I stopped by one of my favorite nurseries this past weekend, and was pleasantly surprised to see that they were having a half-price sale on their roses. I was surprised, because this nursery rarely puts anything on sale. At first I was skeptical, because by the time August comes around, the canes on most nursery roses are dried out and suffering from heat stress. But as I looked at the base of the roses to see how many green canes each plant had, I was surprised to see that there were some very healthy plants. So I got three really big French Lace floribundas in full bloom, a large Benjamin Britten, a tall Queen Elizabeth grandiflora for the back of the border, a very upright Austin Falstaff in full bloom, and a Sexy Rexy, one of my favorite floribundas, also in full bloom. Each one was just $10!
Then I drove two blocks down the street to a Home Depot that has an exceptionally good garden center, and their roses were on sale for $9.49, and once again, many of them were in really good condition. So I got a Mother of Pearl grandiflora, a Love and Peace hybrid tea, a Cinco De Mayo floribunda in full bloom, a Marmalade Skies floribunda in full bloom, an Alpricot Candy hybrid tea, and a Red Eden climber. Each one had lots of strong canes, healthy foliage, and no blackspot!
Here are the three French Laces I purchased, the Benjamin Britten, and the Red Eden.
