These roses from Rogue Valley were shipped too dry. I suppose they didn't want the packing box to get soggy, but they went too far in the opposite direction. The bottom of the box was covered with potting soil that had fallen out of the bands. The box was very long, so this is a photo of only one part of it. This is not a fine smattering of soil, the layer is at least 1/4 of an inch deep.
This package did not dry out en route. It was shipped from Oregon to California. The plants were dried out too. This is the worst example:
In this next case shown below, most of the soil had fallen out of the band. You can see that the tender white feeder roots are exposed. This is the same company that offers this advice in its planting directions:
"Drying out the roots can happen in minutes and is lethal."
Here's a shot of all five plants. You'll have to enlarge the photo to see all of them. I was not happy about this order. For one thing, I had to go out in the rain and break open a bag of potting soil so that I could fill the bands back up. I didn't have to water the plants because it's raining.
To Rogue Valley's credit, I have to say that they held back two of the roses in my order because they were still too small to ship. I appreciate that because I've received far too many roses in the past from other nurseries that were too small to survive shipping shock.
I also appreciate the free rose. Two of the roses in this order cost $16.95 (the same price as Heirloom's roses), but I received a dollar discount on each. Two others were only $10.00, and I received the dollar discount on them too. The fifth was free because it's a rose that lost its tag, so it was just sent as a bonus.
From past experience I know that the free roses Rogue Valley sends out can be genuine treasures. A few have been nondescript ramblers, but most are roses I would have bought at full price. Identifying them can be a challenge, but they're free, so who can complain?
The roses in this order are Taffeta, Clementina Carbonieri, Sunny Side Up, Blessed Child, and the mystery free rose. I already have all of these but Blessed Child. Taffeta, Clementina Carbonieri, and Sunny Side Up are wonderful enough that I need backups in case something happens to the ones I already have. The two being held for later shipment are The Dahlia Rose and Halloween, both of which I already have.
I love these happy coincidences when two rose orders arrive at the same time and I can do an illustrated comparison of the two nurseries.
Today I received three roses from Roses Unlimited (Cafe, Prairie Lass, and Chantal Merieux) and four roses from Heirloom (Celtic Pride, Christine, English Sachet, and The Fisherman's Cot, which Heirloom inexplicably has renamed 'Royal Ballgown').
The first comparison is of the packing boxes, from the front and from the top:
The box on the left is the one from Roses Unlimited. The small box on the right is from Heirloom. Ironically, the one on the right contains more roses than the one on the left.
New, here's a comparison of the plants:
The three in back are from Roses Unlimited and the four little darlings in front are from Heirloom.
And here's the funny part. The roses from Heirloom cost more. They were $16.95 each and the roses from Roses Unlimited were $16.00 each, with the exception of one, which was $17.00. What a difference a nickel makes! Heirloom's shipping charge was lower, but by only $2.00, which seems ludicrous in view of the relative sizes and weights of the packages.
The roses from Heirloom are not dead, although they're much drier than the others, so the packing method was not as effective. They will live, but imagine how much longer it will take them to take off in the garden.
I remember reading reviews of Heirloom in Garden Watchdog. Whenever people complained about the minuscule size of the plants, Heirloom's allies would jump in and accuse those reviewers of knowing nothing about own-root roses. Well, Roses Unlimited sells only own-root roses, so what's Heirloom's other excuse? Of course, those people would also proudly proclaim that they never bought roses from any other nursery, completely oblivious to the fact that this divested them of any basis of comparison and therefore made their reviews pointless.
Ridiculous Jackson & Perkins was supposed to deliver my order before the end of October, but now it's not coming until spring (if then).
They never sent the e-mail confirmation with my order number either, but this is the one customer service gave me: #816705. This seems like the ideal place to keep it, rather than on a post-it that's destined to get lost.
My order, if it ever arrives, will consist of:
I also have VG738 circled on the piece of paper with the J&P order number. Don't know what it is, but I'll note it here so I can throw away the piece of paper.
I've never ordered anything from Sequim before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The website was easy to navigate and the order arrived quickly. I ordered the plants (9 of them) on October 23rd and received them on November 3rd.
The packing box was stuffed with newspaper, not styrofoam peanuts, so that was good news right away. Lucy had to inspect the box, of course.
The plants are shipped in little band-type pots, 5.5" tall and 3" square. Wet paper is placed over the surface of the growing medium and is rubber-banded in place to prevent the medium from spilling out in transit. The plants are then wrapped in newspaper, and the tag for each plant is then taped to the outside of the newspaper-wrapped plant.
I ordered Correa pulchella, PCH Iris 'Filoli,' Primula auricula 'Arundel,' Primula auricula "Doublet,' Primula 'Belarina Nectarine,' Primula 'Belarina Pink Ice,' Primula 'Penumbra,' Primula 'Tie Dye,' and Sempervivum 'Flamingo.'
The plants are all quite healthy and good-sized. The Correa even has some buds and one bloom.
I can recommend this nursery without reservation. The prices were reasonable. I paid $71.55 for the nine plants and $18.00 for shipping. I'd give you a link to their website, but Firefox won't let me, so I'll come back on IE to do it.
Some of the roses I bought from Charlene's ridiculous disgruntled customer are doing well. Most are gone, I suspect, but they did look quite sad when I planted them. She had let them dry out and mailed them to me by slow boat to China ($8 shipping, in contrast to the $20 she collected from me in advance), so most of them were dead when they arrived, and she had removed all of the tags and rubber-banded them into one big bunch, so who knows which ones survived? Anyway, this was the original list, so I'll just have to match any survivors to these names if and when they bloom:
8 Belinda's Dream
3 Shreveport
2 Wild Blue Yonder
1 Dark Lady
