Wow that is a steal!

Canadian dollars are worth less than US, which is a factor to consider. Carol pays very high prices for her roses. I haven't checked the exchange rate recently, which I'll do now. What's Lidl, and where is it located? Diane

I have negercseen 6 packs of roses. That is really cool.

New to the USA, and only on the East Coast, yet, LIDL is another Aldi's of sorts. The nearest one to me is in Hagerstown, Maryland. That's 174 miles south/east of me here in Pittsburgh, PA. LIDL is a German company, like Aldi's.

Thus, LIDL is pretty much established in New Jersey where Rifis gardens.

That is a tremendous bargain IF the varieties in the six packs are clearly marked, and all the cuttings in a cell are the same variety. I imagine the grower, Canadian, as Rifis so indicated propagated choice mini varieties.

Minis were the rage in the 1980s to about 2000. Just minis in a rose bed are quite a sight, especially if the bed dedicated to them is elevated about 2 feet from where one stands to observe them. At that point, specifically applicable to a zone 5/6, Pgh. PA, where the mini bushes don't get as tall by season's end as they would in the West or South, you get to see exquisite blooms up very close.

The downfall of minis is that with their foliage being so close to the ground, air circulation becomes an issue, making controlling black spot, powdery mildew, cercospora, etc...and the dreaded spider mite extremely difficult without using conventional spraying. I wish you success using organic means of control of the above, because you will be the first rosarian who has been successful that I know of so disposed.

Nowadays, all the abundant mini rose nurseries who operated thriving mail order establishments are just about gone. So if you grow roses where summers are hot, rainy, and humid, minis may give you lots more headaches than you want.

That said, the mini Irresistible is a fantastic rose, just fantastic. It is strictly columnar in growth habit which is rare for a mini. What makes it a mini is its small flower in balance with its small foliage. Irresistible can easily get 3+ feet tall here in Pittsburgh. It possesses the most beautiful pure white, heavy petaled cluster blooming rose, with a strong, strong straight neck. No fragrance, though, and it is a bad black spotter here. Spider mites, too, present problems.

Irresistible is still an excellent mini which I don't grow anymore because of its black spot magnetism. Oh yes, almost forgot, the blooms are cast iron, lasting a very long time before petal drop.

Moses

@Diane Brakefield Diane, Lidl is a German discount grocery store, much like Aldi. We only have Aldi here, but once in a while they have fantastic one-time deals on plants. A few years ago they had Austins for $12. They didn't last long, lol

Thank you Moses and fig. I'd kind of heard of Aldi's or read about this chain, but never Lidl. Neither chain is in this part of the West. I agree that six pack of minis, which I've never seen sold before, is a terrific bargain. I've grown one grocery store mini for about 18 years. It was a gift to my daughter from one of her kindergarten students. I've told this tale before. I planted it outside and the blasted thing is now about 6X6 feet. It grows bigger every year, requires no pruning, and is a continuous bloomer. What's ever weirder is the blooms in the first big show are nearly a regular size rose bloom. Then when the heat gears up, this looney rose switches to mini sized blooms. When it cools down in fall, the blooms size up. Here is it from 2023. Diane

Amazing, Diane! I wonder if more so called Minis sold as throw away plants for gifting aren't really larger roses whose rooted cuttings bloom in their early stages of growth. Perhaps some kind of Frankenstein brew is fed/inoculated to them to facilitate accelerated growth while keeping a petite size. Then when the concoction wears off the bush assumes its normal habits. Just wondering.

Moses

Well, my background in science isn't doing me any good. I have no explanation for this crazy thing. Do you suppose someday, this loony rose will grow feet that it pulls from the earth to start tramping toward me with two canes extended outward, and mumbling curses at me? Frankenstein Rose lives! Diane

Sometimes the Publix here in South Florida will have a potted 'gift' mini rose for sale. Like $7-9 or so. I actually got one for husband (Valentine's Day). I then thought, hey, I'll plant this outside. When I went to transplant it - I found it was FOUR roses stuffed into an 8" pot, then pruned like a topiary (ball shape). I was like.... huh?

Pack 'em in, ship 'em out, and let the customer deal with the consequences. 8" pot, Kimberly, the record must be far more rooted babies in a 4" pot, than 4 of them. Rose slavery if you ask me. I wonder how many out of a hundred gifted, crowded, blooming mini roses fall into the right hands where the babies are teased apart, replanted humanely with good follow up care? I bet it's less than 5.

According to wikipedia, Lidl and Aldi each have about 12,000 stores worldwide. The figure for ”Aldi” refers to Aldi North and Aldi South combined. Best factoid in wikipedia Aldi article is that US is only country with both an Aldi North and an Aldi South presence - Aldi South as ”Aldi”, and Aldi North as TJs. The Albrechts got along better than the Dassler brothers did.

I remember reading somewhere that Lidl (Lee‘-dull) is having a hard time establishing itself in US - much CEO turnover; store openings delayed or scrapped.One or more stores in NJ may have closed. It took me several years after the store opened here before I tried it. Most of our family’s food shopping is now done at Lidl. Good value/good selection, suprisingly including fresh produce. The bakery is placed at the entrance; that’s resulted in Dave’s Killer bread from Costco no longer being the house bread here.

To be clear: the title I selected for this discussion was inspired by hugogurll’s

‘Anyone get their roses from Grace Farm yet?’ discussion, in which she observed ”I see they’ve got some marked down to $69 each. Wow, such a deal”.

Some people - here - wondered how Mark Chamblee was able to sell roses ”so inexpensively”. !

The answer should be more obvious now.

Uwe Rheinhardt knew the answer (a corollary of ”it’s the prices, stupid”).

As Yakov Smirnoff observed: ‘“What a country!”

Some of Grace Rose Farms roses are Tantau exclusives and cannot be found anywhere else. A few were sold by Palatine, but they didn't get a contract with Tantau for the exclusive roses, so they had to quit selling the Tantaus. The whole thing is based on rarity. Just this afternoon, Longago Roses sold an Ascot at auction for $102.50 on eBay. This is a Tantau rose that a lot of people want and is hard to find. Longago only ships to about half the states, so you can imagine what the bid might have been if she shipped Ascot everywhere. So, a lot of these high prices depend on rarity and high demand, and maybe unusual, spectacular beauty. Think Evelyn. Everyone wants one, and few are for sale. It boggles the mind to contemplate the profit David Austin roses would have raked in if those boneheads hadn't discontinued one of their most desired roses. Kordes roses are everywhere, and their prices are moderate. An exception would be a Kordes florist rose like Caramel Antike, which we peons cannot purchase. Diane