They're still working on the site, I guess. Yesterday all of the references to free shipping had been removed from the site, but today they're back on every page, so I've sent an e-mail to ask whether the shipping charges were added to my invoice in error.

The Ludwig's folks are lucky to have such understanding and helpful customers!

I received a call this morning from Anja at Ludwig's. She said she would hesitate to send Fragrant Peace now because the plants are still quite small. I asked her about Arctic Ice as a replacement and she said it's an awesome rose, so she'll send me that one instead of Fragrant Peace. The roses are being Fedexed to me today, so I'll keep you all posted and show you pictures of the plants when they arrive.

Zuzu, you'll be very happy with Arctic Ice - aka La Rose du Petit Prince! I call it 'Little Prince' but it isn't so little. A healthy rose with a great perfume! And I just love the colour!!

I'm anxious to see how they look! There isn't much info on the site, but they do have a great selection. They don't address disease resistance or winter hardiness in the description so I'll just keep HelpMeFind open in another window while I browse.

sunnyvalley, how cold are your winters? Your "Little Prince" is wonderful, I'm curious if it would prosper here.

I'm really looking forward to getting Arctic Ice. I already had it in my Ludwig's cart for a second order if I like this first order, so the replacement was no big deal. Other items in my second-order cart are Myth and Candice.

Le Petit Prince (Arctic Ice) is one of the roses I would have bought from Palatine this year if I had placed an order there. I love Palatine, but it's getting to the point where I already have most of the roses they're offering, and when I have to pay the same shipping rate for 3-9 plants, I'd rather get all nine. Maybe next year I'll place another Palatine order.

Neal, I think you can feel safe about hardiness because the rose is growing at Palatine in Ontario.

Looking up Ludwig's roses on HMF is frustrating because a lot of them aren't listed on HMF, at least not under their "South African" names. Also, there are a lot of typos on the Ludwig's site, so you have to try lots of different combinations.

You're right zuzu, I encountered those frustrations right off the bat. They are selling grafted plants, right?

Neal, our winter temperatures are generally around 10F. An exception, over the last couple of years, was 2012 were we had 0F for about two weeks towards the end of January. I lost three roses that winter and a couple froze right down to the ground (no protection). I have since become very diligent with my winter protection, especially for the standards!
I planted the 'Little Prince' in Nov 2013 so it has lived through 3 winters here although we can hardly call this last winter 'winter'!

Good to hear it survived 2 weeks at 0F! I think it would endure our winters just fine

So, here's what has happened so far.

When I talked to Anja on the phone a couple of days ago and okayed the replacement of one of the roses in my order, she said she was going to send me a free gift for being so nice about the substitution. I received a Fedex box from Ludwig's this afternoon. It was a small box, a cube-shaped box about 8 inches on all sides. My heart sank because I couldn't imagine how four roses and a gift would fit into that box. My heart sank even further when I saw all of the packing material in the box. When I finally got through all of the paper and bubble wrap, I found a lovely little jar of rose jelly. What a relief: It's my gift. The roses are coming in a separate box. The hand-written tag on the jelly jar says the ingredients are rose petals, filtered water, citric acid, and lemon juice. Sweet!!!

Please DO keep us posted Zuzu!
You've got us on the edges of our seats.

The roses arrived. Here's what I saw when I opened my front door today:



It was a huge, very heavy box. Notice how it's standing nicely, right-side up? Unfortunately, there was an inner packing box inside the outer one. The inner box had been placed sideways instead of right-side up. The predictable result? Lots and lots of broken canes and a shipping box with inches and inches of spilled soil and styrofoam peanuts on the bottom.

Naughty Nude was the biggest catastrophe. It was packed in a 5-gallon container and had thick canes, which broke off more easily during shipping. This is how it looked after the broken canes were removed.



The other three roses were packed in makeshift containers of heavyweight plastic sheeting and had more supple canes, so only the tips of those were broken. Here's Monica, which is a good example of how the other three look.



In spite of the poor packaging, I know they'll all recover and grow nicely. Will Ludwig's displace Palatine as my favorite source? Not a chance! I will order from Ludwig's again, however, when I see an irresistible rose that isn't available elsewhere. I already let them know about the sideways inner box, so that bug should be corrected by the time I order again.

Nice looking plants! Are they grafted?

They're all supposed to be grafted, but Naughty Nude is the only one that displays an unmistakeable graft union. I think it's older than the others.

@zuzu...hope the plants work out for you. Still planning on a visit to their nursery. Very curious.
BTW, Love your cat! Same color as my persian, Max. Hope he got to play in the boxes

Thank you, Mary. I'm sure they'll grow into nice bushes very soon.

Mambo (the cat on the box) and the other cats all played in the big box until it was taken over by two of the ferals as their new home. I'm really happy that those two moved into the box because it's been windy and rainy this week and they don't want to come inside the house.

Fatty Fatty #9 in his new Fedex shelter.

He looks well housed. It is quite remarkable how every empty box or bag seem to immediately fill with cats - including ones that are decided under cat size.

Awwww Smart Kitty! They do love boxes. Nice shelter.
Max in a box

Magpie in a box.