OMG!! Congratulations!!! I would just pot them up for now and place them in an unheated garage. Water them lightly. I'm also in cold climate - NW Illinois. What varieties did you win? That's so awesome!

@bellarosa thats what i was thinking but wasnt sure! I’ve never received bareroot roses this early haha

There will be some babying going on for some of these varieties, but I’m okay with that :) Some aren’t hardy to zone 5, so I’ll have to either do the Minnesota Tip or just keep them as potted roses. But that is my goal-to learn and teach people in northeast Iowa how to grow more tender hybrid teas, since right now everyone in the area thinks you can only grow k

Knockout roses!

Lucky you! Some of these are on my list of potential roses to buy!

That's a great list. I'm actually planning on potting up a few roses myself come Spring and just growing them in containers. I've done this before and they have done really well. I figure that I'll just make room in our garage for a few containerized roses.

I did see Koko Loco growing at the Chicago Botanic Garden and it was beautiful!

P.S. I'm not a fan of the KO roses either! I grew one and every year it had SO much dieback and when it did grow, the JBs LOVED it. Ugh. Got rid of it. Every year I see these offered on huge pallets at Home Depot - folks must love it! I'll pass...

Stephen Rulo in particular is highly sought-after. Congrats!!!

Wow, that's an impressive list of roses! But I'm very confused... I looked this place up and it appears that they grow roses for cutting. In other words, they send bouquets of cut roses. There is no mention (and I read everything on their website) about them selling rose bushes. Can you elaborate?

Congratulations! What a gorgeous collection!

Congrats. You may have already done this but I would contact them to try and schedule shipping later in the year.

mmmm, you said the very words I haven't gotten around to saying. Diane

I am so jealous that I can't even speak right now. I've been hunting for Stephen Rulo! Congrats!

Stephen Rulo!! Awesome find :) Northland had it briefly but while I was debating it sold out :p

Congratulations! I follow GRF and its nice to hear someone from here won! cant wait to see photos of your beautiful roses in the future.

@susan9santabarbara to answer your question they are a big rose farm in california that sells rose bouquets. They are currently moving thousands of bushes to a new site, and did a couple of giveaways over instagram the last few weeks.

@Diane Brakefield @mmmm12COzone5 She specified that all the give away roses will be shipped out by January 13th, so I dont think itd be proper for me to request they hold them intil spring to ship, since it’d be a bit of a ”bite the hand that feeds you” sort of situation hahahaha

Madison,

Good info. I didn't know they were moving and this was part of their inventory clean out. The really cool thing about this collection is that you get to try some you wouldn't have bought and they may surprise you and become some of your favorites.

Some of my favorites are ones I wouldn't have necessarily picked out myself but I tried for one reason or another.

Exactly! There are several roses included that I have been wanting to buy, but also a few that I've had my eye on but hesitated since they have some mixed reviews, especially grown in a colder climate (Francis Meilland, French Lace, Moonlight in Paris). And of course the ones I'll have to grow in containers. I want ALL THE ROSES (haha) but have a tight budget at this time with being a stay at home mom of three kids three and under!! I am just really excited. I don't even know how many people in my area know that it's even possible to grow tender roses as a perennial in containers-I didn't know that until joining this site!

I know, I probably have these high hopes of changing rural Iowan garden culture by showing what is all possible if you just educate yourself on how to care for roses and all the amazing plants our there. But in reality, people will probably just say, "Oh, that's nice." and continue on growing nothing but hostas, daylilies, and red knockout roses. But I will try. And try.

As a side note, my mother in law has become much more interested in perennials and landscaping in general over the past few years! So I look as that as a success-she even planted her first hardy yellow rose last summer! Now let's just hope it doesn't die on her :P

Whoo hoo Madison! What a score ! You have some yhat zi am dying to try. Sometimes the give aways are roses that nobody wants but yours are all wonderful and popular varieties. Best wishes on your new beauties

That is absolutely AMAZING news!! And it's so great that the roses are going to you...someone who loves roses, but is at a time in life where money is going to other things (raising a family). You really, really got some delightful roses!! I checked out Stephen Rulo on hmf...man, that's a stunning rose!! I grow a few of those roses...and I love them!!

@Madison Post Thanks for the info! That was the only possibility that I could think of, after reading that they are moving their farm. They used to be ~25 minutes up the road from me in Santa Ynez, and are moving ~1 hour south of me to Somis. Fingers crossed on the dug-up roses you'll be getting from their farm... hard to imagine them getting rid of an ultra-rare rose like Stephen Rulo... you hit the jackpot!

I was looking at their website the other day, and they used to list by name all of their roses. Now they list bouquets with the roses you *might* be getting, but they don't name all of them, and many of the "old" names are just disappeared...yet they still list some of the new roses they're planting this year...so I wonder what's going on with them -- maybe they got tired of people trying to duplicate their bouquets, so they have to be more mysterious now??

Deborah they have a detailed blog post about it that just came out. In summary, they're sending their traditional garden roses to florists and local only stores and they're mail order retail is now mostly longer lasting florist roses from another farm. It looks like they'll be selling unique grafted rose bushes in the future too.

Congratulations! I follow Grace Rose Farm on Instagram. She put out a detailed blog today with the whole story of their recent move.

Holy cow, that was quite the blog post! I'd never even heard of this place until I did a search based on the OP's question in this thread. This despite the fact that their farm was ~25 minutes up the road from me, until they moved in 2021, and their new place is not far away. Anyway, if you're interested, here is a link to it. It's pretty darned interesting. Sounds as if they're looking to be the next new vendor of rare European roses.

https://www.gracerosefarm.com/blogs/news/going-back-to-our-roots

Very interesting story indeed. What a challenge!

Wow! I am so impressed with their commitment and diligence.

I can totally relate to th cannibus and hemp growers taking over . It has happened in Oregon as well.

The fields that used to grow pears, strawberries, blueberries and wheat are all long gone.

Kristine, yeah, I thought their comments about cannabis growing taking over was particularly interesting, given that she's talking about my local area. It's been a huge issue here, with most of the old greenhouses in Carpinteria that used to grow florist roses being made irrelevant due to the industry moving to South America. They made a financial decision, but the neighbors are now inundated with the smell of cannabis.

And the poor bees!!

Susan, I just read an article about southern Oregon and the cartels

Pot growers used to be locals who cared about the water and environment. Then we had to Mexican cartels and the danger level soared. Now, we have Chinese and Baltic country cartels taking over. Basically using slave labor and threatening anyone who tries to leave and following through, these are not nice people.

They are everywhere, taking over land and water and these are ruthless greedy cartels

Why does it continue? Not nearly enough agents to clear them out and it is like playing Whac a mole.

There seems to be no end in sight to the illegal drug trade and trust me, pot is only one of many drugs travelling in to our valley.

If I was younger I would move somewhere else but at this age starting all over sounds top daunting.

Kristine - unreal!! How horrible to have such evil people in your valley. I had no idea!

Madison, I'm curious whether you have recieved your roses and what you have done with them if you have?

Kristine, I'm glad I did not read that article.

Kristine LeGault 8a pnw My husband has noted the irony of roses and drugs. One of the reasons that florist roses ended up in Columbia was that the US wanted farmers to grow roses instead of Coca to cut the cocaine trade. It was part of the big "war on drugs." Then the big hybridizers for florist roses only imported/exported to South America. I wonder what will happen with all of this....So glad we have GraceRoseFarm!

Congrats!!!! Hope there will be pics!

Madison~ I have been thinking anout you and your new roses. Did you pot them up and store them?

@susan9santabarbara -- yes, that area now smells weird all the time. I have friends in Carpinteria that would like to move b/c the smell is so bad. I think it smells like a cross between skunk and pot smoke -- but it's all the time (unless there's a stiff breeze). Ugh. I didn't know that the USA encouraged more flower growing in S. America -- I thought people just wanted to farm where there were fewer restrictions on exposing workers to pesticides (not to mention the good weather and lower labor costs).