OK, I want opinions! I have a number of roses that I've gotten from various local nurseries, plus the ones I've gotten at the Big Boxes. Only 1 nursery (Tagawa's) grows their roses inside their facility, which is like a hothouse. Nick's Gardens gets their roses from a distributor (which one, I don't know). Paulinos grows their roses as well, but their roses are in an unheated Quonset hut that's pretty big. It only protects from wind/rain, but not from cold. Big Boxes, of course, get their roses from a distributor or two. Tagawa's & Paulino's gets the little bareroots from Weeks, Star, J&P, etc etc and grow them out. Tagawa's grows them out in 3gal plastic pots. Paulino's grows them out in 3-4gal (not sure) cardboard pots that you're supposed to bury (I never do).
Enough with background. Almost every single rose I got from Tagawa's either didn't make it at all with this past winter, or looks like it has winter kill almost all the way down to the ground (2-6" of green). And, all the roses I bought last year from Paulino's, including my Stainless Steel, which was a pretty crappy rose all summer, looks like they pulled through just fine. I did the "hardening off" process with Tagawa's roses, bringing them in at night for 2 weeks before actually planting them.
DH doesn't want me to buy any roses from Tagawa's this year if they all croaked, which is reasonable. Does a "hothouse" babyhood mean that much with roses? Mind you, everyone was in the ground by late April, so it's not like I was planting them in the middle of October (like I did with some roses I got from RU.. and they all pulled through, even the single bare stick I have!).
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