Viewing post #149436 by zuzu

You are viewing a single post made by zuzu in the thread called Vintage Gardens closing in 2013.
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Sep 13, 2011 11:17 PM CST
Plants Admin
Name: Zuzu
Northern California (Zone 9a)
Region: Ukraine Charter ATP Member Region: California Cat Lover Roses Clematis
Irises Celebrating Gardening: 2015 Plant Identifier Garden Sages Plant Database Moderator Garden Ideas: Master Level
Maybe I won't miss Vintage Gardens when it's gone. The last shipment I received, a few months ago, was full of decent-sized, healthy, and robust roses. They were much larger than usual. I wasn't sure whether it was because Vintage had stepped up its game or because most of the bands were from Eurodesert. Today I received four more in the mail and they're deplorable. They're the tiny size and sickly color of the bands I used to get from Heirloom. Worse yet, one of them is a Eurodesert band. Living at Vintage these past few months didn't do it any good, that's for sure.

The bands I received from Heirloom and Rogue Valley about a month ago were far superior to the ones that came from Vintage today.

There's also something else. Maybe their rooting technique is not as good as it should be or maybe their mother plants are sick. There are certain Vintage roses that I've tried to grow more than once. I've bought three Tom Brown bands from Vintage, for instance. I only have one left and it's still about 5 inches tall after four years in my garden. I just assumed it was one of those roses that hates to grow on its own roots, but now Heirloom carries Tom Brown. The one I just received from Heirloom was small when it arrived, but it's already about 8 inches tall and has two blooms on it. Maybe it'll turn out to have been mislabeled, but maybe it's the real thing, in which case I'll suspect that something's wrong at Vintage.

Rogue Valley now carries Almondeen. My Almondeen from Vintage grew to about 5 inches after 3 or 4 years and is now on its way out. It kept dying back and now it's no more than 2 inches tall. The Almondeen I bought from Rogue Valley about a month ago is already 8-10 inches tall and is not a "one-cane wonder," which is what many Vintage roses seem to remain forever, never producing new basal shoots.

There's no denying that some roses from Vintage are great. I have some really big and healthy roses that came here as bands from Vintage, but there are others that seem to be just a waste of time and money. I hope other nurseries start selling more roses like Tom Brown and Almondeen. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Chamblee grew all of the roses Vintage grows? The mortality rate for Chamblee roses is almost nil.

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