Sue and I went nursery hopping today. Actually, we only went to Sloat and Garden Valley Ranch because we ran into a Trader Joe's along the way and got lost in there for a while.

Garden Valley Ranch was having a half-price sale, so I bought some nicely developed minis (Gingerbread Man, Neon Cowboy, and Denver's Dream), a small shrub (Teeny Bopper), and a climber (Orange Crush). Most of these are duplicates of roses I already have, but Orange Crush and Gingerbread Man are new to my garden.

Mark and Fallon were perusing rose catalogs and deciding what they would order for next season, and I think Sue and I talked them into buying a bunch of roses from the Certified Roses catalog. This is great news for those of us who haunt Lowe's in search of these roses and rarely find a large selection of them. Sue and I pointed out all of the must-orders to Mark, including Lobo, Climbing Orchid Masterpiece, Arizona, Mirandy, Novelty, Luscious, and so, so, so many more.

yay!!

I went onto their website to order a couple of roses.. and everything I wanted (the day the email went out saying that their website was up & running) was out (already???). I wanted another Blueberry Hill and a Moonshadows, but they were both unavailable. really disappointed.

Sounds like a chaotic mess. I don't think they're really ready to take orders because they're still ordering themselves. Because of Weeks and J&P going under, they're not going to be able to order from their regular suppliers.

Several of the plants I was interested at GVR were less expensive at S&W Greenhouse. I intended to order a few more Brass Bands, but there was a bug with the entry. It would not allow me to order before specifying the form or size. But there was no widget to do that. I marveled at how user-hostile the site was in terms of color, navigation ease, and ordering efficiency. Then I gave up and went away.

I finally got a response back from GVR. Both Moonshadows & Blueberry Hill are unavailable this year.

If they're not available, then why are they on the catalog???? Tease? Guess I won't be ordering anything from them this year.