Last year I made the mistake of buying from Edmunds late in the season at their $100 for 10 sale. I was tempted to pronounce three or four DOA; and the rest looked pretty terrible when I planted them in the first week of June. The weather was unseasonably cool and I watered them every day to keep the roots moist. I got one flower from Bolivar. New Zealand survived, and thrived. The rest promptly died. So... I got NZ for $100 on sale! That must make it a pretty special rose.
Still, I knew that much of the problem was that it was a late sale. And part of the problem was that Edmunds had just changed hands. Jungs was having problems integrating the two businesses. I attributed the bad experience to bad timing and ordered again this year. What I got looked much better. Many of the roses are beginning to put out foliage after having been in the ground for about two or three weeks. Cupcake and Gourmet Popcorn have conspicuous foliage. Berries 'n' Cream and Europeana are a little farther behind. Dublin Bay, planted where it will get a little shade on its roots, is still far from sprouting leaves, but is quite green and full of thick canes. In any case, the order contained a dozen cultivars or so and I'll know in a year whether it was a good choice.
Earlier experience with them had been mixed, with most of the HTs I got dying quickly. But, then, where I lived at the time, that was what HTs did.
