Pink Rose -- The same thing happened to me with my Heirloom order this spring. My rose arrived in a bag with dried-out soil that that had almost completely fallen away from the roots. I think it caused a lot more stress on the plant than when it's shipped in a pot. I think the plastic bag was supposed to be enclosed in some sort of cardboard collar (based on photos on social media), but mine didn't have the cardboard collar.

I eventually got a full refund from Heirloom. If you are very unhappy, you should write to them again and say they sell their roses as potted rose (as stated on their website) and you did not receive a potted rose.

I love Heirloom, but they haven't been transparent about this whole experimentation with non-potted roses. And I don't know why they've been dragging their feet with letting people add on a pot for $1.

The thing is, I'm fully supportive of them finding ways to reduce plastic, but I think their current method stinks, and their communication with customers has been even worse.

Hard to believe Heirloom would ship so sloppily! Their prices are at the higher end for gallon size bushes, and they should give top delivery service. They strip the foliage to reduce shipping stress, as they maintain. Well how about unpotting a rose, foliage stripped, and shipping it with no crown collar? Does that reduce stress? Sounds ridiculous!

I have always been suspicious of their foliage stripping bush practice. Is the reason that they strip the foliage more that the foliage was in poor condition showing small leaves with insect/disease damage, and stripping it conceals the truth of its bad condition? No other nursery that I know of strips their foliage, and the bushes come through shipping just fine.

Moses.

Moses

That is exactly what I emailed Heirloom . I said a $50/60 rose should include the standard nursery pot .Maybe they get them from china and have tariffs on them ?

Possibly the inspection, if grown over seas in China, involves a soil/root inspection and the roses are unpotted at one point along their route? Repotting would therefore stress the bush further most likely, if this scenario was the case.

Whatever the case, the whole thing raises many questions that require truthful answers.

If ever I order roses from Heirloom again I will stipulate that no unpotted nor foliage stripped roses be sent to me. Period.

Also, if unpotting saves on plastics' negative environmental impact, then what does rewrapping the root/soil mass in a PLASTIC bag accomplish in achieving this noble goal?

Moses.

I am not a fan of raising prices but I say, just raise each rose price by a dollar and stay with shipping them in a pot. A dollar extra isnt that big of deal. Its better than having to refund or replace. People reuse their pots or could donate them to friends etc. I dont think its that much of a waste to include pots. I save plastic cups and any pots I get for propagating or potting up my flower/veggie seedlings.

The rose I got looked like the one on the left in Pink's photo. The rootball had just totally collapsed rather than retaining its pot-like shape like the rose on the right in Pink's photo. When I received roses from Heirloom in their 1-gal pots, they were always still moist and in great condition.

Susan, it seems like it's taking forever for Heirloom to implement their optional pots.

FWIW mine from Heirloom in the new potting system arrived as healthy as usual and when transferred to one of my hundreds of pots grew as well as those that arrived in plastic pots. I think the incentive is to try to reduce plastic waste (like when stores give you a small discount on bringing your own bags) so I respect the reason. I doubt it's much of a cost savings for them to skip the pot because the bag and cardboard are probably an equivalent cost. Adding a pot to their already high prices isn't worth it for me at all

I don't mind the change but I can see that it has caused problems for others.

Cynthia

Heirloom is trying to be environmentally aware of the plastic issue, right? Reusing plastic gallon pots in their propagating program if done correctly requires that the pots be thoroughly cleansed and decontaminated, which: expense in labor time, cleansing materials used, including clean water (a resource to be conserved), toxic chemical contaminated waste water, etc., will have a GREATER environmental impact than sending the roses inside the pots in which they grew!

These things have to be thought out intelligently, not superficially.

Moses.

I think Pink Rose meant they might get their POTS from China, not their roses....

:)

Dee