You're right. I found the Monday shipping information on the website. Smart policy.

Got my roses today!! Very impressive looking!! Right now I have them out of the plastic wrap and just sitting on the table in the sun. I'll pot them up later this week or early next week when it cools down some. By Fri we will be almost 100 so don't want to do it before then.

Will post pics later!!

Yes! Let them recover from the shipping trauma before potting them up and subjecting them to transplant trauma.

Here they are!! These look better than what I got from ARE. Now have to check tags on another day and see who is what.

We hit 100 today, and will be even higher the rest of the week. My roses are outside in the shade, and they have all put on new growth already!

Those are big, healthy roses, Pepper. Please post more pictures as they settle into your garden.

Every year I tell myself not to buy any more own-root roses. Every year I succumb to fancy descriptions and pretty pictures on websites. Every year I'm disappointed when the scraggly little twigs arrive.

Not this year! I am beyond delighted with A Reverence for Roses. First of all, there was the extraordinarily speedy delivery. The package was mailed from Florida on Monday and arrived here on Wednesday. The plants had no time to suffer in the box, and they were packed so well that not one twig or leaf was damaged. Plus, they are big! Bigger than most of the 1-gallon plants I've bought from Roses Unlimited and Chamblee.

Here are my four:



Meredith Bohls, the one on the far left, is the tallest -- 24 inches from the bottom of the band to the top of the plant. This means it's already 2 inches taller than the Meredith Bohls I bought from Chamblee and have been growing in my garden for 9 years now. The foliage of the one on the far right, Sally Holmes, is not discolored. That's a patch of sunlight I couldn't avoid

In fact, here's a closeup of the Sally Holmes foliage. Every leaf is perfect!



Actually, I noticed something funny today about another Chamblee's rose. I bought Rosarium Uetersen from them 11 years ago. It's supposed to be a climber, but mine never climbed, and other rose gardeners reported the same thing about theirs from Chamblee. It has always formed a nice shrub, about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide. I naturally assumed they were selling some other rose under that name. This afternoon I was surprised to see that Rosarium Uetersen is finally climbing. So maybe the Meredith Bohls from Chamblee will get taller in a year or two. Patience can be surprisingly valuable in gardens.

Mine were packed so well it was all I could do not to just rip the box apart so I could actually get the roses out.

Same with mine! I did read the instructions that were on top, which said unpack carefully because stems may be intertwined, and boy they were. I had to lift them out as a group and tease them apart. I'm totally amazed at how they put 8 roses in a box and no dirt was spilled, no branches bent or broken.
Glad the post office delivered them safely to you, Zuzu.

It is so nice to hear a success story about a new rose nursery. I am also amazed at the postal delivery; I'll bet my post office could destroy that packaging, though!

Unless they run over the box or take a saw to it they will have a hard time hurting the roses. If I hadn't been so excited I would have taken a pic of how they were packed.

Go back in this thread and take a look at my photo, you will see the box is a bit crushed, but the 8 roses inside are in great shape. They tape the pots in. It took me forever to get them all undone. They spent some time putting wet newspaper on the top of each pot, staking each rose, then placing the pot in a bag and tying that bag closed. Rather than cut the roses that were too tall for the box, they curled them around.

I know conventional wisdom is to pot these in bigger pots, and that is indeed what the instructions said to do, but these roses are big enough that I am tempted to plant them directly in the ground. When Chamblees sends potted 1 gallon roses, (barely rooted, sometimes!) they say to put them in the ground. I've tried growing theirs in pots and in the ground, and both ways seem the same. Slow.
With temps here at 100 all week, the soil in my pots is hot! Soil in the ground isn't.
Drainage is better in the ground. I'll plant them all next week, one way or another, but I'm leaning towards going right into permanent homes unless someone really has a good argument the other way.
Roots on these look good already.

Did anyone get the extra $10 discount? It never showed up on my end.

CindiKS said:Go back in this thread and take a look at my photo, you will see the box is a bit crushed, but the 8 roses inside are in great shape. They tape the pots in. It took me forever to get them all undone. They spent some time putting wet newspaper on the top of each pot, staking each rose, then placing the pot in a bag and tying that bag closed. Rather than cut the roses that were too tall for the box, they curled them around.

I know conventional wisdom is to pot these in bigger pots, and that is indeed what the instructions said to do, but these roses are big enough that I am tempted to plant them directly in the ground. When Chamblees sends potted 1 gallon roses, (barely rooted, sometimes!) they say to put them in the ground. I've tried growing theirs in pots and in the ground, and both ways seem the same. Slow.
With temps here at 100 all week, the soil in my pots is hot! Soil in the ground isn't.
Drainage is better in the ground. I'll plant them all next week, one way or another, but I'm leaning towards going right into permanent homes unless someone really has a good argument the other way.
Roots on these look good already.

@CindiKS, Cindi ... I know you have already decided to plant them in the ground ... and you know I am crazy about growing roots ...

So, let's look at this ...

The reason I am crazy about growing roots is that most roses sold in bands really don't have much of a root mass. It sounds like these roses have good roots for roses sold in bands with some very good top growth.

The rule of thumb is that the top growth should match the size of the root mass. So, now, you have the opportunity to experiment in a different way. Maybe with one or two of the roses you are going to put in their permanent homes, you might choose to CUT to top growth back to match the size of the root mass of the rose you are planting into the ground. That way, the smaller root mass will not be required to support the larger top growth and the plant can put its energy into growing roots.

What do you think ?

Edited to add ...

Any newly planted rose should appear to be slow to take off because roses grow their roots first. You don't see much happening with the top growth until the rose has established its roots.

I am certainly not one of the rose experts here, but as a farmer I have been taught that the top mass and roots on pasture grass (or any plant) must match. We are, therefore warned not to graze pastures too short or the plants will reduce their roots to match. Those little roses grew all those leaves and branches so, it seems to me, they must have the roots to support them. It their tops are cut off, might it not cause them to reduce their roots to match?

PP ...

Look at the size of the band pot and look at the size of the top growth in the photos and ask your question again ....

My thought would be that those roots are really crowded and it's yearning for roomier quarters.

New sale: 25% off (to be credited back after shipment) all roses starting with M, N, O. P. I ordered Madame Berkeley, Madame Isaac Pereire, Marie van Houtte, and Niles Cochet.

Today I received four more of those perfect plants from A Reverence for Roses. They had sold out of Madame Isaac Pereire, so I received Pink Prosperity as a substitute.

pepper23 said:Did anyone get the extra $10 discount? It never showed up on my end.

I hope you got your discount, Amanda. I got both of mine. It was noted on the invoices that were taped to the side of the box.