Great sale on David Austin roses....

[eks6426]

I found a great place to get David Austin roses bareroot for about $4.00 each.

http://www.parkwholesalegrowers.com/index.php?osCsid=f5cb71b5196a2fb289f0344a93af9667

I ordered several about 3 weeks ago and they are already leafed out. The canes aren''t as big as the $20 roses but for $4.00 I know they''ll grow.

They also have several other types of roses and perennials. Shipping is pretty reasonable too.

 

[Mara]

ID...just be sure to give those roses LOTS of attention for a while...when you say the canes aren't as big it probably means the roses are younger and/or were not treated well growing up, so they will need extra care to grow nice and big, and I would even pinch buds off them for a while before letting them bloom. Let the rose grow and be strong in leaves and roots first before blooms...they take so much out of the plant.

It's pretty interesting that they are still shipping bareroot roses in June, most reputable places stop shipping bareroot in March or April as the climates while traveling are typically not that kind to bareroot, causing alot of stress on the plant, and by then they should be in the ground anyhow.

I don't know about Park's affiliations, but their website gives me that Michigan Bulb vibe, aka bad news cheapo stuff! Keep us posted on how they grow. For me I'd rather spend the extra $$ and get something that has 4-5 super thick strong canes which means the rose is a little older, was cared for very well before being barerooted and sold, and I won't have to baby it as much...especially since it goes in a pot on my patio where it needs more care to begin with as my patio gets very hot. Not as fun as if I had a big acre of land to plant in with lots of varieties to try and things to experiment with, then I wouldn't mind trying out the $4 roses to see what happened.

Though I am tempted...they do have a few Austins I covet, though I really don't need any more roses on the patio...hehee.

 

[eks6426]

Mara--Yeah, I know I will have to baby these roses quite a bit. But they were actually not too far off in size from the ones I got directly from David Austin. They are associated with Wayside Gardens... http://www.waysidegardens.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?catalogId=10067&storeId=10151&langId=-1&mainPage=page1

In my climate (zone 5b) getting roses to survive the winter is always tricky, so I have a hard time justifying the $20 roses because they might not come back no matter what I do. If they do make it through the winter, then they are keepers. Oddly enough some of my best roses are home center clearance types. This is my first try with the David Austins...I have 2 from David Austin directly and 3 clearance Parkswholesale ones. I''ll be curious to see how they all do NEXT year.

 

[Mara]

that''s true re the overwintering iffnyness ID...I''d be SOO bummed if I spent $30 on a rose and loved on it all year long then it died over the winter. anyway let me know how they fare, if shipping is not too insane I may get Pat Austin. I am a total sucker for the english roses though honestly they made the worst cut flowers ever. I just love their big floppy happy quartered flowers and the amazing scents!!

 

[eks6426]

Mara--I have Pat Austin...she''s one of the Parkswholesale ones I bought. She has been the last to leaf out. She has just a few leaves for me now. But she''s going to get babied because I thought the orange was a fun color.

I read on gardenweb.com some tips for helping Austin''s be better cut flowers. Don''t know if you tried any of them, but here''s the link. I''d be curious to know if conditioning works.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/roses/msg0619135910092.html?10

http://ars.org/About_Roses/conditioning.htm