Hi all! Another ridiculously overthought question from me. I would love all your thoughts on favorite mailorder nurseries and why. No one nursery can do it all, because none has all rose varieties one might want.

Context for my question: I have my heart set on my next three roses I would like to buy. They are Secret(HT), Kardinal85(HT), and a new rose Sweet Spririt(Gr). So far I have found them all three together from only two sources, Heirloom Roses and Edmunds.

I have ordered from both in the past. Heirloom has great selection and the own-root propagation that is my preference. But the plants come pretty small and quite pricy at nearly $40 per plant. This is only partly recouped by no extra shipping cost. I have never receieved a plant from them that was virused or otherwise unhealthy. So I forgive them their high prices....to a point. I just have received much bigger, just as healthy plants from other sources. Northland Rosarium and Roses Unlimited come to mind. Alas, neither of those sources have these exact varieties.

Edmunds roses are quite a bit cheaper, though shipping is added. I kinda worry that their plant health has reportedly declined since they were bought out from the family. But they promise a return policy for failure to thrive if acted on by Aug first. Has anyone here actually used it? I also wonder if customers complaining of poor quality maybe bought plants too late in the spring. Edmunds only sells dormant bareroot plants, but OMG! They are actually still offering ones for sale that haven't sold out. Come on, it is June. If your plant has been in cold storage that long, it ought to be dried out and stressed by now. Ivwill be waiting for fall to order.

Your thoughts on which of these sources you would buy from? Have I missed other nurseries that could contend? What are your favorites? (I buy first from Chamblees when they have what I am looking for )

Heirloom--overpriced, poor customer service
Northland-terrific
Burlington-top notch
David Austin- very hardy bare root roses; sometimes forget to e-mail usps tracking numbers
Wayside Gardens-one forum member referred to them as Wayward Gardens, avoid
Rogue Valley Roses-Just ordered from them. The jury is out. Get mixed reviews
Edmonds-won't ship to Hawaii. don't know why
Regan Nursery-Missed their shipping deadline. Great reviews

Hey, I didn't know about Burlington, but looks interesting. Thanks. Their website is under construction but they list offerings on Helpmefind. Looks like an intriguing mix of minis and big roses, recent roses and also obscure or classic old ones. "Radiance, Mrs Herbert Stevens, Crimson Glory and Christian Dior caught my attention for standout flashes from the distant past of hybrid tea lineage.
Of course, none of the three I am seeking is offered.

MikeInBatonRouge said:Hey, I didn't know about Burlington, but looks interesting. Thanks. Their website is under construction but they list offerings on Helpmefind. Looks like an intriguing mix of minis and big roses, recent roses and also obscure or classic old ones. "Radiance, Mrs Herbert Stevens, Crimson Glory and Christian Dior caught my attention for standoyt flashes from the distance past of hybrid tea lineage.
Of course, none of the three I am seeking is offered.

Their website is always under construction. E-mail Burling (she's terrific) and she'll provide you with lists of her offerings, both regular sized and mini roses.

A Reverence for Roses- Big roses in small pot. Super healthy plants and alot of hard to find ones. Great prices also. Sign up for newsletter to keep up with new ones they get in and deals they do.

https://www.areverenceforroses...

High Country Roses, small but hardy. I ordered several last year and they are all still alive and look good which is a miracle in my yard. https://www.highcountryroses.c...

I totally forgot High Country Roses-five stars!

Burlington- I can attest to their Roses. I order 5. Shipped from Cali to West Virginia in 2 days. Packaged extremely well. All 5 have since taken off. One has already put out 5 blooms.

DA- great roses very vigorous, horrible shipping speeds since the Corona outbreak. Great warranty and replacement. Its after ship date now I believe for most zones. So no replacement warranty now.

Hummingbird- some harder to find older DA roses, and nice selection. Great shipping rate and packaging. As well as combined shipping. She just moved her nursery and dont have a lot of her varieties available yet. But she is extremely nice.

Freedom Gardens- very nice list of roses. Good pricing, good shipping. But as far as I know. No replacement on roses unless your in their rose circle. But with that said. I have 11 of their Rose's. All have grew above and beyond what expected.

K & M- depending on your zone, all roses are budded on fortunia root stock. From what I've read. They are more less for zone 7 and higher. Which is why I've not ordered from them.(YET) but nice rose selection. But they are run by family. And they have tons of family issues that delay shipping a lot. Which things happen. But by looking at Facebook posts. Something happens every week. And delays shipping. None were not shipped to people. But almost every order I've seen was delayed. But they also sell a lot of roses, and are smaller in the staffing department. So I dont take to much into the delay shipping. I would just order 1-2 weeks before you really want it. To account for the delay in shipping. To get it at the time you want.

Antique Rose Emporium
Nursery in Houston. I'm new so it's the only place I've bought from. Prices were good and plants were quality, from my limited perspective.

Linda from Long Ago Roses is great, too. I've admittedly only ordered one from her, but it was healthy and happy, and exploded in growth. She's super friendly and helpful.

I like to mention the smaller growers, as they're often overlooked but are definitely worth knowing about!

Does anyone know what's up with For the Love of Roses? They looked to be an exciting new source for minis/minifloras in particular. I ordered twice from them. First order arrice just fine and are growing in mt garden. The second order wascdelayed endlessly. My main complaint was the owner NEVER communicated via email. I never received updates. I finally tracked him down by phone, and he offered a refund but said unexpectedly hot weather had stunted the fall crop. I said I understood and was okay with waiting til spring. Never heard back. No responses to emails. Voicemailbox full, so I could not even leave a phone message.
Not at all a good sign. Plus now I am out almost $90. 😒

You are in a zone where you can grow roses on fortuniana rootstock - K&M has a wide selection. I've ordered over 60 roses from them. It is a family run business and sometimes their website does not work for taking orders. It is usually better just to e-mail or call them.

Reverence for Roses has a notice that their deliveries are going to be halted for two weeks. Something icky in the system. It's good of
them to let the customers know! David

GlennD said:You are in a zone where you can grow roses on fortuniana rootstock - K&M has a wide selection. I've ordered over 60 roses from them. It is a family run business and sometimes their website does not work for taking orders. It is usually better just to e-mail or call them.

Fortunia is only Hardy down to Zone 7A. Theres been tons of failures with fortunia in zone 6a-6b. And when i called them they said they would not replace any plant that died bc its not hardy to zone 6.

So as for the question of Edmunds vs Heirloom, I see one vote for "avoid Edmund's at all cost if you don't want your roses to die" and one vote for "Heirloom Roses is grotesquely overpriced and not worth it." ...I am paraphrasing. 😏
Problem is, these seem to be my only options for someplace that will have all the specific varieties I am seeking. Just three roses: Kardinal(85), Secret, and add to that Sweet Spirit. Heirloom I have ordered more from and more recently, but yes, they are overpriced. Edmunds I have also ordered from and never lost a bush, but they were not particularly vigorous, either, and it was been a good 3 or 4 years since I have bought from them. Anyone else care to share your personal assessment of recent Edmund's orders? I await with baited breath. 😉

FLoR is in bankruptcy proceedings. https://www.rosebreeders.org/f...
I believe someone else has received cuttings of many of these roses including David Bang's, but I don't recall who ... perhaps https://hummingbirdroses.com/? I'm sure someone will know.

Personally I'll never order from heirloom again. I ordered three...two were sickly and third was mislabeled.

K & M is selling the David Bang roses now. They haven't updated their website but the rose list for DB & photos are on their Facebook page, on 2 seperate posts. Or you could email them. They are own root plants, not Fortuniana grafts. They are hoping to start shipping in September. They have started preorders now via email. It's [email protected]

I think you can custom order some of their other plants own root but i may be remembering wrong.