I had ordered some roses from Roses Unlimited last year & they shipped them out to me on Monday. They arrived today.

The box had to be inspected, of course. Jupiter was kind enough to volunteer the inspection process.


He tried to convince me that he could inspect it much better if got on top of the box & the box was open. Zeus had already climbed on top of the box & crushed it.


So I removed the kitty (much to his dismay) and opened the box. Wow. One of them is already in full bloom!


I'm guessing that the bloom is Brown Study (http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...). I saw other buds, but nothing else was open. Only problem is that it is 36 degrees right now, with a low tonight of 14degs. Way too cold to let them be outside. So I'm going to have to keep them out of the cats' reach & safe for a few days until past next Tuesday, which is the last gasp of winter for us (low on Tuesday is supposed to be 9 degs). Then they can go outside permanently.

Wow! What didja get???

The thread "Rose order from Roses Unlimited!" in Roses forum

This is today's shipment.
Blue River http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...
Blueberry Hill http://www.helpmefind.com/gard... (had it before, it croaked)
Star of the Nile http://www.helpmefind.com/gard... (had it before, it croaked)
Brown Study http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

These two will be late May. I may find a few more to make the shipping worth it.
Distant Thunder http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...
Coffee Country http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

Wow! That looks more like someone sent you a bouquet rather than a plant! Good luck keeping them alive and well away from the kitties.

Well, my last two roses that I was supposed to get (Coffee Country & Distant Thunder) was supposed to be shipped out next week. Coffee Country (http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...) is good to go, but they don't want to ship out Distant Thunder because it's too puny (that's saying something). So I'm thinking about getting the following. These are all roses I've had & lost:

Lagerfeld http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...
Stainless Steel http://www.helpmefind.com/gard... (mine seem to all want to revert to Dr. Huey after 2 years)
Nightingale http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...
Shocking Blue http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

Leaning also towards getting Blue Skies (didn't realize I didn't have that one.. I got Blue River instead).

Can anyone see the pattern here?

Yup. They all say zone 7b or warmer!

Zones? We don't need no steenkin' zone limits!! (I'm going to say probably 98% of all my roses are zone 6-7).

Lagerfeld & Stainless Steel all seem to want to revert back to Dr. Huey the 3rd year they're in ground, so they get shovel pruned. Nightingale & Shocking Blue were coming along QUITE nicely, then we got a late hard freeze & I lost quite a few of Cliff's roses.. which broke my heart 'cuz these were monster mother plants.

So, tell me why do they revert?

The graft dies due to whatever (usually me not planting it right). Or is a bad graft. Or the rootstock is just that much stronger than the graft. I have a Sterling Silver that I haven't shovelpruned yet.. it sends out multiple types of canes. The big thick smooth canes w/o many thorns are Sterling Silver. The thinner, more flexible, and more prickly canes are Dr. Huey. That's what you have to be careful of when you buy a grafted rose. Just a chance you take when you buy grafted roses.. especially cheap roses from Big Box stores. That's why I want to buy own-roots for these guys.. I know they'll survive here, but getting them to STAY what they are is another question!!

I suspect the graft died because it wasn't meant to live in your zone. Dr. Huey is more hardy than some of the roses you lost, so it lived while the other roses died.

If you still have some canes of the original rose you might preserve/encourage it by pulling the Dr Huey shoots off.

Lagerfield and Stainless Steel have both died in my yard on zone 6 winters. Mauve colored roses, and particularly mauve hybrid teas, seem to wimp out on cold winters and late freezes.
That new Love Song was not affected by the cold snap we had here this spring. It may be the best mauve rose I've ever grown. It's probably doubled in size in the past 2 weeks. I'm glad I goofed and bought 3 of it!