"Mceezee" wrote in message
...

I was in Home Depot this afternoon - they had some rose bushes advertised
for
$3.97 - I almost picked one up but wasn't sure about the "quality" of
these
rose bushes - I have had other "cheap" ones in the past that didn't make
it.
These were fully guaranteed up to one year though. I still may go back
and
purchase one this weekend.

The insidious problem of Rose Mosaic Virus may not manifest itself in a rose
for 3 or more years---long after the warranty expires. Most of the
suppliers of cheap roses in this country have fields riddled with RMV
infected stock which they then pass along at wholesale prices to big box
stores and to consumers who have no idea about the complex of diseases that
can debilitate and ultimately kill a rose. Most people think they can't
grow roses because they are "fussy", never realizing that they growers have
built in an "expiration date" into the merchandise that keeps them from ever
succeeding in the first place. Rose Mosaic Virus may manifest itself in
mosaic like symptoms on the leaves in early spring, or subtle watermarking,
or vein clearing, or a combination of all of these symptoms----or NO
physically identifying symptom at all other than "failure to thrive". If
you've ever grown a cheapo rose purchase and done the soil prep properly,
put it in full sun, sprayed it for foliar diseases, and it still didn't
thrive, then you may be one of the victims of the low cost rose growers with
dirty stock.

Besides, much of the time, these cheapo roses are mislabeled and poor
quality to begin with. Last year, I saw row after row of obviously
mislabeled roses at HD. The low cost "canners" will often take whatever is
left over from a big wholesale order and put whatever label on it they think
will sell (that is out of patent) and resell it at below wholesale to the
big box stores. A red rose--that's Mr. Lincoln. A white one--that's JFK.
To someone who knows a bit about roses, it's totally obvioius that it's
Altissimo and Sally Holmes instead! But, most of the public won't know, and
they view roses as disposable creatures anyway rather than plants that are
able to give 100+ years of joy and beauty if properly selected and planted.

So, if you want to grow a rose as an annual, and don't care about if it's
properly named, and want to financially reward criminal business practices,
then go ahead and purchase a big box store roses. If you want to invest in a
rose as a lifetime home improvement project, then seek out the smaller
nurseries that carry J&P (attempting to get all of their stock virus free)
or Weeks (ditto) roses. (Avoid Star or Certified) There are also many small
own root nurseries that sell mail order and have the expertise to help you
select a rose that will be suited to your climate and gardening style. At
www.chambleeroses.com/ roses cost $10 to be delivered to your door. And,
you can't beat the quality and service of a family run business. They'll
even try to talk you out of a rose if they think it won't thrive in your
garden under your care regimen. Try and get that at Home Depot!

Sunflower
MS 7b