Heirloom is selling these roses at half-price until July 22nd.

http://www.heirloomroses.com/s...

I've retracted my earlier complaints about the size of their roses because the ones in my latest order were of a decent size and did grow nicely, but my complaints about mislabeling are still valid. One out of two in my first order and two out of four in my latest order were mislabeled and are not what I ordered. That's a 50% chance of getting the wrong rose. Way too high, in my opinion.

Well, that's good enough to scare me away. LOL. I'm building a list of wish-roses from RU.. and of course from Palatine. :D

The worst thing about their mislabeling is their lack of concern about it. I've sent them photos of the roses after they bloom, clearly displaying the wrong bloom shape and color, and they've never responded to those messages. It's as if they think I've sent the e-mails simply because I enjoy sharing photos.

You mean you actually care which cultivar they send you? Imagine!

Seriously, thanks for the heads-up I've been wanting to try them again.

Ordered a few roses available elsewhere, and a few that are hard to find .
Prairie Star
April Moon
Anne Harkness
Jacqueline duPre
Penny Lane
Tequila Sunrise
The King's Rubies
Velvet Fragrance
Oklahoma
The Impressionist

Shipping is fully a third of the order. If half the roses I ordered grow well, I'll be satisfied.

Dang it I had to look.
They have some I really want. And loads of great minis.
Here's what they say about mis-named roses:
"We guarantee our roses to be true to variety and free of rose virus. "
I've sifted through most of the website, and I've called both of the phone numbers listed, but I can't find any info on what size roses they ship. Are they in 1 gallon pots?
I also don't see where shipping dates are listed. It just says they ship 12 months. When would these sale roses be shipped?
Steve, did you get to order from a real person? Have you had experience receiving orders when the temps are above 100? Our forecast is for 103+ for at least the next 2 weeks.
The machine answered both the phone numbers with the same long worthless message each time.
I'll try emailing them.

Cindi - the one time I ordered from Heirloom, they were little bitty bands. I won't buy bands any more. I can't get them to survive. Mind you, this was back in '09, so maybe they've changed. I did get some minis from "John's Miniature Roses" after Nor'East closed down their retail shop, and they came from Heirloom as well. I love my roses I got from John's, but I hate the fact that they kept on putting my roses on hold & on hold & on hold.. but they were awful quick to run my credit card! 3 of the 4 I got from John's survived. I lost Ernie, but Bee's Knees, Rise n Shine, & Madeline Spezzano survived. I can't remember if I got Pinstripe from them.. I think so now that I think about it & it croaked last year

They sell band roses. Nothing in a gallon container. They'll send the sale roses right away. One of the reasons they have the sale at this time each year is that the roses might be getting big enough to need transplanting into a larger container and they want to avoid the manpower hours that involves, so they'd rather sell them at a discount, but they won't hold the roses for later delivery to you. If I were taking delivery now, I'd wait a few days until they get over shipping shock and then transplant them into gallon containers. I'd keep those containers in the shade until they get over transplant shock. Lots of shock potential this time of year.

Thanks for the fast replies!
I'm holding everything in the shade house until the heat breaks, which may not be until late October.
My biggest issue is finding someone to babysit my packages if I'm traveling. The website doesn't say which carrier they use, or if they have tracking. Anyone know?

Sorry, Cindi. I don't remember which carrier they use and I don't recall any tracking information, but I know they ship them out quickly. You should get them about a week after your order is confirmed.

I suspected that this was one of those up-sizing sales, so I jumped in. I know temperatures in Phoenix are in the hundreds, but here in Prescott right now it's sixties at night and eighties during the day. Most of the routes between here and there should keep the roses from frying for too long. I cannot say I have high expectations; but I was pleasantly surprised this spring by both VG and RVR. So I thought "what the heck."

That's the spirit!

Guess that's what I was thinking, too, Steve. What the heck, 21 more roses, temps at 103 every day, I'm heading out of town, I have a shadehouse full of plants I can't plant, can I get any more ridiculous?
Something like that.
Shipping was $80!!! yikes. They should have a personal chauffeur for that money.
I ordered:
Bow Bells
Happy Child
Mary Magdalene
The Impressionist
Strawberry Hill
Tea Clipper
Auguste Renoir
Blueberry Hill
cl. Pinkie
Penny Lane
Portlandia
Lavender Lassie
Lady of the Mist
Lady Jane Grey
Kiss of Desire
Denver's Dream
Kiss N Tell
Top Marks
Jean Keneally
Wistful
Jilly Jewel
The first time I had the order entered, and went to help me find to look something up. I came back to add one, and the basket was empty! I guess it timed out. I had to re-enter everything from memory, and missed Cornelia. I had Creme de la Creme and Folklore on the list too, but decided to wait on those. Courageous didn't make the final cut either, because I wasn't sure it was distinctive enough. I see all sorts of distinctions between my pink roses, and always in my oranges, but to me, red is red, and just a few go a long ways. My Dublin Bay is pretty fabulous, and I didn't think I could top that. If I'm wrong, let me know.
I'm going to try to contact Heirloom on Monday to see if I can add Cornelia or if I have any control over shipping dates.

Cindi - damn, wish I'd seen that they got Blueberry hill. Oh well, I'm gonna get that from RU. And I could have gotten you a Denver's Dream locally for $9 and shipped it to you for less than $6 USPS. LOL oh well.

I found some of them by going through the regular lists. A few weren't on sale, but they are so hard to find that I went ahead and added them.
I think Denver's Dream was 8.50 with $2 shipping, so that wasn't too bad.
I have never seen it around here. One of our local nurseries had everything half price on Saturday, so I found Yellow Brick Road (Easy Elegance now) for $10 in a 3 gallon pot, and drift roses for $9, a scarlet carpet for $13 in a big big pot. Also several nice sized minis for $5 apiece.
I wish I had bought a 2nd Yellow Brick Road. My mother lives in zone 5 and she's always looking for a hardy, disease resistant yellow rose. I'm taking her a Sunsprite next time I go up there.
I'm keeping this Yellow Brick Road, though. I have the perfect place for it.

Cindi, I don't think $80 is an outrageous shipping fee for 21 roses. It's about $3.81 per rose. I have to pay Roses Unlimited $8 per rose for shipping, so the shipping for 21 would be $168.

Yes, RU is $7 per rose to me, which is only half as far from them as you are. Chamblee was about $2.15 per plant. Both are shipping 1 gallon plants for that price, right? And the Chamblee plants were half the price of the RU plants. Heirloom charges $4.25 per plant for bands, no matter where you live. The plant prices are up there with RU, Palatine, Edmunds and Pickering, yet they are bands.
And.........knowing all this, enough people like me pay it and they stay in business. (Let's just hope none of the other companies decide they need to raise their shipping fees to stay in line with RU and HR!)
So....we're going to hope that RU makes it worth it all with superior customer service, really nice true to name plants that nobody else carries. I have read the feedback from Zuzu and others and I know this may not be the case.
For whatever reason, I just felt like gambling. We'll see how it goes!

The roses are on their way. The gal who answers the phone for Heirloom wasn't sure if they are coming by UPS or Priority mail, though. No tracking info, either. They only know the date they were processed which I guess means when they were pulled and packed.
She assured me that even if they have to stay in a dark hot box for a week, they'll be fine. One was left behind to grow a bit more. It's scheduled to finish the remedial growing course and be on the way to me on Aug 6. That's not bad, 1 out of 21. I'll come back with pics when they get here.

What a difference two decades make! Heirloom is quite a bit better than it was in the early 1990's, IMO.

My roses shipped UPS on Monday. I planted my roses Thursday afternoon. They shipped in the same size bands that VG uses, which is a big step up from what they used long ago. In most cases the roots were well enough developed that there was no disintegration of the potting medium with the pots removed. The canes ranged from seven to eleven inches in length. Foliage was dark, healthy, and growing vigorously, which means that the plants should get off to a pretty good start given that the soil here is moist and the sun bright. I was so happy with them that once they were in the ground I went back to Heirloom to look for more roses at the reduced price; but the sale was over.

This experience changed my mind. When I find cultivars at Heirloom that suit my needs perfectly I will not hesitate to pay $17.50 for roses of similar caliber.

It's nice to hear some good news: satisfied customer, quality plants.