Although Heirloom Roses is more expensive than some other nurseries, there are some things I like about them, including:
- Orders can be placed almost any time of year for roses that are in-stock.
- Their roses are shipped in soil, not as bareroot dormant plants. Some are purposefully defoliated, while others are fully leafed out.
- Roses are grown on their own roots, which in my cold zone 6b (where temperatures can drop to -5 degrees Fahrenheit or -21 Celsius), it's nice to know that winter die-back after harsh winters won't result in bud union damage.
- You can earn discounts through a point system for purchases, for your birthday, and for liking or following Heirloom on certain social media channels (I got $20 off today's order).
- They provide free shipping on orders of $65 or more.

With that in mind, I placed a mid-summer order for the following roses:

Pretty in Pink Eden (climbing rose, not to be confused with Red Eden)
It exhibits all the same great qualities of the Eden Rose, but is deep pink in color. It has slightly more petals than Eden and is more fragrant. I ordered two of them for south-facing walls of the house.



Distant Drums (Buck shrub rose)
A hardy rose with one of the more unique colorings in rosedom. Bred from 'September Song' x 'The Yeoman'. Large, cupped, fully double 4" blooms with ruffled petals that are bronze-brown in the center shading to lavender toward the edges. Heady, myrrh fragrance.



Ebb Tide (floribunda)
When fully mature and in warmer weather conditions, Ebb Tide offers dusky deep purple buds with a swirling center which open into very double, old fashioned 3 1/2" flowers (petals 35+) that settle to a haze of sultry smoke. Intensely clove-scented. This will be my second one.



Mme Isaac Pereire (Bourbon)
Who doesn't enjoy a little bourbon & water while watering their Bourbons? (Actually, I prefer Rye; however, that's another matter.) Anyway, Mme Isaac Pereire is one of my favorite Bourbon roses because of its intense fragrance (I already have one, but wanted another). An "old rose" fragrance exudes from the 4" old-fashioned blooms (100+ petals) of dark, raspberry-pink coloration. All this on a vigorous bush that can be grown as a short climber. If there were a class in rose shows for fragrance, Mme Isaac Pereire would be the star performer.



Souvenir President du Lincoln (Bourbon)
Bred by the famous French rose breeders, Moreau-Robert, and named to honor Abraham Lincoln in the year of his death, Souvenir du President Lincoln produces attractive, fully double, old-fashioned blooms of 80+ petals with a powerful perfume to rival that of Mme Isaac Pereire.

You chose some excellent ones Mike. I have wanted Madame Isaaac for many years but have no space made yet.
I looked through their list a few days ago, some i wanted are back in stock. Amazing Grace appeals to me, I'm just not fully persuaded , but probably will make an Heirloom order in Spring. Last Fall they had a 33 dollar sale on nearly all the roses, 36 for Austins if I remember right. I would love to get some own root.

Mike, I agree with your comments about Heirloom. Unfortunately, while you get free shipping on orders over $65, I pay $50 for all orders . They will send your order via UPS, which is better for me. But, you must explicitly ask for it. Their customer service can be problematic if you try to change your order once it is submitted.

I've had nothing but perfect experiences with Heirloom for the past ten years. Yeah, they're expensive, but I try to buy on sale. For a long time, they gave free shipping over $50, but that has been ramped up to $65. And the prices of their roses has ramped up. Someone here, or at the other rose forum, made a comment a couple of weeks ago that maybe these prices are what it takes to make a rose business work, given the # of rose providers gone out of business. I agree. It's a tough business. Mike, I love Ebb Tide, Distant Drums, and MIP. Regular Eden is one of my top faves. I think you did great.

SusaninSB said:maybe these prices are what it takes to make a rose business work, given the # of rose providers gone out of business. I agree. It's a tough business.

I think you've got that right. If I were a lot younger and had a lot of cash to lose, I would throw it all into the rose business. It's good outdoor work with beautiful products and you could annoy a lot of customers. My little rose that I got from Heirloom six weeks ago is smiling and putting out pretty little blossoms already. David

Beautiful roses, Mike!

I was notified by Heirloom today that one of the roses I've been waiting for is now available, so I ordered it straight away. Griffith Buck's 'Paloma Blanca' has always been a favorite of mine, and I grew it at my former home but have been without it for the past six years. I've really missed it, and am glad to get it again. Here are some photos from a few years ago...

What a beautiful rose! I had no idea it was so pretty. Could you tell me more about it?

Dr. Griffith J. Buck was a professor and researcher of horticulture at Iowa State University, and is credited with hybridizing 93 of the most winter-hardy, disease-resistant roses in commercial circulation. (Pedro Dot considered him to be among the top 20 rose hybridizers in the world.)

The Buck roses are the proprietary property of the Iowa State University Research Foundation, which has a related website listing all of the "Buck Hardy" varieties here: https://www.extension.iastate....

The website describes 'Paloma Blanca' as follows: The gobular-ovoid buds of ivory-white open to double (30-40 petals), cupped, 3 - 3.5 inch blooms of ivory-white with a faint salmon pink blush which disappears with age. The blooms, borne in clusters of 3-10, have a pleasing, light fragrance. The abundant, leathery foliage is dark olive green and has good tolerance to disease. The thorns are tan and awl-like. The erect, bushy, 3 - 3.5 foot plant is compact and spreading and in continuous, abundant bloom from June until killing frost. The plants are winter-hardy in Iowa without protection.

Interestingly, the Houston Rose Society has an old but good webpage describing Dr. Buck's work, and how the roses have been tested in other climates. You can view it here: http://www.houstonrose.org/gbi...

I've grown a number of Buck roses, including April Moon, Carefree Beauty, Country Dancer, Distant Drums, Golden Unicorn, Hawkeye Belle, Hi Neighbor, and Prairie Harvest. l can attest to their hardiness and endurance.

April Moon

Thank you for that. I grow CB and am rooting Folksinger. What did you like about PB that inspired you to re-order it?

Some folks here may get tired of having heard me say this before, but sometimes the blooms on Paloma Blanca look just like those little individual-serving cups of ice cream I used to eat with a flat wooden spoon as a kid. We used to get them at snack time in first grade, and Mom would keep some in the freezer at home as a treat. If you look at the 1st and 5th photo I posted, you'll see that some of the blooms have that swirled pattern that you can see at the top of those ice cream cups. So that was the first thing I liked about PB. I also like the profusion of densely packed blooms that are relatively tough and stand up well to sun and rain (although if I remember correctly, the stamens may be quick to turn brown in the rain if the bloom has fully opened - or maybe it's just more noticeable against the white petals.) Then there is the large number of blooms per cluster that make it a lot of fun. Finally, it's a very hardy rose that easily survives my Zone 6b winter temps that go down to -5 (F).

The ice cream cup, I knew that swirl was familiar!

Mike ebb tide was one I ordered today. I really hope it will survive here. I haven't had much luck keeping the lavender roses alive but I will quit trying when I stop breathing

Keep a look-out for the grandiflora 'Twilight Zone'. Ebb Tide was one of its parents, and it's sometimes called the "new and improved Ebb Tide."

The Oranges 'n' Lemons and Crazy Love that I received last month from Heirloom Roses are both doing well and blooming nicely in the garden. Today I received four more roses from Heirloom in their gallon pots, including two Pretty in Pink Edens, one Paloma Blanca, and an Earth Angel. All four plants look great, and will be planted this weekend - just in time for planting them the necessary six weeks before our first frost, which is typically around Halloween.

Mike
I must have taken your words to heart. I just got a message from Heirloom telling me that my
Paloma Blanca will arrive tomorrow. Your sales pitch was great. I've got just the spot to put it.
David

Paloma Blanca is a great choice, David.

Here's a photo of the first bloom on Crazy Love, which I also received from Heirloom, just last month.

Nice. That's a quick performance.