If they are still alive, I would just water them well, making sure the soil in the band is well-saturated, then place them in a shady spot for at least a few days, keeping them watered and only gradually moving them into more and more sunlight. I wouldn't remove them from the pots/repot them until they've had a little time to recover, re-acclimate to the outside world.

Agree with Lilyfinch!

Yes I did email them on Monday telling them about the wrong shipping but didn't hear back. I emailed again yesterday asking what I've asked here but didn't hear back. I did get a response today after I posted here. They said that the roses should be fine and to document by taking photos.

No word on the wrong shipping. I paid dearly for express so do expect to get a refund on that should the plants be alive. I checked their website and it looks as though Isabella Skinner is sold out so probably won't be available to re-ship if it doesn't make it.

I was soooo disappointed when I saw that they shipped standard mail to Canada. I splurged on these roses with the high shipping and phytosanitary certificate to Canada and the exchange on the dollar. It was a treat to myself. I'm sure you all understand! I'm really hoping that they will be OK. But I've steeled myself for dead roses so I'm not disappointed all over again.

catspa that is great advice to let them re-acclimate before planting. And a great reminder to keep them in the shade and slowly move them to the sun. Thank you so much for your advice!

Yeah, but if those roses don't perk right up, I would be CALLING RVR.

"Oh, they'll be fine . . . " is really NOT a good response to the error on shipping that caused the damage. They owe you. They really do.

They took your money, and didn't give you the service you paid for.

I agree! And as a side note, if they do not make it, you might wanna check with matt at hi country roses to see if he ships to Canada. He sells Isabella skinner under the name of Victorian memory.

@Vaporvac Z6-OhioRiverValley Maybe things have changed and not updated, but the HCR website does say they don't ship to Canada.

😕

The roses arrived today. Thankful that they didn't have to sit around the post office for the week-end. And I made a mistake! The second rose isn't a Peace rose - it's a Quietness rose.

It's been 14 days since they were shipped. The earth was still damp when they arrived so that's good. As it turns out, the Quietness roses look good. The issues are with the 3 Isabella Skinner. :( Of course, it's the Isabella Skinner that I wanted - the Quietness were the chocolate bar at the till. ;)

The Quietness did not come in bloom but all 3 of the IS had blooms (I inadvertently cut off the blooms on the one before photographing).

Hoping for some advice as to what the issue might be. I'm fairly new at roses so I don't recognize what's what all the time. I'm considering watering and spraying with a weak hydrogen peroxide solution to counter any fungus and to give a boost of oxygen.

I also think I should cut off all blooms and dead leaves unless that would stress the plant too much? Should I wait a few days to do this?

Any other advice much appreciated!

The Isabella Skinner trio

The Quietness roses

Isabella Skinner #1

Isabella Skinner #2 (the worst one)

Close up of leaves #1

Close up of leaves #2

Close up #4

Close up of leaves #5

Thank you!

Thanks for the info about High country roses having Victorian Memory Vaporvac. Unfortunately Magpie is correct - they don't ship to Canada. I was concerned about the negative reviews about Rogue so would have went with High Country if I could have.

I wouldn't worry about fungus (close-ups don't seem to show anything horrifying) or be spraying anything for a day or two at least. Just park the plants in a nice shady or dappled shade spot for the time being, let them start to recover, and keep an eye on them. Nip the blooms off, but I would let the leaves be -- the rose will shed them if they won't recover, or you can take them off later. The main problem, since the plants were still damp, was lack of light to provide energy, to both leaves and roots. So, the plants started to shut down operations, in the oldest leaves first, to save as much recovery capacity as possible, and to save the most useful parts of the plant, the young leaves and stems at the top, where a lot of photosynthesis takes place. They look a lot better than I thought they would -- I'm glad they didn't have to sit in the box over the weekend, too.

Thank you catspa. I just nipped off the blooms and buds. Do you have an idea of why the Quietness look so good compared to the Isabella Skinner? Wouldn't they all suffer the same from lack of light?

Is it still cold (gets below mid-30s degrees F, say) where you are, by the way?

As to why they look different after their ordeal, I can't say. Every rose variety has its tolerances, I do know, and it looks like 'Quietness' is a real trooper!

For sure, I've read great things about Quietness! Isabella Skinner is supposed to be very hardy as well but I'm guessing the blooms might have made a difference.

I read a comment from Dr. Henry Kuska from a few years ago saying that roses break down with disease right after heavy blooming due to a depletion of potassium. Perhaps I'll sprinkle some green sand over the top and water it in.

No, it is warmer than mid 30's here. It's quite a cool day today at around 60, but our night temp. gets to around 40 at the coolest. Earlier this week it was 80! I'll be sure to protect them from extremes for the first while.

Thank you again!

I havent had good experiences with RVR. I have got the wrong variety..mislabeled.

Also, one time, they sent me a rose with crown gall. Like big and obvious gall!

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5692889/crown-gall-on-new-band#n=13

Experiences with communication were also bad. They were supposed to replace the mislabled one and they never did.

I think your plants will be fine, Mostlylana. Catspa gave good advice. I would let them breathe a few days in the dappled shade, watered, then pot them up in 1-2 gallon pots with potting mix. This will really give them a boost if you can let them grow at least 2-3 months before putting them in the ground.

Be really careful pushing them up out of the band pots from the bottom. Do not pull on the top. I sometimes snip the plastic cross piece on the bottom off with my snippers to make the pushing up process easier. I bet they will do great! Good luck.

(The old foliage will fall off soon.)

Thank you Sheila! I'm so encouraged to hear that they will most likely be fine. Can I ask why it's best to pot them prior to planting them in the ground? I always thought they prefer the ground as the roots stay cooler.

I can definitely pot them for a few months if that is better.

I've done both and potting them up first really gives them a boost. It is like a NICU for baby roses. They really grow faster with the plastic black pots. It worked great in a cold climate and it works great here in a hot climate. One must carefully water and keep them in partial sun.

I put 10 pellets of Osmocote Plus on the one gal pot and 20 on the 2 gal pot for extra support, too. I wait about 2 weeks after potting them to put on the fertilizer pellets.

This also works to get clematis off to the best start with the often small size sent with mailorder.

In summary, these are rooted cuttings not really ready for the ground yet. They do great in the long run. Potting speeds their progress up.

Ahhh, so true. I've never bought banded roses before (I don't think ;)

I will do that - keep them in pots for a few months.

Thanks for the explanation!

Oh dear Sultry. That's not good.

So discouraging when you don't get good service when ordering online.

I usually use Cornhill Nursery here in Canada but they don't carry Isabella Skinner yet.

But boy, they're great. Never have to worry about issues.

I'd like to know what you folks think I should do about my situation?

For sure I'll ask for a shipping refund - but what about the sad state of the 3 Isabella's.

Should I expect compensation?

I wouldn't. They'll be fine. Life is hard enough. I have had some wonderful surprises from RVRs.

When I moved here from Alaska my husband and I carefully packed up some rose treasures because they weren't allowed to be driven through Canada. We USPS 3 day air service mailed them here. Well, the tracking showed they took a week vacay in Oakland, California. It took them at least 10 days to get to us. On inquiring, the Post office said "Oh, that 3 day air never works for Alaska".

The plants did fine.

Also, some baby roses are not goodlooking at the beginning. This is not necessarily the sellers' fault. Many of these treasures take awhile to come into their own. That is why only specialty nurseries sell them. I have had many "breathtaking" new rose babies turn into lovely plants.

These are my miniature roses that spent about a week in transit in unexpectedly warm weather. Lavender Crystal, on the right, looked particularly bad and dropped all leaves soon after that. But it survived just fine :)

I also grow bands in pots first, and only plant them in the ground in their second year (they overwinter in the garage).

Happy Mother's Day all!

I'm so glad to hear that both of your roses survived their travels Sheila and Magda. It gives me confidence that mine will too.

As for compensation, I tend to agree with jerijen and Vaporvac. I've also spoken with others who also say they should give compensation.
Their explanations make sense.

As Vaporvac says: "They took your money, and didn't give you the service you paid for."

If I ordered a salad at a restaurant and it arrived wilted, I wouldn't want to pay for that. It's still a salad, it will still give me a measure of sustenance but it's not what was ordered or paid for.

This was not the fault of the transit company. Rogue only offers 1 shipping service to Canada - Express. I paid $92 US in shipping for it. They didn't ship Express, they shipped standard and it took the roses 17 days to get here.

I'm not sure how that can be a mistake if they only offer 1 service to Canada.

So yes, they will need to reimburse shipping. But because that caused me to receive 'a wilted salad', then they should also need to compensate for that.

I paid what was required, they didn't provide.

When there is no brick and mortar store to deal with, being able to trust the online supplier is doubly important. I don't feel that Rogue delivered that trust.

Actually, I just went out to take a look at the roses. They look worse today. Even the Quietness looks to be struggling - curled leaves. I wonder if I should spray them with Wilt Pruf...

Compensation might be a moot point if they don't survive. It will just be a plain 'ole refund.

Whatever way it goes, I'm hoping they make things right.

This has been very disappointing.

That is very disappointing. I had something similar my 1st year ordering bands. And also even gallon roses. 1 time they were completely smashed by FedEx and the company did send me new ones. However many times I receive roses and they do not even have leaves because they take them off for a requirement for some states and then do it for all. Those leaves grow back really well and it's not a problem. If the roses have good root development they will quickly grow back new leaves. If the roots are not large, then 1 will just have to see. Just to be clear, I would definitely ask for a refund for that shipping, but I would probably just mention the plants not doing well and see how it goes. After a couple of days and planting into a good potting mix I expect they will start pushing out new leaves. Gosh, last year I received some of the tiniest cuttings I've ever gotten from someplace, but they were very rare plants. Normally I would pot them up, but this time it was November so I just put them in the ground and they're all doing very well this year. Quietness is a robust rose Although I have found victory memory to be a slow Grower. Eventually, ive found i Forget which ones were Wimpy cuttings in the 1st place.

Really disappointing. I'm sorry this happened.

DECADES ago, we ordered a rose from a Canadian grower (just to show it can go both ways). It was a budded rose, and it arrived with four basal canes. But EVERY ONE OF THOSE CANES was snapped off at the bud union. They had tied the canes together at the top so tightly that they just snapped off.

We contacted them, and told them what had happened. Their reply was:

"We would not have done that."

End of story. I never bought anything from them again.

Oh dear, I hope you didn't think I was implying that US vendors were worse than Canadians ones! Didn't mean to imply that. I order from the US a lot and have excellent experiences. Likewise, I've had difficult experiences with Canadian vendors. It's all about the people and their business practices.

That companys response to you was definitely bad business practice. So frustrating for you I'm sure - especially because it happened prior to the internet. Now at least we have the recourse of writing reviews or contacting the BBB. When things like that happen, you feel as though you've been robbed (which you have been in a sense).

:(

Thanks for sharing your experiences Vaporvac. I'm back to being encouraged! ;)

I've heard conflicting things about Victorian Memory (Isabella Skinner). Some say it grows like a weed, others have had your experience. I'm hoping for fast growing as I have several trellis to cover.

My VM is a lighter airy graceful bush here. Not a dense heavily foliaged plant. I'll try to take a photo when it blooms.

I think Victorian memory is just 1 of those roses that is slow out of the gate. I also planted it in A bit of shade compared to the rest of the garden. Still sun but less so then other areas. I would be sure after these are slightly acclimated, which they should be by now, to pot them up into increasingly larger pots as opposed to putting them straight in the ground (unless you have perfect soil), or into a very large pot straight away. they seem to grow faster that way.

I make my own potting soil for my Rooted Cuttings To provide good drainage, but I might add extra perite to anything that you buy So the roots get plenty of Oxygen and do not sit in water. Also be certain your pots have many holes in them for drainage. I Would be careful about a potting soil that already contains fertilizer. Instead I would wait for these cuttings to start to show new growth and when they do apply very very dilute liquid fertilizer such as that made by miracle grow or even found Under the Walmart brand. I usually put 1⁄4 of what it calls for and had found that this really pushes the growth throughout the season. Just be sure all the soil is evenly moistened Moistened as the roots will seek the nutrients. Use rain water if possible. Move them into the sun gradualy depending on the intensity of your sunlight. Then I plant them in the late summer, although here I can actually plant them up through the fall. For you that might be different. I grow a lot of roses from cuttings and this is what I do once they have roots. I treat these small bands just the same way and since I have done this they have Really improved for me.

Ps. When you pop them up try to disturb the roots as little as possible. I know you are experienced rosarian so probably telling you stuff you're already know. Sorry about that.

Sheila, I would love to see a photo. Thanks!

Vaporvac, I am not an experienced rosarian and really appreciate you taking the time to lay it all out! I've actually never had rose bands before so this is new to me. Unfortunately I potted them today before reading what you wrote. I didn't disturb the roots at all and popped them out carefully.

I make up a mix of soil for roses which includes compost, worm castings, alfalfa pellets, bone meal, blood meal and green sand. Shoot, I wish I would have added perite. I did use mycorrhizae as well. The pots have ample holes.

I didn't add any fertilizer and will wait until I see new growth. I'm very light handed with fertilizer the first year. I usually use fish fertilizer. Do you think that will be OK if I dilute to 1/4 strength?

I don't usually have rain water - we're in the desert here. But I let my water sit for a few days before watering with it. By what I've read, one of the benefits of rainwater is more hydrogen peroxide. Perhaps I should add a few drops to my water.

I'm going to be trying Effective Microorganisms this year as a foliar spray. I don't think I will try it on these roses until they are completely back to health however.

You guys are the best! I'm learning so much. :)