Sunny: what are their own-root Austin roses? I'm in cold zone 5 so I cannot grow grafted-on-Fortuniana. Thank you. Many thanks for informing everyone of K&M nursery and their Facebook page.

K and M Roses | Facebook

Very impressed with their Facebook's pics of tons of roses in green houses and also in gallon pots. I wish I had seen their old Facebook post dated back in Dec. 17, 2023, see below:

"This is the last day of our Christmas appreciation sale
Grafted fortuniana: Grande amore Beverly Memorial Day Sunny skies Elina Tiffany Ausdrawn Ausland
OWN ROOT Auscot Ausmound Ausmove Ausencart Ausland Ausquest Ausmas Auscat Auslot
Any 4 of the above for 50.00 plus ups shipping, carton, and tax. Send orders to info@kandmroses.com include phone #. MERRY CHRISTMAS for letting us grow and sell these great roses for over 30 plus years."

K&M facebook entry on Dec. 17, 2023.

Thanks to Sunny's informing me of K & M Facebook page, I went through their photos to look at their many bush-shots of popular roses, and it's amazing how their Summer Sun rose is many times bigger than my tiny own-root Summer Sun at 1' x 1' in zone 5.

Below is K and M roses Facebook post on August 9, 2023 of their summer sale at 1/2 price for 2 gallons grafted on Fortuniana: Facebook

"It’s hot in south ms. The heat index was 115 on Monday, we are in the process of going through our old English roses orders, they will begin to get ready in Sept on some varieties . not enough help to put our existing 2 gal roses in 3gal they are very large plants, we’ve decided to move them out at 1/2 price, reg 25.00 for 12.50 .... also have a few own root at same price, and a few Dave bang mini, miniflora and florabundas,

HUGE fortuniana grafted roses for only 12.50 plus ups shipping, minimum order will be 2 plants, carton, we ship ups, please include your phone number with inquiry, email info@kandmroses.com. Cannot ship to AZ, or West coast in 2 gal." August 9, 2023.

I love K & M Facebook page, since I can see the entire bush shots of popular roses. Back in 2018, K & M offered Lady of Megginch Austin rose for only $16. A friend in Chicagoland drove 45 min. to get that Austin from a nursery. Their Poseidon is over 10 feet tall versus mine at 3 feet tall as own-root in my zone 5. Below is one of the many pics on K & M Facebook page of their roses.

Hey @strawchicago z5

I'm not sure which roses are own-root and which are grafted. I would assume they are providing both own-root and grafted options for each of their Austin varieties. They have multiple greenhouses for their own-root roses as well as multiple greenhouses for their fort. grafted roses.

Of the ones that came home with me, these were all own-root:

Abe Darby

Chandos Beauty

Daisy Mills

The Dark Lady

Earth Angel

English Garden

Evelyn

Lady of Shalott

Lilian Austin

Paul Neyron

Pretty Jessica

Tamora

Winchester Cathedral

Regarding their sale of the 2gal roses.. they are switching to growing and selling mainly 1gal roses because they are less expensive to ship. I don't anticipate we will see them posting anymore about 2gal sizes available. I could be wrong.

What an excellent post! Thank you for making such an effort. And the own-root makes it really valuable.

Sunny Mississippi 8a Thank you for helping cold-zoners like me with Austin own-roots. Many cold-zoners rave about Chandos Beauty: Niels in Denmark (zone 5), John Moody in MO (zone 6), and Carol (zone 4 Canada).

Thank you, Sunny, for your detailed report of your visit to K and M. Your list of the Austin’s they are currently carrying is very helpful, especially so because the list they have on their website is out of date: it says 2022-2023 and it doesn’t list as many as you showed. I sent my order in by email last Thursday and still have not heard back from them, but I’ll be patient for a while longer. I would be sad if they sold out of the ones I want so badly.

Thank you. I ordered Prospero from them a month or so ago and it arrived healthy and happy, great customer service

Does K&M allow walk in customers that dont have orders or do they only allow picking up of already placed orders and mail order?

Hey @sultry_jasmine_nights (Florida-9a-ish) they do allow customers to visit the nursery. There were ladies from Georgia shopping at the nursery when I arrived. I usually call about a week in advance to double-check they will be at the nursery the day I plan to visit. Their hours are listed on the website.

@judijunebugarizonazn8 K&M listed a more extensive Austin list on their FB page. I hope you get all that you listed in your order. If you don't see an email back from them within a week, send a follow-up email and try to call in the morning.

@strawchicago z5 I was shocked to see Chandos Beauty there! You really never know what they will have, because there is always sooo much more in the greenhouses than what is listed on their website and FB page. The Rouge Royal they had smelled heavenly! It was in my hand but somehow didn't make it to the checkout? Just a reason to go back in a year! They also have a gorgeous Wild Blue Yonder.

They also had OWN-ROOT KORDES for anyone who is interested!

Sunny Mississippi 8a Rouge Royal has the strongest pure rasberry scent versus Sonia Rykiel is both raspberry and old rose. Rouge Royal loves the heat for Pakistan rosarian, but it's wimpy in my cold zone. K&M showed a few pics. of Bronze Star .. that's super fragrant & big bloom. Bronze star blooms well when with tons of rain. I like Bronze Star's scent more than Sutter's Gold. Bronze Star last 5+ days in the vase, versus Sutter's Gold blows fast. Below orange is Bronze Star (own-root) with bigger bloom than Austins behind it.

Below Rouge Royal loves the heat plus tons of rain. It's the strongest rasberry scent I know of.

I've never seen a pink Rouge Royale before. My two plants produce dark red blooms. Diane

I have tried to put in an additional order by email but have yet to hear back. I want Sharifa Asma and St. Cecilia. I’m sure they’re busy! My Evelyn and Tamora both came in maybe two months ago and were shipped promptly and with care after payment was received. Pleasant people to work with!

Since this is my first time trying to order from K and M roses, I’m not quite sure what to expect. It’s 16 days since I first emailed them with an order. I sent a follow up email about a week after the first order. This week I tried three times to call. First time James answered and said the nursery was closed for a storm, please call back tomorrow. So I called back the next day and got voicemail. I left a message but they didn’t return my call. Yesterday I got ahold of James again and he informed me that the girl who answers the emails informed him she has 650 emails to answer, so please be patient and they will get to me. He couldn’t tell me whether they had the roses I wanted or not. I’m trying to be patient! ;)

Judi,

I’m afraid your experience with K&M isn’t too out of the ordinary, there are times when one must try many times to place an order, and other times one suceeds right away. Patience and persistence may both be necessary. They are very trustworthy people and always send out very nice plants once that order is placed. I have probably ordered from them a dozen times over the years, so I obviously feel it’s worth the effort, but I understand that others may not want to go through the hassle.

Thanks, Ben. A little reassurance is helpful right now. I’m ok with waiting as long as I eventually get the roses I’m waiting for. I am a bit nervous they will be out of the two Pretty Jessica’s I’m most wanting… in that case I’ll need to rethink. I haven’t come up with a good substitute yet.

What Ben said. They are the ultimate low tech small mom'n'pop operation, even more so than RU, but now that they got mentioned as a source in the recent discussions, I'm sure they're completely overwhelmed. They've always required patience, and even more so now :-D

Oh Susan, I’d say K&M and RU jointly win the gold medal when it comes to Low Tech Roses! RU’s website, where you have to keep hitting ’older posts’ to see additional offerings should probably win some ’ least intuitive user interface’ award, too. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to explain to folks how to view all their offereings. (And this is their reveamped and ’improved’ website!) But they are my two favorite vendors for hard-to-get roses!

Ben, exactly! And when I get a RU paper catalog (a roll of the dice from year to year), it's never quite the same as the website. I remember back way before RU's website, I'd call in my order and they'd send the roses before I could send my check :-D

Susan, K&M used to do the same thing…send out the roses before collecting the money! A few years ago, Mr Mills wrote a rather apologetic letter saying that going forward, he had to collect money first, before sending out plants (imagine that!).. And I remember RUs pictureless paper catalog that would randomly show up on some years, sometimes not until late summer. In my mind I imagined that poor Pat was typing out each catalog individually on her manual typewriter, that’s why it took so long. And by the time she finished typing a catalog, her inventory had changed. They both get the gold medal for ’Best Relics of a Bygone Era’, too!

Cool Roses too in West Palm Beach, FL shipped me roses before charging me maybe a month later .

I wonder if it will be possible for anyone to get their hands on Lady Emma Hamilton ever again?... :(

Judi I emailed K&M when I heard about them on the Garden Roses LLc thread when I realized I wouldn’t get my Abraham Darby. K&M did email me back and said they think they still have it and will tag it for me and email me back about shipping. Have you heard from K&M yet?

I had also emailed Mindy at Hummingbird roses when she said she had a couple left on her FB post but she was already out of it.

Echo, I still have not heard back from K and M. It seems strange to me. It has been two and a half weeks since my first email. I sent a second email six days later. In the second week I made three phone calls but all I accomplished was being told I was one of 650 emails waiting to be answered. My hopes were that since I had emailed quite a while before I was told that, that I might be near the top of the list. But I’m still waiting (patiently?).

is crown princess margarita out of circulation in the US?

@EnglishRoseBud CPM is still available in the US.

KrystalW 9b SoCal Thank you for answering, my mom sent me a list from a greenhouse near her home and I was trying to decide what she should purchase from that list while they were in stock near her. I decided it was better for her to get actual plants from a nursery after everything I've seen recently. I may order a few of these the above ones as birthday gift. I see a couple that she would probably like.

I just sent off an order for 6 for my mother and hopefully they answer her soon :)

Echo and Judi the waiting patiently part is tough for sure, but the positive note is they have gigantic mother plants. Rows and rows of mother plants. I didn't take pics of those because I didn't catch the first bloom. The blooming roses were all the potted babies in the greenhouses. I arrived a few weeks too early to see the mother plants' first flush. And there were thousands of roses. It is a small-staffed operation, but their methods for rooting and grafting are well-tuned. And they had thousands of roses in their greenhouses. Multiple greenhouses were basically Austins-only. I do hope you get a response soon and some confirmation that you will receive what you wish.

Artist-FKA-Novice Zone 7B GA is it growing well in the us — if so then your safe in the uk it looked like a twig — this is the sad state of it currently in two I acquired via alternate means — mine died this winter and it literally looked horrid after i cut it back cause it was full of blackspot — dead one that was grafted I will be acquiring at least 6 to ve safe now

It’s three weeks today since I first emailed K and M. I still have received no response, so I sent them another email this morning. I always cringe inside when I hound someone like that… goes against my grain, somehow. It feels like I’m nagging them. But calling them by phone makes me cringe far worse, so I sent another email.

Judi, have you tried calling them?

Hi Judi, you and I emailed them on the same day I believe and I just heard back from them yesterday. They said they were going to ship out my roses by the end of the day when they go to the post office and she would then call me for payment. I still haven’t heard back for payment yet, so we’ll see if the roses got shipped out or not before payment…

Thanks, ocbrian1. That gives me hope that I might be next on the list. Yes, Elestrial, I called them three times. I have gotten nowhere.

My husband plans to drive there next week to pick up about thirty old Austins to replace the damage done by RRD and voles and moles.

I've called and left a message and no response.

IF ANYONE TALKS TO THEM, would you ask if they plan to be closed any days next week and if drive in buyers are still welcome? Thank you so much.

@stillanntn6b I'm not sure which number you called, but I have had the most luck calling Mr. James's cell phone number first thing in the morning. The number is listed on their website if you go to the About tab, scroll down to Contact, then scroll down on that page and you will see an office number and a James Mills number. I don't know if they will be open or not, but they are pretty consistently open even on holidays when I have visited such as President's Day and Columbus Day. I wish you luck and hope you are able to grab all that is on your wishlist. Please share pics with us!

The main phone doesn't seem to be working, the other allowed me to leave a message. I worry that my husband will drive all that way and be turned away at the gate. Suggestions?

stillanntn6b Perhaps customers who post comments in K and M nursery Facebook page can answer your question about their hours. Tagging people's names (including the owners of K and M) in Facebook page of K and M nursery will prompt them to answer your question about the hours.

Hey @stillanntn6b I just called Mr. Mills's number from the website (1:20pm). He didn't pick up, then called me back almost immediately. He said they will not be there today or tomorrow, but should be there Wednesday-Friday of this week. He said to be sure and call before you come just to confirm. Make sure to call his number directly. I hope this helps!

Ann - can you weigh in on whether this is RRD? Artist is really struggling to identify whether or not her roses have RRD. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6440795/here-we-go-again-is-this-rrd#n=27

Thanks, Sunny, that helps immensely.

Rosecanadian, I hadn't seen that thread, so I answered some of her questions. Let me know if there are more.

Ann

Thanks, Ann. :)

Contact was made and my husband will go pick out roses. Now this is going to be interesting. He will not (cannot) equal my buy at a Park Seed summer day of 110 bareroot roses. (a dollar a plant). But we have spaces for thirty or forty. He really wants to reestablish the hedge of Graham Stewart Thomases that we had (and that were the flowers carried at one niece's wedding by eight brides maids). He says he's even willing to spray them. And so many others that we have loved. Tamora Again! Belle Story didn't make it through winter. We miss her. James Galway is the perfect rose for one spot, but I lost it to RRD. I may, make that will, grow it there again and surround it with compositae flowers and the beneficials that like them. Heck, maybe we expand my three plants of Tess of the durberville to a hedle because they are so magnificent in fall backlit by sunlight. So he'll be getting a list from me and we'll see how many he decides we need to fill in.

Now to order replacements for the irrigation system.

Well, this has been an interesting ordeal for me for sure, this ordering with K and M Roses… so I tried on Friday to call Megan, who handles the orders, and wasn’t able to reach her. Tried again on Monday. Ditto. I thought, ok, I’m just about done trying. An hour later, Megan calls me back. I’ll spare you the details, but I’ll say this, in the end, she has bent over backward to help me. I can tell she felt bad for all the difficulty I’ve had trying to order with them. Pretty Jessica was my biggest reason for ordering from them and I really needed two. She could only find one, but she was determined and eventually found a very small second one that she is going to pamper and baby for me a few weeks before she sends them along with my Prospero and Tamora. Obviously, I don’t have my plants yet, so I can’t give a review on them, but I do feel very happy so far, even though it took three and a half weeks to get here!

Yay Judi!! cant wait for you to get them!!

@stillanntn6b im so happy you made contact! I hope he is able to find everything on your wishlist and more! I would suggest taking a pair of short rainboots and some gardening gloves. The rows in the greenhouses can get muddy. And the gloves with help protect his hands from any chemicals if he is sorting through hundreds of treated potted roses. Both of those tips helped me zipthrough my last visit. And if you have any unicorn roses that are not listed on the K&M page, add them tothe list anyway. There are so many surprises to be found in their rows of roses. Please keep us posted!

@judijunebugarizonazn8 Im so happy you were able to get in touch! And yay for her spotting another Pretty Jessica! Please keep us posted when you receive your babies.