On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, "Mark. Gooley" wrote:
Jackson and Perkins is (are, if you're a Brit) now offering
some roses on their own roots, including some Austin roses
one can get from no other source in the US (well, they claim
that they are J & P Exclusives, and I assume that that's what
that means). The own-roots also include the grotesquely
colored "Disneyland" floribunda, which from the pictures
strikes me as so ugly that I have to have it, in order to put
next to Tropicana and other such freaks.

On the flip side, J&P tends to introduce roses and then
dump them; they don't offer a very wide selection, and
there are a dozen smaller growers more worthy of getting
my business.

What would you do?

Mark., last big order was species roses in tubes, from
ForestFarm in Oregon, a company I can recommend


I don't order from J&P anymore, and it has nothing to do with being
fashionable. It is because I have had several bad experiences with them in
recent years and ran out of faith in their ability to do or make anything
right. This was mail order though and if you can purchase their roses in
person from one of the warehouse stores that carry them, it would be a
different story. I don't care for waxed canes though either, and that is
what I see offered from J&P at these outlets. But if they have a rose you
want and you can't find it anywhere else, go ahead and buy it. Odds are you
probably won't have any problems.

I do know that Chamblee's is now offering many Austin roses on their
own-roots, if that's mainly what you're interested in and are looking for
an alternative source. You'd have to go to J&P for Disneyland, though.

Mike