I'm sorry to hear that Garden Watchdog is declining. - But glad to learn that I'm not the only one avoiding Facebook!

Zuzu - lol, I thought I was the last person on the planet to get on facebook. It's retarded, all my "friends" are whiners from HS (my "real" friends I talk to in person and never on FB), but you can't deny the sheer SIZE of it. That's why I was suggesting facebook.

But it saddens me about DG Watchdog. Really gone downhill, hasn't it.

Trish - I know you're lurking here. Do you think that Dave could start up a new Watch Dog (well, call it something else, of course) here? Or is that against the Non-Compete w/DG?

J&P is being extraordinarily good about customer service. After responding so quickly to my original complaint and promising me replacements, they informed me today that they are sending replacements for two of the roses and have refunded $30.83 to my credit card for the other three, which are sold out. Hooray! No merchandise credit!

Toni, when I lose touch with someone from my past, there's usually a very good reason. The last thing I want is for those people to rediscover me, and that's what might happen if I join Facebook.

Garden Watchdog has been declining for a while now. I informed them last year that several of the nurseries on their "Top 5" lists for modern roses, OGR's, and miniature roses no longer existed, and some actually had been out of business for years. You'd think they'd verify the existence of at least the top 5 in any category.

Zuzu, thanks for posting your experience with J&P. I've been tempted to order from them, but I've resisted. Pickering, Palatine, David Austin, ARE, VG, S&W, and RVR I've ordered from this year. So far so good. Half the BR plants are in the ground. Potted ones arrive in APR. This year was a big year for hope n (read also ordering roses for) the garden because I lost so few roses last year.

I've not been back to Dave's Garden for a while. Sad to hear the watchdog is falling apart.

Hi, Steve. Continue resisting.

I was disappointed with the S&W and RVR roses I've received this season, because they looked so inferior to the roses from other sources, but they are at least viable. I might not order from S&W and Edmunds' next year. Their roses are available elsewhere, even if it's sometimes necessary to wait another year. RVR is a different case, of course. Inferior or not, it's often the only choice.

I got a beautiful order of three roses from Palatine and I wouldn't hesitate to order from them again -- and then I ended up quite disappointed with my order of two 24" tree roses and one HT from Regan's. There was something wrong with each one of them! The HT bush had one single root that ended in the bud union -- not even another root to help hold it in the correct position! But so far it's still alive so I guess I should count my blessings there. And the trunks on each of the trees was missing a large section going up -- totally missing! One was missing the entire back half of the tree trunk! The happy one (KETCHUP AND MUSTARD, thank heavens) looks fine, has beautiful foliage and has some buds developing, but the VAVOOM tree is still sitting there, small sticks sticking out of the bud union and slowly turning brown, and I really don't think anything is going to happen there at this point. I immediately potted it up in a 5-gal. pot when I received it, and it's been protected under my slatted pergola ever since, but to no avail. Needless to say, I won't be purchasing again from Regan's (hope that's the correct spelling)...

I wasn't crazy about some of my Regan roses either, although they didn't have any major problems like missing pieces of the trunk. I think I might order only from Palatine next year. I really don't have any more room for any roses, but I probably can make space for 5 or 6 new palatine roses each year by taking out something else. I have some tiny roses from Vintage Gardens and Rogue Valley that are still under a foot tall after three or four years, and I'm much rather have some nice big Palatine roses in those spaces.

I shovel pruned 2 roses today ( ) but they both reverted to Dr. Huey & I don't have enough space to dedicate to one-time-ugly bloomers that grow to be about 8' tall. One used to be a Stainless Steel & the other was a Charisma. I'm not too sad about losing the Charisma as I have 5 of those, but I only have one other Stainless Steel (seems to be a fragile rose to me!) so I'm on the hunt for a really good one this year. I also transplanted my 6 Silvermounds (http://hcs.osu.edu/hcs/tmi/pla...) out of my pond area so I have more room for roses there. LOL! I can't wait until I get my Edmunds & Palatine roses! I'm thinking about trying Burling one more time. I lost almost 100% of her roses last year... they were just sooo tiny!!

Only 1 of my Burling babies made it. It was just a hot hot year, not easy for little roses.

Skiekitty said:
Trish - I know you're lurking here. Do you think that Dave could start up a new Watch Dog (well, call it something else, of course) here? Or is that against the Non-Compete w/DG?

Sorry- I'm just now catching up on some of my posts
Toni- one of the reasons (actually the main reason) we sold DG to begin with was due to the lawsuits and legal hassles of the watchdog. We really wanted out from under that. Seeing as how we do NOT intend to sell ATP, the last thing we want to do is to knowingly get into a similar situation.

That said, we do have a feature in mind, but we haven't worked the kinks out yet, nor have we found the time (but it is next on the list after the trading/inventory system!) It is different, but yet we hope that it at least provides people with recommendations on good companies.

We fought hard for the right to say that we do NOT have a non-compete with IB. We are free to make our gardening site as we see fit

Zuzu- I'm thrilled that you are posting your reviews on your blog!! Sorry for the hijack!!

Not a hijack at all, Trish. We always end up discussing every rose company on every other rose company's thread and then we push off from there to other topics. Regrettably for some, I'm sure, this is not a highly regulated or disciplined forum.

As for the blog, I knew I would be saying some unkind things about some companies, and I do remember the legal problems with Watchdog, so I thought a semi-concealed personal blog would be a better spot for my bad reviews than a more public location like GW.

Not to mention you have to specifically go looking for Zuzu's blog, and she could be discussing her kitties or shopping with Sue or anything.. it's not like she created the blog specifically to badmouth X,Y, & Z companies.

And Chaos is a lot more fun.

That's right, Toni. That's what I meant by semi-concealed. It's not a place someone logically would go to find reviews.

Chaos is my friend!