I've ordered from HR with good results but their prices are higher than other mail-order companies unless you'll be ordering enough to get free shipping. I live in Massachusetts and my roses always arrived in good condition.

sharon

I have ordered over ten this season from them and only one I am disappointed in . It's very small and not great looking. I hope it recovers. All the others I have ordered have looked great ! The shipping time is over a week for me. They send them without leaves and when they get here have already started sprouting new ones . I too wait for a sale on the ones I want and always order in pairs at least to get free shipping. All the ones I have had in the ground almost a month are looking really great to my eye . I like the bamboo sticks they send too , i find them helpful around the garden .

All the roses I have gotten from Heirloom (30) in the past couple of years have arrived healthy and packaged appropriately. All of them have done wonderfully in my garden. Their prices are higher than some other retailers, but I always order enough to get free shipping which makes it better. I also feel confident I am getting the correct roses when I order from them (makes a big difference). If they have what you want I wouldn't hesitate to order from them. Oh I almost forgot to tell you to check their clearance page for special deals =).

Dianela

Pv Picotee,

Boy, have you hit a raw nerve inquiring about ordering roses from Heirloom in many of the Roses Forum member's sensitivity center (wherever on our bodies it is located). To some of us, Heirloom is the nursery we love to hate...and for good reason. More on that later.

First, mail ordering is a necessary evil if you want special roses, even not so special roses, that are not available to you locally. It's the only way to get such roses.

Most of the big box places like Lowe's and Home Depot carry the Knock Outs, some Kordes or Austins, older, out of patent roses, and very little else. You really can't blame them because sales and profits are their goal, not supplying rose lovers with special varieties of roses.

Regarding ordering roses through the mail...

Most of the sources are reputable. However, expect to pay more, and receive smaller plants if they are own root.

Now, concerning Heirloom specifically. To be fair, their roses are well grown, have never failed to grow very satisfactorily for me, but the main gripe with them is their overpriced stock....just about double, even triple, what others charge for a comparable sized rose.

They do list a huge selection of varieties others don't carry. If no one else carries the rose you want, you bite the bullet and get it from Heirloom. If you can coordinate a rose purchase from Heirloom that corresponds to one of their frequent sales (put your email address on their customer's hotline...what ever they call it?), you will be sure to be alerted to their announcements of sales/promotions. That way you save some money.

Here is my list of reputable mail order nurseries:

Chamblee's Rose Nursery

Antique Rose Emporium

Angel Gardens

Heirloom Roses

Roses Unlimited

There are others that are good also, but I didn't list them because I have not had personal experience with them.

Again, my only gripe with Heirloom is their high price, not their rose quality or service. I have received foliage stripped roses from them that I believe were foliage stripped to hide diseased/insect damaged leaves...but the roses grew very well, just the same.

I have also received gallon sized pots from Heirloom containing roses that were not gallon sized plants, but they were healthy and satisfactory otherwise.

Hope you have success.

Moses

I ordered from Heirloom for the first time this spring and was so happy with my first order of 3 that I ordered 4 more. They are all as big and substantial as any I have received online in the last 5-6 years I've been ordering. Compared to the bands I've gotten in the past they probably have an additional year of growth. They came as well packaged as any I have received. Yes, they came having been striped of leaves and their literature indicated they would. Being under heavy disease pressure I'm rather pleased that I'm not introducing any additional strains to my garden's germ pool! Yes, they were more expensive, but I am a happy customer.

Here's a rose I received last year from another vendor as a band. (NOT Heirloom!) It's why I decided to pay more this year for roses. It lived but it's size is not untypical of what you get when ordering a band. If I have to pay an arm and a leg for shipping I decided to go ahead and pay for a bigger rose:

For me, there are too many places with the same size or bigger roses, for me to bother with heirloom. Maybe when I run out of roses from other places, but I doubt it will ever happen. The ones I got from Roses Unlimited are absolutely huge!

Here's the Jude the Obscure that Heirloom sent me.

Unfortunately this was the second time I've tried Jude and he doesn't like my climate. He is living at someone else's house now. The size that HR ships is much bigger than RU's gallons, and are about half the size of ARE's roses as shipped; High Country Roses sells bands, and the plant size is about the same in size as RU's gallons, if that is any help.

That's strange noseometer. Maybe my RU plants were huge because I picked them up, so no cutting for shipping? They were larger than my ARE, I was pleasantly surprised.

Wow - great info - common threads: HR a bit on the high side - Good quality -- two important pieces of info. I did note the high prices and only free shipping if over $50. Moses - thanks so much for the names of other vendors that you have dealt with. Most appreciated. There are a few nursery outlets near me that carry more variety than the big box stores - I should probably check them out before ordering online but did want info for possible purchases. Thanks again to all.

I would add to Moses’ list with one nursery. Burlington rose nursery, Bands, super price, shipping is USPS, and reasonable. I get many roses from her, and they all do well.

i have gotten incorrect varieties from Heirloom, and of course the roses are not virus free as they are claimed to be. That was a claim the previous owners made without understanding RMV IMO.

good luck with your roses

claire

I tried High Country Roses this year, and got good plants also. They come like half the size of a gal rose, but almost as big as plants that come in gal containers. Big enough that I'm going to put them in the ground without worry. Photo of Roses Unlimited.

witchygirrl- those are gorgeous. My RU roses are usually much smaller. For mailorder in my experience Northland Rosarium seems to have the largest roses. I have ordered from everyone listed except Burlington. The only problem I ever had was spider mites from one vendor a couple of times. A nuisance but not a deal killer.

Now, if only spring would get here!

sharon

Sharon I'm beginning to think it all just depends on timing or something. Maybe they all are luck of the draw in size. lol

Here's pictures of high country and rogue valley and I've always recieved excellent plants from RU, Burlington and longagoroses. Correction I already took the pictures off my phone but you can see them in my thread, in antique rose forum, Rogue Valley Rose's are on the way. I also know I posted pictures of longagoroses Rose's before let me see if I can find the thread and I'll run take pictures of Burlington, just got them in, they are reported though.

Here's the thread where I posted pictures of Rose's from Longagoroses

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/3861120/anyone-have-some-cuttings-of-crepuscule-they-want-to-share?n=21

Here's the one for High Country and Rogue Valley

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5244309/rvr-order-on-the-way?n=23

And here is pictures from Burlington Roses

Edited to say I always order from Rose's Unlimited summer sale and recieve great Rose's and I ordered only a few times from angel garden and ARE and liked them as well.

Some of my best roses have come from northland Rosarium

Kristine I've been dying to order from Northland, but I didn't get to this year. I will next year!

This is soul sister it came a week and a 1/2 ago from northland and already had a big Bloom on it.

I would like to add that in over 20 years of ordering from Heirloom under two different owners, I have never received a mislabeled plant. For me this is also important.

mcnastarana Does that happen pretty often? This is the first year I've ordered from anywhere besides Chamblee, should I expect one? I ordered 32 roses total, I'm going to knock on wood right now. :-) I figured the body bags might be wrong, so I'm not counting my chickens on those.

Kristine- gorgeous! I can't wait to get mine.

witchygirrl- I have only gotten a mislabeled rose once in all of my orders. I don't know if others share the same experience.

sharon

Pv Picotee - Heirloom has always sent very well rooted, high quality plants. Their prices roll shipping into the price if you spend over $50 and so, in the end, I rarely pay much more than I do with other online nurseries. My only minor grip is the shipping is slow. The order prepares to ship on a Monday, ships on Tuesday, and I receive it the following Monday. But they always arrive in good shape, though.

Now, if you’ve never ordered a 1 gallon potted rose online do not expect what you see at a retail store. The first time I ordered a rose online it was a bit let down how small it was. However, they grow fast enough and you can get some wonderful varieties this way.

Moses, as far as the stripped off leaves go on Heirloom's roses--they may have been complying with stricter regulations that many states have imposed (eleven far western states, including Idaho, and two midwestern states that I know of). There are several vendors that can't even send roses at all to Idaho because of new regulations, I guess. Also, I would add Palatine Roses to your list of online vendors. I have had good luck with Hortico over the years. However, there is nothing like my favorite local nursery for roses with their superb selection of large, healthy plants. If I can't get it from Edward's locally, then I go online. Diane