I too have had mixed results with roses from Heirloom. They seem to be better now than a couple of years ago. I have watched J and P go down hill and will never order from them again. Half dead plants and no response from the company.
As Vapor stated, some of the smaller companies are great. Hummingbird Roses, Burlington Nursery, Northland Rosariam have all sent me beautiful plants. Burling's can be small but they have all survived and thrived. I also have had good luck with Rogue Valley. They did send me a mislabled plant but once they saw my picture of it, they immediately replaced it with the correct one. The rest of them have been fine. Roses Unlimited also has sent me great plants. DA has also sent me great plants as well (they were big!).
I had to get some extra's couplings for my drip system yesterday and wandered through Home Depot's "rose" section. The plants in pots looked awful! Virtually no selection to speak of whatsoever. Just a lot of Oklahoma's with bent canes. Ugh! I felt so bad for the roses. I was hoping to come across a Mr. Lincoln (it seemed that you had a choice of either a red or a yellow rose--no other colors were there). I wanted to give him a sniff as I don't think I have smelled him before. No Mr. Lincoln, unfortunately.
