Every year I marvel at what a bargain the shipping rates are. I'm having eight roses shipped from Ontario to California for $25.75. If I were to order eight roses from Roses Unlimited, which is much closer than Ontario, I'd pay $64 in shipping, plus a $5 handling charge.

Zuzu - exactly. Plus I only lost 1 from Palatine and .. well, a lot more than 1 from RU. Palatine is my go to place now. I just got in their catalog today.. *swoon*

I did the math a different way. I looked at it as I could buy three roses at $28 bucks apiece with shipping, or 12 roses at $20 apiece with shipping. Look at all the money I saved buying more roses!

I like your logic.

I actually taught Formal Logic way back when. Way back, when I had a brain. Do colleges even offer that any more?

I took an introduction to logic as a pass-fail course my senior year in college. We had two textbooks. One was an introduction to logic: syllogisms and stuff like that. The second was a book about fallacies. The back cover had one of those marketing blurbs that people are used to reading when they look at books. But what was special about this one is that while each sentence - on its face - proclaimed the value of the book, it simultaneously illustrated one of the fallacies taught in the book. As my professor, Dr Tsugawa pointed out, "Fallacies are much more compelling than reason."

Back on topic ...

I placed an order with Palatine. Now I think I need to ask them to split it into two shipments so I can plant all the roses I receive in a shipment within a day or two. I'll dig holes in the garden through the winter. Come February there will be holes everywhere. Then, when the shipment comes, I'll put the roses in. It worked pretty well this year.

The Palatine roses in my garden continue to perform better than any others, with the cheap Lowes $5 roses coming in a close second place. I'm afraid most of the roses in my order are boring workhorse roses like Europeana. I did branch out a bit with Roxy and Water Lily. And I couldn't resist Ascot and Rosanna which I will plant together. There are climbers Harlekin and Rosarium Uteresen. And a handful of hybrid tea roses like Moonstone, Paradise, Charles de Gaulle, and Shocking Blue - also to be planted together. Janet Charnochan, Berolina and Perfect Moment round out the HT list. Because South Africa is virtually the only rose blooming at this moment, and it is spectacular, I ordered more.

I haven't ordered from them. They seem to ship either too late or too early for my zone. If they had something I really wanted, I suppose that I could have it shipped in March and keep it alive inside until May, but it would be a challenge. Our last frost date is May 30. October is too late for me to plant here. I haven't had much success with late season plantings.

I am happy with the own root roses available from other sources for the time being. I would like to try roses grafted on Multiflora rootstock at some time, but I can wait. My small garden is getting rather crowded.

We get frost here well into May, most years, even though we can get 80F weather in February. Spring can be a really tricky time to plant leafed-out roses, but bare root roses planted here in March and early April do just fine. It rarely gets below 20F in April, so frost is not a big problem. I don't think I have lost any bare root roses to frost damage - even ones planted in mid March. I do need to water them carefully - at least three times a week - through the first year.

This thread had me browsing Palentine's roses a couple weeks ago on my MIL's behalf. She just pulled up all her struggling roses and is having that whole garden bed redone... Her roses were spectacular for years and years, but over the past few years the trees have just been shading the garden too much. The new shape is further into the yard and has one corner that will be sunny enough for roses. The rest of the garden will be given over to more shade-loving plants, and I'm trying to select some that she can cut & bring in (like hydrangeas).

Since she's downsizing from several dozen hybrid tea roses to maybe 5, I wanted to see about getting her some really special ones. She'd like me to help her put them in next spring, but I'm not sure when we'll be going down exactly, and it might be later then when we'd be able to put them in bare root... so...

If I have bare root roses shipped to me in MD, could I pot them up in 2-3 gallon nursery pots and plant them in her NC garden once they've leafed out? I don't really "do" roses, so I don't know... If it would be better to plant them bare root and dormant, I'll just have them sent to her directly.

Thanks!

Palatine's roses usually have such long roots (and so many of them) that they might not even fit into a 5-gallon container. It's definitely best to plant them bare root and dormant. That also eliminates the possibility of transplant shock.

That makes sense. Thanks for the answer! I'll just have to place an order and plan our vacation accordingly.

'Red Intuition' is really striking... those of you who are ordering or considering it, do you know anything about its fragrance? (With limited space, we're focusing on "very fragrant" when possible)

I have it and I've never noticed any fragrance, but fragrance isn't that important to me, so it may have some. It's a florists rose, so it's unlikely to be very fragrant.

What colors does your Mom like? Maybe we can give some suggestions for good candidates.

I think she's never seen a rose she didn't think was beautiful. 'Sweet Surrender' and 'Dainty Bess' are two sentimental favorites for her, so you can see she likes both very full blooms and sparse ones. Since they're both pastel pink, we'll probably choose other colors for the rest. I'm trying to put together a list of suggestions, because I think she's going to find the selection on the site both fantastic and a little overwhelming.

If I were shopping for me, I'd pick Broceliende or Double Delight (we've seen this one at a local garden & adored it), Duftztauber 84, Neptune or Charles deGaul, Beverly or Heirloom, and Valencia.

Any suggestions for favorite cutting roses (great substance, long lasting, stems at least 12", "very fragrant" a definite plus) would be really welcome! Humidity is an issue in NC, but the garden will get regular water (and food) via soaker hose or drip irrigation.

(Actually, if I were really shopping for me, I wouldn't be looking at tea roses but at shrub roses, because I have this impression that they're a little less fussy...)

I'm off to bed, Critter, but I love your taste in roses. I would choose Double Delight, Duftzauber 84 (this one's official name is Royal William), Charles de Gaulle, Beverly, and Valencia. Great looking, fragrant, and easier to grow than the other three on your list.

Thanks very much for your input!! "Easier to grow" is always good, even for my green-thumbed MIL.

FWIW, I planted Duftzauber 84 and Valencia from Palatine here last year and both did very well in their first season. I have always loved Double Delight, but have failed with it twice on the east coast. I do plan on trying again here. I once saw Sweet Surrender growing in a municipal garden in NJ where it did very well. Charles de Gaulle is on my list for next year.

Thanks for your input, Steve! I'm pretty sure 'Double Delight' is one that does well at the Reynolda House gardens, so hopefully it just likes Winston-Salem. The best thing that 'Sweet Surrender' has going for it, IMO, is its incredible perfume (very "attar of roses").

My MIL usually plants bare root roses in early spring, because that's when they're available locally, but I may look into fall planting for her area... She's having the garden worked on this month, so somebody may be able to plant them in for her. The NC extension service says "early spring or fall" for planting roses but doesn't say how late in fall is still OK.