I just shovel pruned The Poet. . .a spindly little non-performer and disease prone. And I have owned several others of theirs -- most not too impressive. Certainly, they know that some of their roses are not very good. With the price increase, how could they possibly justify selling them. At the lower price, I might try them and not be too worried about it. But now? Losing a rose would be a major loss. I certainly will not be just buying for fun anymore, but will research and make sure that whatever I get will survive and perform well.

Time to start taking cuttings from my friends. Or buy body bags.

Ingrid

Jay

And the situation appears to be worse with the minis and minifloras -- those prices got especially high, even with the shipping included, it seems to me.

BUT, this seems to be a work in progress, so I was just going to let it develop and see what happens.

I see that Regan's has now done this -- last time I ordered from them I got a 20% discount for ordering "3 or more" roses.

What we want when we buy own root OGRs are basically custom orders available on demand. Quality, availbilty, inexpensive are three things that a business cannot provide all in the same product and still make money--pick two.

$34 from ARE for one

IIRC, it's $11.50 per regular rose, $7.50 for minis. She has a huge selection of ogrs & moderns.

She packs either 6-8 in a Priority large box for the flat rate. Heck, I just placed an order & she threw in a last minute request, gratis. And she's done that before, too, with a little Dresden Doll she thought too small to charge for.

Nice lady, excellent product, price & customer service.

The justification for higher prices may be due to having to maintain such a large variety of inventory and rising cost of doing business. But I wonder how artificial the mark up is when we have some mail order sources that can provide bands for way cheaper with very reasonable shipping cost and also carry quite a vast array.

One person performing every function, while also working other jobs, producing other "crops" for other outlets, can produce a band sized rose for a significantly lower price than a business with numerous employees; large display gardens hosting annual public events; utilizing winter heated green houses versus unheated houses, etc.

Remember Vintage's shipping rate charts? Using that standard, "old school" shipping method could cost two to four times what using Flat Rate Priority costs for the same size, same weight purchase to the same address. Packaging choice can also add significant costs. Purchasing standard boxes, or even creating specialty packaging, are much more expensive than simply going on line and ordering Priority boxes from USPS.com to be delivered FREE to your address. There are many factors contributing to the costs being compared. Kim

Good grief, the way costs are going up for all things gardening ... and everything else .. I may become a true expert at growing weeds ... lol.

Smiles,
Lyn

At the local Farmer's Market this morning, I wanted to buy Purple Cherokee tomatoes. Most of the vendors had none. :-(

I found one guy who did have some (and lovely tomatoes they were, too). BUT they were $4.00/lb. That might have been a fair price for the only P.C.'s in the market -- but it was just more than I was prepared to pay.

So, we said regretfully -- "Sorry. Lovely tomatoes but over my price-limit."
And darned if he didn't say: "You on Social Security? That's a good enough reason for a 10% discount!"

So, we happily bought 4 lovely tomatoes.

But, Lyn, I think your point is well-taken. I not infrequently encounter things that may be a fair price ... but are still more than I can pay for them.

Jeri

I try and buy from Burling first because of her pricing and shipping. But Heirloom often runs a good sale and they say they only sell virus free. That is worth something as well. Rogue is more expensive and does not have sales like Heirloom, but I the deal of a "free" rose makes my bill higher with them.

On the other hand, if I want cheap, HD has Iceberg for $7

I love Heirloom Roses. I bought two Henri Martin Moss Roses and a Salet Moss Rose from them in May and they've grow so well this year. I've been really impressed.

I prefer buying roses locally because I'm impatient but I will buy from them again for some less common varities!