a rose so I opted for a refund.

Andrea

I like Yves Piaget very much, he has a quality flower with a ruffled tree peony form, and excellent fragrance. Not the heaviest bloomer or the quickest repeat, but consistent repeat and very good heat resistance.

Lilyfinch, I agree - I think their refund options were a good balance to appeal to the different types of buyers they have. I did consider the offer to wait a year and add on two new roses (some of the new offerings are very interesting to me) but given the issues they have been having this year with fullfillment I decided I needed to take a break from them until they can get the kinks ironed out. I’m also clearly not the target for their marketing strategies and just find it exhausting.

I ordered Evelyn last August as soon as it became available and it went fast I believe. I just checked and the email came in 8/1 at 10:05 am and I got the confirmation for my order of both the bareroot and grafted at 10:09 am. I’m a sucker for Evelyn, what can I say 🤷‍♀️

I still have White and Pink O’Hara, Mansfield Park and MP Pink, Notting Hill, and Unforgettable coming, hopefully before too long!

Which GRF roses are own root and which are grafted? I can’t find that information anywhere.

I believe they are now only selling grafted roses since they shifted to using Otto & Sons as their supplier. Their FAQ still says they offer both but they no longer show the own root option when ordering as they used to. My Evelyn order was last year before this change and I have no idea really if they will still give me an own root or if I will get another email at last minute telling me it’s only availble grafted now 🤷‍♀️

I've grown several Evelyn roses for 20 years, and they do fine as grafted roses, still going strong. So what's the problem with grafted Evelyn? I think most Austin roses do better grafted anyway. Diane

Diane, I have only been growing roses for 10 years but I’ve had good luck so far with both own root and grafted for the most part. I like both but as I get older I do appreciate the smaller planting hole for younger own root plants 😄 I do agree grafted roses take off faster and certainly seem more vigorous initially but I also like seeing the babies grow up when I get them as own root.

In this case for Evelyn I got both because I wanted two anyway and figured it would be interesting to have a direct comparison. I’ve since gotten QoS, Golden Celebration, Heritage, and Abe own root as well after already having grafted versions so I will have a few other comparison points now as well.

Well, I'm 78 and I don't worry about planting holes, which I still dig. I'll be planting a second 5 gallon Angel Face in a couple of weeks. I have an own root Abe which is my only pathetic Austin. Back to Grace orders, I'm still waiting for my Tantau Ashley, and I expect I'll be gone from this earth before it arrives. More about that later. Diane

The only own-root roses Grace Rose Farm has offered recently are one-gallon exclusive varieties. None of those are currently available, but at the time, you were able to select "own-root one-gallon" on each product page. Everything else -- the two-gallon Otto's-grown roses and the two-gallon exclusive varieties -- are grafted. (Heather, I agree it's totally up in the air whether they will be able to provide own-root Evelyns.)

I suspect some of your received this, but GRF finally sent out a mass email about the two-gallon grafted exclusive varieties:

"We hope this spring is beautiful so far for you! We want to let you know that your GRF Exclusive roses are at our farm, are potted up, and are starting to push beautiful new growth! They will be shipped to you once we have made positive identification of the varieties in your order.

"We had hoped to have these roses ready to be shipped in early April, but issues on the grower’s end delayed harvest until mid-March. Further, the grower failed to tag all the plants, so it’s especially important that GRF identify the varieties once they’re leafed. The last thing we want to do is send you roses that aren’t the right variety.

"As a reminder, Exclusive roses arrive potted and can be planted at any time. It will not be too hot to plant our potted roses in May when we expect them to arrive to you. In the meantime, we are shipping the other roses in your order if you are expecting roses from us that aren’t our Exclusives. Please do not worry if you see your order has been partially fulfilled. It simply means your Exclusives are not quite ready, but will be soon, and we’re shipping your other roses that are ready now.

"Here’s some great news about your Exclusive roses – they are HUGE! And healthy! You likely have not received roses the sizes of these plants before and we know you will love them."

I got that email too and I don’t think I ordered any exclusives.

Windowsill, I did get that mailing from Grace a few hours ago, and maybe there is hope. I have a source who knows what's going on, and she told me about Otto & Sons and other interesting stuff several days ago, but still, I'm up here in Nowhereville, and had about lost hope. I ordered a grafted two gallon Ashley, I think, so that's what I want to receive. My source thinks I will. Diane

Diane, you were right to call me out on my ’getting older’ comment, a back injury from long ago has been flaring up and making me a bit grumpy. Back on topic, I only ordered exclusivea and was a bit worried after the last email. Thanks for sharing that snippit of information from your source, that makes me more confident they will get here eventually!

I got the email too - I have Pink O’Hare coming in a 2 gallon pot, and then Brut and Amnesia coming in the 1 year old own root. I guess all 3 are delayed? I ordered Evelyn grafted for 2025 as well. I tried to change to own root, but customer service said no. The batch of 5 non exclusive roses gets here tomorrow, so I will post photos on how they look.

I just received the following email:

"We hope this spring is beautiful so far for you! We want to let you know that your GRF Exclusive roses are at our farm, are potted up, and are starting to push beautiful new growth! They will be shipped to you once we have made positive identification of the varieties in your order.

We had hoped to have these roses ready to be shipped in early April, but issues on the grower’s end delayed harvest until mid-March. Further, the grower failed to tag all the plants, so it’s especially important that GRF identify the varieties once they’re leafed. The last thing we want to do is send you roses that aren’t the right variety."

Now I'm worried I won't get the rose that I ordered, Jubilee Celebration. How can they be certain which rose is which just by looking at the foliage? Should I cancel?

Heather, back are not to be trifled with. So I can understand not wanting to deal with large holes and plants. When I was in my 30s, I had some back problems and it was awful. I was lucky that the problems got better as I aged. Of course, everything else is going downhill fast. Ha. Good luck with Evelyns.

Alice, yes, please post photos. Your grafted Evelyn you get next year will do just fine. Diane

I just received the following email:

We hope this spring is beautiful so far for you! We want to let you know that your GRF Exclusive roses are at our farm, are potted up, and are starting to push beautiful new growth! They will be shipped to you once we have made positive identification of the varieties in your order.

"We had hoped to have these roses ready to be shipped in early April, but issues on the grower’s end delayed harvest until mid-March. Further, the grower failed to tag all the plants, so it’s especially important that GRF identify the varieties once they’re leafed. The last thing we want to do is send you roses that aren’t the right variety."

Now I'm really worried that I won't get the rose that I ordered, Jubilee Celebration. I don't want just any rose, I want the rose I ordered! Should I cancel? How sure can they be of the variety by looking at the foliage?

I got that email, too. So Grace is having problems ID-ing the roses and it's the grower's fault. Yeah.. Greeeat. I understand your worries, Liz. Oh, and I'm supposed to go to their Facebook page or something for updates. I don't do Facebook. Not a good business practice for Grace, expecting the customer to track down info they should automatically send to customers. Diane

Liz, depending on the foliage and prickles they may be able to use that as as it can be very distinctive. Otherwise I assumed they meant they would wait for a bloom to verify for sure.

Regardless, Jubilee Celebration is not one of their exclusive roses so you don’t need to worry about this development.

Windowsill, I rechecked some of the things my source told me and most I'd better not repeat here, but apparently Grace ordered the wrong size boxes for the 2 gallon exclusive roses and the boxes were too short. So GRF chopped off the tops of all those roses. I'm not sure if they were the "unidentified" plants, but what a debacle. I'd better zip my lip at this point. Diane

Diane, & Friends,

After showing that instagram photo of the ”VERY LARGE GRF grafted potted roses,” and her promise they would be big-I would not be concerned about their size.

Also, Grace really cares to send quality shipments/roses, I have experienced!

I received Ashley & Georgia Peach, own-root, potted last Nov 2023 delivered- blooming, very big, green lush leafed out! Most beautiful shipment of roses I ever received.

Georgia Peach, I just put in pot after arrived in a pot. Blooming on arrival!

Ashley Exclusive potted upon arrival -I put in my pot.

And I order hundreds of roses in past.

(2 Ashley Exclusive roses in one pot.) Georgia Peach Exclusive is one rose.

And I ordered Rouge Royal, Notting Hill Exclusive and Yoga Trendsetter Exclusive.

YT was a 2023 order from GRF. . Notting Hill replaced order of one couldn’t be delivered.-these 2 are delayed to this spring. Rouge R I ordered last winter to deliver this doring. . They sent me a coupon to give me a $100 bouquet for delaying my order to this spring 2024.. I used coupon for a free-Constance bouquet was soectacular-most beautiful I have ever seen!

Thank you Grace R Farm!!!!

Free Gift Coupon for Constance Bouquet, I selected.

I am excited to eventually receive my 3 roses coming! Wonder what they will be like! Expecting quality! She is great!

I received my GRF Austin roses last week. They had Otto & Sons tags that were dated December and January for potting up. I essentially pulled out a bare root and buried it. (After I defoliated all of the leaves with blackspot, which is common in shipping). I am really glad I paid $36/each. I also received two ’Colette‘ roses’ and they had a good root system. All plants were nice looking and most had blooms! I chopped the blooms off and tossed them just in case they had thrips, which I currently do not have and do not want.

I was really disappointed that they cancelled three of my Austins. I got one replacement and two refunds. They also cancelled an exclusive and I opted for a refund. If after a year you can’t deliver, I am not so trusting.

After all this and Garden Roses LLC, I will never order another ”pre-order” again (except from David Austin). That marketing tactic has burned itself out. I also won’t pay $69 for an Austin rose. I really don’t see the benefit unless GRF has a DA rose I can’t get from DA.

I don't like businesses that charge your credit card the very day you order an item, not knowing if and when they'll ship; then not emailing you for two months on the status of your order. Best business practices are to charge your card when the product is ready to ship. Anyway, I'll never order a rose again from a certain company, no matter how wonderful the rose is when, or if, it eventually arrives. Sorry Kitty, but my experience has not been good so far. Diane

Diane, I have been waiting a year for my “exclusives.” And then to get another email stating that it will be 2025, that’s two years. I love roses, but I don’t think any rose is worth that. I am still wondering when the other ”exclusive” will ship. I haven’t been told.

There are some more posts popping up on other threads about the exclusive roses not being delivered by GRF. Diane

I just received 5 happy roses. They were moist and only one branch was broken.

That's good to see, Alice. The roses seem to be in excellent shape. Is one of them Ashley, by any chance? Idaho, where I garden, has such strict plant importation rules, that I'm afraid my rose will have to be sent without soil and with leaves removed. That's how it's been for a long time, but it does depend on where the roses are sent from, too. I wish I could have ordered a bareroot. Diane

I didn’t get Ashley, and I hope yours makes it there healthy! These are WWII Memorial, Bolero, Ebb Tide, Ash Wednesday climber, and Nicole Carol Miller.

GRF mentioned “issues on growers end… delayed harvest.” This past winter we had an US warm winter, but then a cold snap across the nation-freezing temps for an unexoected week effecting many farmers crops! My roses had done well in the warm winter, but that whole week of surprise deep freezes set my roses back-loosing many black canes & new growth singed. I lost a rose to the freeze, also. I suspect that this week set back many rose growers.

Farming and selling roses is not a perfect science/business. Adjustments are sometimes necessary. Who knows with our climate and weather changes! Pretty amazing to plan around these challenges!

Yesterday I got shipping notifications with tracking numbers!

Just a heads up that they've added some own-root, one-gallon non-exclusives to their website for $45. You have to click on each variety to see if it's available as an own-root.

The first bloom on my J'Adore rose opened, and I'm a bit concerned it's not the correct variety, especially given all the talk about their Arizona grower not labeling all the plants. It's pink on the outside with a creamy yellow center, and it looks more to me like the Paradise Beach rose they offered. I'm hesitant to contact GRF since it's the first bloom on a young plant. Can anyone else who is growing J'Adore speak to whether this bloom looks right? The pictures of J'Adore all show pink-centered blooms with white around the edges.

@windowsill_gardener I don’t know what it is, but it’s beautiful! Sorry not helpful but goodness, so pretty.

I got that mailing, as usual, but it has nothing to do with the so called exclusive rose I ordered from Grace ages ago. They keep trying to sell me more roses, but don't want to send me the rose I paid for, or even inform me of what's up with that rose. What a company. Diane

@windowsill_gardener I dont grow either but I agree that looks like Paradise Beach and nothing like J’Adore. Is it also thornless? GRF says J’Adore is thornless but says nothing abouth Paradise Beach thorns one way or the other. I would reach out personally.

Heather RR (PNW 8b), I appreciate the advice. I think I will reach out to GRF. They might say I need to let it grow longer, but it's probably still a good idea to make contact now rather than wait a long time. It does have some thorns on the stems. Thanks for the reminder to look for that!

Yesterday I received an email stating my rose was shipped (although when I looked at the tracking info, only the label was created). But today I received another email stating that Jubilee Celebration was in suboptimal condition and it would not be shipped. I was offered the choice of a refund or replacement or another rose free of charge. Guess what I picked.

I just got two shipping notices. This covers all six of my remaining exclusives after I requested a refund for the two that were missing. Still just in the label created stage but I’m hopeful! After these arrive the only outstanding roses will be Evelyn but she wasn't to be ready until next spring anyway.

Hopefully this is just growing pains for them as this is only their second (or third?) year selling rose bushes and they do have a lot of interesting roses you can’t get elsewhere. If the roses in this order look good I may revisit and see how they are doing once both my Evelyns come in next year.

@windowsill_gardner

It does look like Paradise Beach Exclusive-maybe. I love it, though. You could send photo to them & ask send your correct rose?

Update: After further looking….

It couod be J’Adore Exclusive… it has yellows/peach center in first opening in very cool spring-colirs show more, . but, send photo & ask them if it is it? Watch it fade to all light pink, too after open for awhile….. it will… then fade to almost white….

GRF photoss

J’Adore Exclusive

So… ’Jubilee Celebration,’ ’The Ancient Mariner,’ and ’Boscobel’ were all deemed subpar. Any others?

I'm still waiting on one of their exclusives, Ashley, a 2 gal grafted Tantau rose. Sigh. Diane

You might want to go to the Rose Vendor Feedback group on FB to see what's going on with GRF currently.

@susan9santabarbara

Thank you Susan for heads up on GRF Facebook! Fun seeing Grace work her farm and ship roses! i joined her FB!

Here is a video photo from GRF Facebk. Her workers are oackaging up thousands of roses shipping on April 9, 2024..

April 14, GRF , anotger video on FB, growing GRF Exclusive Grafted roses… these are BIG & labeled…

This is a sm portion of the video, they have way more roses!!!

Yesterday I ordered Black Baccara (BB) HT rose, grafted 2 year old potted,, which I have been eyeing for months. It will come from Otto & Sons to GRF to me. I ordered BB with a Mother’s Day 30% OFF COUPON NOW RUNNINGVSALE!

Black Baccara, GRF photo

NOW I have 5 roses coming from GRF and 2 that arrived in fall. Georgia Peach & Ashley are dreamy in pots at my house from fall. Rouge Royal, Black Baccara, Notting Hill, Yoga Trendsetter, & Mother of Pearl will come this spring.

Soooooo excited to see my spring roses be delivered in May probably, I am zone 6b.

About ten o'clock last night, I decided to fire off a request to Grace Rose Farm for a shipping date on my one lousy rose. I mentioned that I would like an answer within two days, since they'd had my money for two months, and if I didn't hear from them after two days, I'd contact my credit card issuer to cancel the transaction per the Fair Credit Billing Act. Two hours later I was told in their answer that my rose was being shipped April 20-30. We'll see. Diane

I received my shipping notification on 4/25 for three non-exclusive roses, scheduled to arrive on 4/30. What I ordered were three grafted bare roots, but I was told they'd potted up before shipping, which makes me uneasy and wonder what I will get. I was unsuccessful in my two attempts to cancel the order, so I'm glad I'm getting something.

I just received notification that my Pink O’Hara is shipping. No date yet.

Emmie PNW z7b, I believe you'll be getting the Otto's-grown two-gallon roses. I think the only bareroots they've potting up on-site at GRF have been grafted exclusive varieties.

I'm surprised people are already getting notifications of the grafted exclusives shipping since GRF seemingly only potted them up recently.

The grafted Exclusive roses were potted 2 weeks ago. As GRF ships them now they may arrive in May, all leafted out, 2-3 weeks later.

Diane, Are you zone 6? Me, too! Our Exclusive own-roit rises will ship April 29-30.

No, I'm zone 7. And GRF said my rose was shipping April 20-30. I guess that is for zone 6 and 7. But it's warm enough here to be planting potted roses for sure. Diane