hey everyone Im sitting down about to place my orders for this year. the past several years I have pretty much stuck with chamblees and roses unlimited. what i want to know is who else is comparable to Ru in terms of price and size. The only reason Im asking is that I ran out of checks and I kind of just want to order and pay I know it sounds bad bc I love ru. I dont want bands if I can avoid it because I have slight rabbit problem so the bigger the better. I havnt checked yet but i think i missed my window at some of the bare root places. Thanks!

A Reverence for Roses sends out potted roses and they are nice sized roses. It's been a couple years since my order but I seem to remember gallon sized pots that I up potted to 2 gallon and kept them there for a year. Other people planted straight to the ground and had good luck also.

https://www.areverenceforroses...

Regan Nursery does bare root but are done taking orders until July. https://www.regannursery.com/

Amanda's right, Dana. A Reverence for Roses is a really good choice. They're low on stock right now, but they send exceptionally good plants and they have regular sales. Here's a couple of threads where we discussed the nursery in this forum and shared pictures of the plants we received.

The thread "New Rose Nursery" in Roses forum

The thread "A Reverence for Roses -- Big Sale" in Roses forum

thanks guys I forgot about them. I'm gonna go see what they have.

I placed my first order with High Country Roses a few weeks ago and received nice plants that were bigger than I expected. I placed a 2nd order with them that should arrive next week. The plants are comparable in size to those I've gotten from Chamblee's in the past.

This time of year, you are kind of limited because most of the bare root sellers have finished shipping. Edmunds sends good sized bare root plants and they are still shipping. Jackson and Perkins is still shipping bare roots, as are the other companies affiliated with them. YMMV with them.
As far as potted roses go, I agree with the others- High Country, ARE, A Reverence For Roses are all pretty reliable. ARE sends great big beautiful potted plants but you pay for shipping that dirt.
I would love to be within driving distance of Roses Unlimited. Of course if I were, I would also be wishing for a really big truck to haul the roses home.

For really good roses, wait until September and order from Palatine in Canada. Regan sent me good looking roots this year too, and as Amanda said, they start taking orders in JULY for shipping next February!
One more...amazingly, Home Depot's bagged roses this year have real nice roots on them, and they have some newer ones such as Francis Meilland, Canyon Road, Brick House.

thanks guys, I did place an order last night at high country thanks Neal, I don't think I have gotten plants from them before. I got drifts for my front landscape from chamblees. I'm on the hunt for lagerfeld. I'm waiting for pat at ru to get back to me it seems like every one else is sold out of that that one. They do have a great selection at a reverence for roses They are sold out of so much but I want to try them out. i wish my stupid tax return didn't take so long. Its tradition that I use that money. lol it keeps my husband quiet about my plant habit, apparently they had a ton of backup and mine "had a glitch in transmission" and was "in limbo until the glitch is fixed" and i just had to wait. It put me behind in my ordering. I know i got freshly rooted cuttings from heirloom before to my dismay. one is doing fabulous and huge and has followed me to 2 houses but i had to babysit it. I cant remember who else I had gotten tiny but healthy bands from which is why I was asking.

Sign up for the newsletter from A Reverence for Roses and you will be kept in the loop for restocks and sales. They only send emails out a few times a year so when they do you have to jump on it. They sell a lot to resellers which cuts into supply for the regular folks like us.

I was delighted with the bands I received last summer from A Reverence for Roses. The roots were contained in bands; but only just. The canes were a full 24 inches tall. Too long, I think, for rabbits to kill them. We shall see.

I received an order from ARE yesterday. The plants were a good size, and looked healthy. One comment I have is that they strip the roses of leaves, so it helps to receive the roses early in the season when other roses in the garden are essentially bare of leaves. I've found that receiving them later overstresses the new roses. It seems to me they simultaneously have to build roots in ground that is too warm and dry and grow shoots when the air is also too warm and dry (or the rose is geared up to make top growth in warm weather faster than the roots can support that growth .) But this may be a problem unique to my zip code.

I've been pretty happy with High Country Roses.

I completely understand the "No Bands" sentiment. This year is the first year I have had a good measure of success potting up bands from Rogue Valley Roses and keeping them through winter. A good portion of the ones that spent a year in larger pots will make it in the garden, I believe. Point is, many of the RVR cultivars I've tried have two advantages that predispose them to success: they have a kind of vigor and toughness, and they seem to have had a kind of care that helps them do well for some time after being moved to a bigger pot.

At this point I must add another caveat. I noticed today that one of my gallon pots had been tipped over. And I noticed that the new foliage at the tips of the canes was missing. So I infer that a rabbit has learned how to tip over pots in my garden and eat the fresh new growth. Another reason for planting taller plants...

Steve812 said:I was delighted with the bands I received last summer from A Reverence for Roses. The roots were contained in bands; but only just. The canes were a full 24 inches tall. Too long, I think, for rabbits to kill them. We shall see.

I received an order from ARE yesterday. The plants were a good size, and looked healthy. One comment I have is that they strip the roses of leaves, so it helps to receive the roses early in the season when other roses in the garden are essentially bare of leaves. I've found that receiving them later overstresses the new roses. It seems to me they simultaneously have to build roots in ground that is too warm and dry and grow shoots when the air is also too warm and dry (or the rose is geared up to make top growth in warm weather faster than the roots can support that growth .) But this may be a problem unique to my zip code.

I've been pretty happy with High Country Roses.

I completely understand the "No Bands" sentiment. This year is the first year I have had a good measure of success potting up bands from Rogue Valley Roses and keeping them through winter. A good portion of the ones that spent a year in larger pots will make it in the garden, I believe. Point is, many of the RVR cultivars I've tried have two advantages that predispose them to success: they have a kind of vigor and toughness, and they seem to have had a kind of care that helps them do well for some time after being moved to a bigger pot.

At this point I must add another caveat. I noticed today that one of my gallon pots had been tipped over. And I noticed that the new foliage at the tips of the canes was missing. So I infer that a rabbit has learned how to tip over pots in my garden and eat the fresh new growth. Another reason for planting taller plants...

ugg I've been on bunny patrol. every time I see one out the window I run to the screen door and slam it. Or let the dogs out. They never notice the bunny though. Im going to put up some type of barrier around some of my new roses. bunnies don't like to get into places they cant get out of fast. I read the best way to get rid of rabbits is make them feel unwelcome

..."make them feel unwelcome"...!

Unwelcome!

I spent most of the day in the garden today. And most of the time I was out there the deer were pacing up and down outside the fence as if to say "When will that pesky gardener finish planting roses? It's way past lunch time." I wish I could make them feel just a little more unwelcome, too.

In any case, not long after the roses get too tall for the rabbits they get tall enough for deer. My thinking is that at about 18 inches they are safe from both. So I'm wondering if I need to look for roses that grow very quickly to 18 inches in height, then grow horizontally ever after.

How is an 18" rose safe from deer?

The deer here stop eating fresh foliage that is much closer to the ground than that. At least usually. Maybe our deer have some kind of stiff neck problem not evident in Texas deer. Or maybe the rabbits have already stripped the roses to that height. They certainly concentrate on new foliage that is about waist height. (Once the rose buds are gone, of course.)