CanCan, Eden, Fourth of July, Colette and Winner's Circle.

Oh, what a great assortment! That's going to be beautiful.

Thanks, Zuzu!

Zuzu, saw your db entry for Awakening. Have you been satisfied with its' performance? Any thoughts on it?
Thanks!

I've been very disappointed with it, Janice, but there is a possible explanation. I bought Awakening about 7 or 8 years ago, long before I started planting everything in gopher-proof cages, so it's possible that the rose's growth and vigor have been sapped by gophers nibbling on the roots each year -- not enough to kill it, but enough to keep it from reaching its full potential.

Thanks, Zuzu! I saw it on the Hortico site. How has Hortico been?

It's a mixed bag, mostly terrible these days. They used to sell gorgeous plants, but there were problems with the assortment. I think they pretended to have a lot of roses they never had, and when you'd order something really exciting and hard-to-find, they'd tell you it was on back order. If you persisted in asking them for it, they'd slap the label on some other rose, which was never anything you wanted. They sent me so many Icebergs and Autumn Damasks over the years, pretending they were something else. Both of those are nice roses, but how many of them does anyone need?

Now those assortment problems no longer exist. They only list the roses they actually have in stock, but the quality of the plants has plummeted. Unless Hortico has something no other Canadian nursery has, I'd rather buy from Palatine or Pickering. Pickering's not as good as it used to be, but it's still better than Hortico.

Oh, thanks so much, Zuzu!! I should have asked you before ordering earlier today.
Oh, well, it'll be interesting to see, I guess!

Well, I wish you the best of luck! Chelle always has good luck with her Hortico orders, and even though my experiences with Hortico have been mixed, many of the biggest and most beautiful rose bushes and climbers in my garden came from Hortico.

Zuzu, I shall let you know what arrives and maybe post pics, too! It'll be fun!

And what did you order?

Awakening, Evelyn, Hyde Hall, Royal Star & Garter and Rural England.

Wow! Those sound great. I don't have the last three, and in fact, Royal Star & Garter isn't even in the database, so I'd better create an entry for it in preparation for the photos you'll post there next year.

I can't make any predictions about the others, but the Austins should be good. Hortico has a good track record with me for roses by David Austin, Ping Lim, and J.B. Williams. I can't remember ever getting a bad rose by any of those three from Hortico.

Some photos from yesterday.

A few tiny flaws on the outer petals but Royal Sunset is such a gorgeous rose as it unfurls!



Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale has several blooms on it right now, the bush itself is so healthy looking and these blooms are just a vibrant glow in the garden!



Penelope is giving me a few more blooms along the end of this single long stem. The cooler weather gives it the pink touches.



This is one of my favorite abutilons, Victor Reiter, because it's the only one I have ever seen with these flared out blooms, most are more of a closed bell shape.

Love that color on the Royal Sunset rose. Really pretty!

Beautiful, Sue! Love Penelope.

Regrettably, I have to take back what I said about Hortico and the Austins. I just remembered the problems I had trying to buy Cressida from them. After trying to order it numerous times and receiving rugosas and various other obvious non-Cressidas from them, I've given up on that one.

Sue, your Brothers Grimm photos are incredible! Anyone who doesn't already have that rose must be lusting for it after looking at them.

Yikes! Now I am really frightened, Zuzu! But I really appreciate the heads up!!

I only just now looked at their Watchdog rating and see it is abysmal.

I shall be more careful next time...hmmm...

But wouldn't it be wonderful if they have reverted back to the good practices they once had? If your order arrives looking good, then we'll all be able to order from them without worrying too much. Chelle has had only good experiences with Hortico, so the years when we all had problems may have been anomalous.

Janice, I ordered some of the same climbers from Brushwood. They looked so healthy upon arrival that I went ahead and planted them in the ground, even though it is really late in the season for us. We'll have to compare notes on growth! We've had a couple of hard freezes and they still look wonderful. I'll mulch them really well after this next warm front later next week. We'll be back up in 60's for Thanksgiving, but after that, it should stay cool, and the roses should slow down. I'm kind of wishing I had asked for my Palatine order to be shipped this fall. So many of the roses I ordered are now listed as sold out. I hope they have a separate greenhouse for sold roses with an armed guard at the door.