Home Depot out here just carries Knock Out and Drift roses for the most part. Lowes gets a few HTs in around Mothers Day, but they are wildly misnamed. I picked up 3 Flamingo Kolorscapes this weekend at Lowes. They were only $3. Local nurseries carry Weeks roses, but I think only 1 has Star, and they are way overpriced.
Austin roses sent me a questionnaire this spring asking me to evaluate my order and I wish I had. I asked them not to substitute and yet they did. They sent a one-cane Strawberry Hill in place of the NEWER rose I had ordered! Turned out the Strawberry Hill grew better than the others I ordered. Still...
Some of the biggest and best roses I got this year were from Brecks (gasp!) in a late season 5/$20 deal. I wasn't expecting much, because they were offering roses of 5 colors for $20, then the next week, 5/$10.. I ended up with Miss Congeniality, Pretty Woman Rose, Doris Day, Smokin Hot, Royal Amethyst, Yabba Dabbo Doo, Pink Smoothie, Grand Amore, and a few others because once I saw how good the first order was, I bought more. Sadly, I killed Smokin Hot. Totally my fault. The others are doing better than some full price roses I planted in the spring. I think it is because I started them in large pots under the shadehouse where I could control conditions better. I moved them into the ground in August and they transitioned well. Next year, I may start all the bare root roses in pots. I know people on here have suggested that forever, but I'm a slow learner...
Someone will need to remind me come spring!
Kansas' spring weather is so unpredictable that it is hard to set a good delivery date for bare roots. I decided to have Palatine ship in November, and the rest in the spring. Surely one season will be suitable.
