zuzu said:I bet they would care if they were to find out that they're paying hybrid tea prices for minis, or that they're paying $39.95 for a "2013 new introduction" they might already have had in their gardens for the last two or three years.
And who wouldn't know something's fishy if a hybrid tea grows to only 2 feet tall (unless, of course, it's one of those own-root hybrid teas from Vintage Gardens or Rogue Valley that were never meant to grow on their own roots)?
I've found in my Hunts here that people who buy roses buy them basically as a "pretty flower" and view them almost as an annual. I have yet to find a serious rosarian in my shopping escapades. Most people here can't tell the difference between a floribunda, a hybrid tea, a grandiflora, and a climber. But then again, most nurseries don't have serious rosarians selling their roses, either. Only Tagawa's Nursery, that I know of, actually has a rosarian working and she's always so busy doing this, that, & the other that getting a few minutes to talk to her is pretty hard. If I happen to be looking at roses & I see someone with a befuddled look on their face, I usually ask them if there's something I can do to help them decide (I usually suggest one of each - that's the easiest way to decide! Especially for both roses & chocolate.). They then usually turn to me gratefully & start asking questions about color & smell. I have yet to have someone ask about size and when I warn someone that X rose can & will get 4-5' tall & about 4' around, they always look at me like I'm talking about a tree. Roses just don't get that big, do they? Yes, they do. I then use my phone, connect to this website here, & show them pictures of my roses. I rarely show them pictures of roses from other people - mainly because in some parts of the US (Zuzu & Sue, I'm talking about you) you can plant Cheerios & grow a donut tree. Here in CO, things are a lot harder to grow due to short season, bad soil, altitude, & drought. So when I show them what *I* grow, then they can see what *they* can grow (most people in the metro don't have the wind problem I do.. I'm on the eastern plains so I get the wind much worse than, say, Tabby does.).
