More about Precious Dream

last year

I tried to get more information about this rose from Rouge Valley Roses' description. The owner told me that their website was accurate. If this rose is the real Precious Dream, it is not thornless or nearly thornless. I was told by someone else that this rose has no fragrance, but was assured that it does by RVR.
I was looking forward to the no thorns and bought it specifically for a thornless area.
My package was packed carelessly. My miniatures were unsecured. Connie was $49 and she was just floating in the box.

Featured Answer

nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska

12 months ago

I agree that the stems look plausible for Precious Dream. When a rose is billed as "low thorn" it doesn't necessarily mean thornless, just less than (say) Marilyn Monroe. For instance,I have two plants of Veilchenblau from two sources, and this is supposedly a thornless once-bloomer. The thorns are widely spaced like you show in the picture, but there aren't none of them. There are a few truly thornless roses (like Old Smoothie), but most will have the occasional barb.

As for the packaging, what your box looks like is typical of Rogue Valley shipping. They attach the roses firmly in the box, but the box is so long with limited support inside that it can get bent in shipping. That means a few of the roses might get the ends snapped off like you show, but I haven't found it makes much difference in their growth from there. I wish they would use more stocky rather than long thin boxes, but otherwise I have found their shipping to be effective and roses good quality.

I had one year where UPS left out my entire bulk shipment of Roses Unlimited roses out in the rain (apparently all night). This was 12 boxes of 6 roses each. The boxes looked like a giant had stomped on them, and the cardboard lost all integrity and basically melted. Obviously none of this was RU's fault, and UPS wasn't going to admit to the damage. Even though I had to prune as many as 1/3 of the roses back by half, they took off growing and you soon couldn't tell who was stunted at first.

There seems to be a tradeoff in shipping costs and sturdiness of packages for roses. Companies with incredible packaging jobs like Antique Rose Emporium or Heirloom tend to have shipping (or rose) costs that reflect that. Companies with lower rose costs (or rare roses, like RV) might have shipping procedures that are less than ideal. The best combination of low cost roses and reasonable shipping by far is Burlington - she is able to pack a ton of roses into the one-price shipping boxes and they arrive healthy and strong for very low shipping costs.

Cynthia

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Comments (8)

Z10Socal
Original Author
last year
Moses, Pitt PA, cold W & hot-humid S, z6
last year
last modified: last year
Unacceptable. Old age or no. I'm old and would be ashamed to send an order so severely badly packaged. While we should extend mercy and make allowances to the owner because of age, still age does not mean carelessness with someone else's money/merchandise should be acceptable. Everyone eventually faces life issues when it's time to confront reality and make the necessary changes.

Moses.
Z10Socal thanked Moses, Pitt PA, cold W & hot-humid S, z6
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Ingrid_vc zone 9b, San Diego Co. inland
last year
last modified: last year
That is so not good. I've only gotten one rose from Rogue Valley Roses, and that only because Antique Roses Emporium, who pack everything so carefully, did not have Grandmother's Hat. RVR sent one small pot with an extremely long stalk with a few leaves at the very top and two buds, but the stalk was very thin, and in 3-4 weeks it has not put on a single leaf more. My fault insofar as I should have potted it on to a larger pot instead of planting it in the ground. When I ordered from RVR years ago they were very good, never a problem. Times change and not always for the better. I hope all your roses will recover nicely.
Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
last year
My roses from RVRs have been packaged carefully.

Moses, these antique roses RVRs sells are available next to nowhere. I'm afraid to lose any more specialty nurseries. The band size rooted cuttings are very different from the grafted Hybrid teas. They do need to be potted.

People used to grafted HTs will find them shockingly small but it is comparing apples and oranges.

I wish you had someone in mind to take over when Janet retires instead of losing access completely.
Z10Socal
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
Ingrid, I don't know exactly where in SD you are but I'm always happy to give you a cutting of Grandma's hat! I can also give you some more cuttings of anything you like in my garden.

I love Antique rose emporium. I wish they had more roses I wanted. They have the best packaging out there. My roses come so well packaged, makes for a happy experience.

There was a lovey gentleman on here who gave away hundreds of his roses to a nursery. I'm sure many nurseries out there would be happy to take them from her.

If anyone had or has precious dream can you please tell me if it has thorns for you?
Feiy (PNWZ8b/9a)
last year
Paul may have seen your question. He just posted a new comment on HMF yesterday. Yes, it has lots of thorns.
Z10Socal thanked Feiy (PNWZ8b/9a)
Z10Socal
Original Author
12 months ago
last modified: 12 months ago
Feiy, thanks for letting me know. I have about four thornless roses and this one is not near thornless at all....PB commented yesterday? I thought he was off this site. Oh I just saw you said HMF. Just read his comment. Thanks for the info Paul. Shows RVR is not always accurate. I'm not big on coral roses. I thought it was going to be peachy, thornless and fragrant. Does anyone want this rose?

Cynthia, I have ordered several times from RVR but this time it was packaged the worst I have seen. My most expensive rose Connie's which is a little miniature was not taped down and was completely squashed. I'm surprised it survived. Little grey Pearl was taped too much that it's leaves were stuck to the tape.

I can't remember how my roses came from Burling last year but I don't remember seeing a problem. I also ordered 6 roses from another company and they packed them tight and they all looked fine.