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Zuzu
Sebastopol, CA
(Zone 9a)
June 17, 2008
1:55 AM Post #5115512
| Many of my roses were bought locally this year, mainly from Vintage Gardens and Garden Valley Ranch, but I also ordered roses by mail from many nurseries. Here's how they stacked up:
I ordered own-root roses from Amity, Chamblee, Moore's, Northland, Rogue Valley, and Roses Unlimited. I had no bad experiences with any of them.
Chamblee's roses seemed smaller than usual, but I received them in early January, so that may have been the reason. I had post office problems with my Northland delivery, but Carol at Northland came through like a champ, so Northland gets an A+ for customer service. Rogue Valley surprised me in a good way by telling me a couple of the 1-gallon roses weren't up to their shipping standards, so they were holding them back and letting them grow more. Roses Unlimited is certainly the winner for beautiful and big rose bushes, but the shipping charges for me are $8 per rose, so the all-round winners, when I compare the size of the rose bushes to the price and the shipping costs, are Moore's and Amity, but Amity wins the grand prize because of its bigger selection.
I also bought dozens of own-root roses from Sequoia, but they're out of business now, so my enthusiastic recommendation doesn't help anyone else.
I ordered minis from Nor'East, and they were great, as usual.
I ordered bare-root plants from Regan's, Palatine, Pickering, Rosemania, Hortico, and Jackson & Perkins. The J&P experience was a fiasco from start to finish, but I've discussed it in a separate thread. Regan's, Pickering, and Rosemania sent nice plants, as usual, and Hortico sent nice plants in the beginning of the year and not-so-nice plants at the end of May. I'm going to blame the bad plants on the time of year, because I love all of the other roses I've ever bought from Hortico, and because they'll be replacing the bad shipment this fall.
Palatine is so far above all the rest that there's no comparison. Their prices are higher than the prices of other Canadian suppliers, but they're lower than the prices charged by most U.S. nurseries. Palatine's shipping costs are also lower than the rates charged by most U.S. nurseries. The Palatine bare-root plants, however, are much bigger than anyone else's, with more canes, longer canes, more roots, and longer roots. Just phenomenal.
So, the clear winners are Amity for own-root roses and Palatine for bare-root roses. They both offer a wide selection, healthy plants, low prices and shipping costs, and great customer service.
Those are my experiences for this year. What are yours? |
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