I have to say I had a very good experience with Pickering. All of the roses I ordered (only 3) were shipped bare root and I didn't receive them until Nov. I fretted that they would not get established soon enough to live over winter, but they did better than the roses I received in pots already rooted. The roses I ordered from Pickering were Charlotte, Gertrude Jekyll and Tradescant. I would order again from this nursery.

This is Charlotte in bud.

I've also had good luck with Pickering. The bare-root roses are not quite as impressive as Palatine's when they arrive in the mail, but they grow just as well.

I really like the Multiflora rootstock they use for their grafted roses too. It seems to make the roses more resistant to black spot and to pests and it has the added advantage of not appealing to the gophers in my garden.

A big plus is that Pickerings roses are virus free.
Not very many virus free rose vendors here in the U.S.
and the Multiflora rootstock is more suited to cold climate growing.
I prefer fall planting bareroots over any other way of planting.
Dormant bareroots planted in the fall have a big head start over
spring - summer potted roses and I've found that Pickering's grafted roses
preform just as well as ownroot roses.
I've been buying roses from them for over 10 years and never been disappointed.

I bought from Pickering once and I believe that I derived more pleasure from my one modest Pickering order than I did from several larger orders from another Canadian supplier (whose name begins with H). Their selection is marvelous, and I love the info they provide about growing habit, hips, and so on. The plants are healthy and vigorous - as I recall. I don't believe I lost any of them in the first two or three years. One or two died of drought later, I believe. In any case I would give Pickering very high marks. I think rose gardeners who live in the NE and can take advantage of Pickering's great collection of Albas, Hybrid Musks, and Old Roses owe it to themselves to buy a rose or two from Pickering just to find out how good they can be.

Once again, my order from Pickering has been received in great condition, even though it was shipped and delivered while I was out of town. The roots are still nice and moist and some sprouting has occurred, so I will be planting new roses today from Pickering! They have the best plants.

They must be very busy this time of year. I still don't have a confirmation of my order.

Zuzu ,
Have thought the same thing since I am also still waiting for my confirmation from Pickering.
Which ones did you buy this year ?

I had to replace Livin' Easy, Brigitte, but while I was there, I also ordered Emanuel, Fairest Cape, Fragrant Dream, Bonita Renaissance, Celine Delbard, Susan Daniel, Linnaeus Cottage, and Rokoko.

They did say there could be a delay of up to two weeks for confirmation because it's a busy time of year for them.

How bizarre! I never did get a confirmation e-mail from Pickering, but I did just get an e-mail saying my order was shipped today. I have to assume I'm getting all the roses I ordered. How nice.

Zu: My roses from Pickering just went in the ground today: Fimbriata, The Alnwick Rose and Prospero. I can't wait to see them in bloom!

My Prospero came from Pickering too. I really like this nursery.

The bare root roses I have received from them have far outperformed most of my others!

I just received nine roses from Pickering. Mind you, these are their dregs. I usually place my order in September, as soon as they update for the next season, but I ordered very late this year, so I got the leftovers.

They knocked $2 off the price of five of them (I told you four, Toni, but it was actually five) because they're smaller than the norm.

Here are the four that were full price ($13). The walkway is 32 inches wide.

These are the five discounted roses. Pickering thinks they're sub-par, but look at the roots on the one on the far right. It has only three canes (the photo makes it look like two, but there are three), but I'll take this "sub-par" rose for $11 any day over the toothpicks Heirloom sends out for $16.95. And the shipping for all nine of these was only $20.

I had to brave the rain to take these photos, so that's why they're sort of crummy. I spread out the roses, clicked the camera a couple of times, bundled the roses back up, and ran back in the house.

Pickering is one of my favs!

LOL, sub-par!

They're just amazing bargains, aren't they?

And the best thing about all of these roses from Canada -- Hortico, Palatine, and Pickering -- is that they don't appeal to gophers at all. The gophers here have never bothered a rose grafted onto multiflora stock.

And they send the roses in nice boxes too. Here's my cockeyed Oscar.

Oh, poor baby. What happened to his eyes? Maybe I don't want to hear it.

The eyes are absolutely fine, Angie. Three of the kittens from one of the feral litters had bad eyes. They apparently had a viral infection when they were very small and naturally had no veterinary care because they were completely wild. Three had adhesions (the "third eyelid" went up and got stuck), and when I took them in for neutering, the adhesions were surgically repaired on two of the kittens, but in Oscar's case the adhesion covers the iris, so it couldn't be clipped. Either it doesn't affect his vision at all or he has adapted marvelously. He doesn't seem to have any problems with depth perception.