For a variety of reasons, they're closed this year. They've had trouble with customs and weren't able to ship plants to the United States, and the father of the family died. They may reopen next year, but our days of ordering grafted plants from Pickering may be over. They reported a few years ago that they couldn't afford to continue offering grafted roses and were going to switch over to own-root plants for cost-cutting purposes.

Here's the message Joel Schraven posted this year:

Please note: Pickering Nurseries will not open for the 2015 season.

The rose growing industry has seen a great many changes in the last 10 years. Unfortunately, the majority of these changes were negative for both the companies involved and their bottom lines. The pesticide ban enacted by Ontario in the mid 2000's, an increase in hybridizer royalty rates and how they are calculated, a glut of cheap US grown roses coupled with the Canadian government changing both import and export regulations (unable to ship to the US 2013 and additional ongoing issues with our root stock) have left me with no choice but to stop shipping roses for this season. Over the last several years Pickering Nurseries has been exploring alternative propagation techniques and changes to our business model. Both of these things are still a work in progress. We hope to have a small, core selection of rooted cuttings available in the spring of 2016.

It is also with great sadness we announce the passing of Joseph Schraven, my father and founder of Pickering Nurseries, on May 27th. (Pictured below)

In closing, I would like to extend thanks to all our long time customers and our colleagues in the industry and we hope to be able to serve you in the future.

Best regards,
Joel Schraven
Pickering Nurseries

It is sad to read of the struggles of great rose nurseries. I hope they find ways to survive.

Vicky, those are some gorgeous roses! Thanks for all the photos.

@dirtdorphins, Dirt ...

If you are satisfied with once blooming roses, there are several species roses and roses in other classes like the hybrid gallica, hybrid rugosa, lambertiana, moss, centifolia, damask, hybrid spinosissima, moyesii classes that will thrive in zone 4 or colder.

(Note to PP ... most roses in these classes will not do well in your climate because they need the chill hours to thrive.)

These roses are genetically programmed to come out of dormancy quickly, put on a beautiful full flush of blooms to get pollenated, set seed and have sufficient time for the hips to ripen before the cold weather returns to continue the species.

Most species roses are white and various shades of pink with few petals which attract the pollenators with a large boss of stamens.

The gallica class of roses brought more of the red and violet tones into the rose gene pool.

In older rose literature, a deep pink roses was often described as "red", so sometimes it seems like you might be talking about a rose that you think of as pink, but it is classified as a red rose.

I think these roses often make beautiful shrub roses that will enhance the garden during a short growing season. Many of them have been used in modern breeding programs and have brought their cold hardy genes forward.

A repeat blooming red rugosa, 'Linda Campbell' is reported to be cold hardy to zone 4.

'http://garden.org/plants/view/1580/Rose-Rosa-Linda-Campbell/

This rose is a cross between a rugosa and a miniature rose.

I wish I could grow more of them myself, but they bloom at the height of rose curculio season.

Smiles,
Lyn

@Cottage_Rose Vicky, it's good to see you posting again!

Thanks for the update on Pickerings. Thats sad. Nothing ever stays the same forever.

Of the mentioned classes, I have Eglantyne, Belle de Crecy, La Belle Sultan, Charles de Mills, Harrison's Yellow, Village Maid, Un-named Moss rose rescued from an abandoned farm and all have done well.
Albas are wonderful and my fav OGR. Intense beauty and fragrance.

Here's some more pics of my roses.
The first pic shows you how big Apple Jack gets. Not sure if its rated for Z4
Most of Dr. Bucks roses have Hybrid Tea roses in their lineage so they all puked out on me
or got the heave-ho. Out of probably 20-30 Buck roses I had....Apple Jack is the only one standing.
Apple Jack

Centifolia Village Maid

Hybrid Spinosissima Fruhlingsduft


Lillian Gibson

Belle de Crecy

Dorothy Perkins

Un-named Moss

Konigin v. Danemark


Louise Odier

Madame Hardy

Moss

Vicki,

Thanks for mentioning the albas. There are so many more roses available to grow in the colder zones, if you are not searching for repeat blooming roses. I am certain I left out a lot of other classes, too.

Smiles,
Lyn

Thanks Neal...been side tracked with life.

Here's Linda Campbell....my friends


Um yeah...love Constance Spry








Alba Pompon Blanc Parfait


Alba Great Maidens Blush


Moss Rose


Louise Odier

P.S. That last pic of L.O. was take when it was real young.
It's a lot bigger now with canes that get 8 - 10 foot that
I bend over the top of the trellis.

Beautiful photos, Vicki. I had a hunch that was a young rose. When I first saw the rose at Ralph Moore's nursery, altho' it is not a climbing rose, it had grown to the top of the roof of the office building.

I went back through some of my old photos taken with an older camera and was surprised to see how much the rose had grown in just a couple of years. Mine started out as a 4" band.

One of the nice things about rugosas is that they don't need to be pruned every year ... at least in my zone.

I had the hardest time last year trying to take photos of the full plant with an older camera, but here are a few shots of LC just for fun.

This was taken in 2011. The size of the rose was kind of determined by the size of the deer fencing.



These photos are from spring 2014



Smiles,
Lyn

I still say try it with any rose you want like I do & see what happens. What's the worst that can happen.. killing a $30 plant?

Viki & Lynn - thanks for the beautiful pics and the advice.

"Most large flowering climbers simply will not do well in Z4.
You could try Louise Odier in a sheltered area next to your house.
I'm a no fuss rose gardener in a low laying rural setting that might
as well be Z4 at times. Most large flowering climbers failed to thrive
even here in rural Z5."

The more I read, the more I realize the truth of what you are saying here. I plan on going back and revising my order. And while repeat bloomers would be nice, that is not a must have quality on my list. After all nothing else in my garden other than annuals bloom all season.

"I would not buy roses (bareroot or potted) from seed catalog type vendors."

The company I ordered from may have been a mistake too. I originally was planning on ordering from a small rose nursery 20 miles from my home, Spring Valley Roses. That is where I began my research since they grow and sell roses in my exact weather/zone but their site wasn't open for 2015 orders yet. When googling the ones I was interested in, I found them being sold a few bucks cheaper at Jung Seed (also WI based), and they were offering more varieties and free shipping, so I "bit". But I failed to research the ones I chose that hadn't been listed at Spring Valley.

Luckily with further reading and advice from you all, I can still change my order around and hopefully end up with roses that have a better chance of thriving here.

Japanese beetles used to be so awful here, fist flush of recurrent varieties was all I saw anyway (before the beetles emerged). That inspired me to try once blooming varieties, and I love them like I love my Lilacs, Peonies, spring flowering trees, etc. The fact that the beauty is fleeting seems to make them even more special to me.

Oddly, I haven't seen many JBs the last few years (knocking on wood). I did treat the lawn and gardens with milky spore some years back, but I didn't think it would make a huge difference, since they fly in from everywhere else.

@mandolls, Geof ...

One thing to keep in mind if you choose to grow once bloomers is that they are pruned after they have bloomed.

Smiles,
Lyn

Geof - Also, an absolute gorgeous once-bloomer that I have is Charles de Mills.. smells luscious, looks even better. HOWEVER!!! One of the worst roses I've ever grown.. it suckers and my particular version (I got it as an own-root from Roses Unlimited) is the thorniest rose on the planet. Be warned!!! Supposedly it's supposed to be thornless.. but mine's horrific!!! I've asked RU about it and they never got back to me on it.

NEVER buy cheap roses and another factor MANY of the roses in the USA have Rose Mosaic Virus,
especially the cheaper ones but expensive roses are not exempt either.
RMV is the reason many roses fail to thrive.
NEVER buy those crap wax things you find all over the place in the spring summer.
Never buy roses from vendors like Jungs, Wayside, Parks, etc. Even Jackson & Perkins.
Ask the people here where to buy clean roses.
I'm kind of out of the rose world loop the last 5 yrs. or so with other interests getting more
of my focus, so aside from Pickerings (now closed) I have no clue who has virus free roses.
ASK your sellers if they use Dr. Huey rootstock (bad, bad, bad) and even own root roses can have RMV
as I recall.

My Charles de Mills does not sucker bad for me.
My Rugosas are more guilty of that....but not a big deal....mow them over or give them away.
As for pruning once bloomers you need not do it every year...just every few years go in and prune
out the old, woody canes. As for feeding mine are lucky if they get fed once in June and still grow like
on steroids, through drought, sod and weeds with nary a speck of red wood chips in sight and as for dead
heading forget that! Who can stand there and cut off thousands of dead blossoms or rose hips?
Even the wild birds can't get all the hips and every year I have dehydrated hips next to the new blossoms.
It rather embarrassing but whose got time for all that monkey business?

Neal I put down hundreds of dollars worth of Milky Spore several years ago and I think its helps a little
but not enough to make a diff. Thats why I like my once bloomers like you mentioned which bloom before
those little ba$tard$ arrive. Neal do you have Belle de Crecy? I was thinking you'd love the color and odd,
I though Austins liked the hot weather.

I'm rather intrigued by your user name...."mandolls"...its rather kinky. What does it mean?

Cottage_Rose said:I'm rather intrigued by your user name...."mandolls"...its rather scary, creepy or kinky.

Hmmmm………….I don't think of myself as scary creepy or kinky. I began using that username on E-bay many years ago when I was buying and selling dolls - predominately male dolls (which are possibly scary creepy & kinky ?)

I just got used to it - call me Geof

Geof, spelled that way, is decidedly cool!

mandolls said:

Hmmmm………….I don't think of myself as scary creepy or kinky. I began using that username on E-bay many years ago when I was buying and selling dolls - predominately male dolls (which are possibly scary creepy & kinky ?)

I just got used to it - call me Geof

Oh dear I was just joking about the unusual username.
Sorry, I'm kind of a goof ball but you don't know that.
Hope I didn't offend you.

Those of us in cold winter zones get pretty silly about this time of year, LOL.