"Mike" wrote
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.

Yeah, I usually don't see much I want from J&P in discount
stores (but I have a few I got for $2 each at Home Despot a
couple months ago, in pots of course, after black spot had all
but denuded them, including a Scentimental and I think a
Fourth of July). It all looks grafted, too. Sure, I could take
cuttings (and probably I will for those, damn the plant patents,
full steam ahead), but I'm LAZY. I've had good luck with
mass-produced bare-roots (just plant them in pots and give
them a few months; planting directly in the soil seems to kill
about 3 in 4 of them; I got a mess of stuff on closeout from
Wayside Gardens [yeah, yeah, I guess I've already given in
to the Dark Side, but IT WAS ON SALE UP TO 75% OFF]
in May and every plant pulled through [Frederic Mistral...
how can a nominal Hybrid Tea look so good and perform
so well? It's UNNATURAL!]). The only Hot Cocoa bushes
(not so nasty a color...almost, well, pleasant) I've seen
locally looked both grafted and overpriced.

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.

I've had good stuff from Chamblee's. They look so tiny in
those wee pots, but they're healthy, and the price is right.
Or for Austins I can drive to Sarasota (Sara's Odor, for
Floridians and perhaps Xanth fans) and give Mr. and Mrs.
Muncy my business instead. But the Austins in the J&P
catalog (or check www.jacksonandperkins.com instead)
aren't roses I've seen offered elsewhere, and for own-root
aren't too bad in price, especially if they've been grown
to satisfy the expectations of people used to buying grafted.

Mark., embracing the Dark Side and ready to demand a
refund if they screw up