Wow, so early. I thought they'd wait til January. Did you buy any?

Summer Sunshine is an oldie, from 1962. I am surprised they still have mother plants.

I'm so envious. It snowed here yesterday. Am so desperate for a rose fix, I'd even consider a HD body bag for the first time in my life.

The problems I've encountered when buying BBs is that they are rarely what they say there are. It is nice to find some "vintage" roses in BBs and I have bought them when I couldn't find them from other vendors.
However, they are rarely true to name, the graft is lousy and some of them have failed to bloom!
But I agree, sometimes we addicts just have to have our fixes...
Susan

Wow, seems awfully earlier even for SoCal!

As long as you know going in what you can expect I say go for it. They're cheap and you get what you pay for...sometimes, lol!

I can only share my own experience here, but I have purchased quite a few of the body bag roses from home depot and have only ever had one that was not successful (it was my own fault because I waited two weeks to plant it).. The rest look beautiful... I am familiar with only a few of the ones on your list, but I love Double Delight and Mister Lincoln.. Fabulous colors and smells:)

Maude

I was going to post something similar myself. The only types I saw that you didn't mention were Hot Cocoa, Ambassador, and Julia Child. Some looked alright, others not so much. I personally picked up a Chrysler Imperial because it completes a theme my Mom started - roses released in the birth year of the immediate family.

There were non-patented Weeks bare roots at OSH in West LA almost two weeks ago that I noticed. It seemed fairly early from what I've heard, but it's very fun for a new rose enthusiast to notice bare roots of any sort for the first time.

Surely it's alright to pot up bare roots after soaking them as opposed to putting them directly in the ground? The long term spot for CI is as of yet undetermined.

Also, I couldn't grow a Lilac here in Los Angeles right? I saw a huge bin of bare root lilacs at the HD in Marina Del Rey today, when I was under the impression we just don't get an adequate chill. They also had cherries which required around 800 or so chill hours. I hope not too many people are expecting fruit from these trees around here.

Jay

Yep, they usually start showing up at ours right before Xmas. Guess I'll hafta go check it out and see what's new. Ya know, I never really have had much problems with the bagged bareroots in the past. But last yr, my husband grabbed a couple for me for Xmas (even managed to pick a couple I didn't already have), and I bought a few myself, but none of them made it. I don't believe even one of them made it. I seem to remember one of them at least sprouted new growth, but every one of them either died, or just never broke dormancy and died. That's kind of a bummer. Well, with as many as I have, it probably was a blessing.. LOL

I did not pick up any from our Home Depot, but I might have to go back later this week and see if they get a Julia Child, cause that I would buy. Mom would probably love a Double Delight. But I guess if she does not know what she is missing, it will be okay right... :)

There are some lilacs that will bloom here in SoCal, Descanso Gardens has a selection of them and some of the cultivars are theirs. But I would check chill times before I purchased any of them from HD. FYI I have 2 planted that came from suckers from a lady a few miles away. Hers blooms like mad so I hope mine will too some day.

I did notice that the body bags seemed nice and damp, figured it was better to buy know if anyone was looking than later.

My fav local nursery advertised that they will reopen after a holiday break on January 2nd with bareroots.

Maybe I will check out OSH this week

I would be excited if roses were in the big box stores, even though I usually don't buy them from those places, it just means another rose season is getting closer and I am really missing my roses right now!

That's good to know there are lilacs that bloom here. The HD in Marina Del Rey also had Veteran's Honor. Forgot about that.

My recollection of OSH's selection:
Julia Child
Judy Garland
Mister Lincoln
Memorial Day
Just Joey
Dublin Bay
Don Juan
Climbing Cecille Brunner
Double Delight
Queen Elizabeth
Olympiad
Peace
Gold Medal
First Prize
Touch of Class
Climbing Iceberg
and a few others (minis, climbers, and shrubs).

Oh, and standards of 3 or 4 types, but I didn't really take a look at them.

Jay

We have body bag bareroot roses in the big box stores now. Every year I succumb and buy a couple (they are so cheap) but none have ever survived except Perfume Delight. So, I'm determined not to buy any this year.

There are a couple reputable nurseries here that carry good bare roots this time of year. They are much better plants and usually survive the summer.

Just keep in mind that by "voting with your wallet" for the entities that generate this - umm - less than optimal crop, that you are encouraging the production of an often-virused, mislabeled, substandard product. Should we be encouraging this?

I buy roses everywhere. HD, Lowes, the dime store, the grocery store, Wally World and in Flagstaff (50min away) and I have to say everyone has done well. I only have 8 climbers and 22 bushes though, which makes it easy to keep an eye on them.

Had my husband stop by HD on his way home today. He said no bareroots in yet. Just as well...

Our box stores such as Homebase, do sell roses but never significantly cheaper than bare-root roses from a proper rose grower.....so no temptation there. And in truth, even if they were, despite being a bit impoverished, I still would not buy a rose from any of these outlets, for several reasons. Mostly, I have been gardening for long enough to know exactly what I want.....and these shops NEVER EVER have anything likely to ring my bells.......and even if they did, I like to think I maintain a few standards in life - free range eggs, organic meat, wool and cotton (not polyester or acrylic) and I would choke on a McHorseburger and avoid sweatshop clothing. It's not as if good plants are expensive and I am prepared to go without rather than buying second rate, non-choice rubbish. But that's just me, horses for courses, and I am prepared to stand by my principles here because I have so few of them (principles) to make much of a sacrifice.
Mostly though, I will always pay my money to rose growers such as Trevor Whites because if I (and other's) don't, these little specialist growers will be gone (and I am talking about paying an extra pound or 2 (if that) per rose, not 20 dollars) and we will be left with generic garden centres and a few measly, common, easy to raise selections - NONE OF WHICH I WILL EVER WANT....and just watch the complaining about nurseries going out of business then, when it's all too late.

Hey, less than optimal crop workers gotta eat too...But I get the point. And Camps, I'm with you on the principles thing. I have so few I can stand by the few that I have! LOL
I've put food on so many rose nursery tables in the last couple of years....soon I will be eating roses....
Susan

I thought about Trospero's comments a couple of days.

My thoughts are that he is absolutely right about voting with our wallets. But.....

I recognize that not everyone who loves roses has the funds to mail order only the best. Some have to love what they can afford and buy locally. I thought it was better to know they are in the stores earlier rather than find them later.

If we all choose not to buy roses from places like Home Depot, does that tell HD that the public does not want roses? How do we tell them we want better roses if we just stop buying and don't actually voice our thoughts to the buyer (for the store not customers) Maybe the better thing to do is to email the stores with what we want and why we don't want what they are offering.

If growers have no market for the lesser plants and have to discard, does that raise costs so high that the already reduced numbers of companies have to eat costs, raise prices and reduce the varieties offered?

The great irony in this, I have an order list that I printed out from a specialty supplier (out of state) Beyond the cost my big reason for not having hit submit on the order: The comments they send out too small and often mislabeled plants (no idea on the virus infected but one has to suspect that is probable on many just because of the use of Dr Huey).

FWIW, it was a body bag of Mister Lincoln that led to my love of antique roses and pursuit of "the best". So, maybe things are okay just as they are...
The folks who are satisfied with junk will continue buying junk and the folks who want better will only purchase that or save to purchase that...
Choosing not to purchase "too small" and often "mislabeled plants" is definitely voting with your wallet!
Susan

I drove by an Armstrong on Wilshire in Santa Monica yesterday that had quite a few bare roots out. In So Cal at least, people are no longer limited to body bags as I would assume other Garden Centers in the area would be getting their bare roots sooner than later.

Jay

I look at purchasing box store roses the same as I look at buying clothes....
Some people can afford nice mail order clothing such as LL Bean all the time, or some people like me can afford it once in a while. Some people like me make do with clothes from Walmart and other cheaper stores. Its inexpensive, convenient but there is always the risk it could fall apart. Just as with cheap roses, the things i buy from Walmart usually last long and are actually of decent quality. My body bag roses have just about the same success rate as my mail-order roses. I also like the convenience of being able to return a box store rose up to one year if it is mis-labled or diseased. Its just a drive down the street instead of dealing with customer service and waiting on a new rose to arrive.
I am thankful for mail-order nurseries and use them mostly for antiques or hard to find roses / clematis.

I think we can vote with our wallets by returning roses to box stores within one year of purchase if we see they are diseased or mislabled. That would get the point across better than not buying at all.

We have this same discussion every year when the body bags start showing up in stores. While I fully agree with Trospero's account that these are virused, inferior quality plants my fear is that Kippy is right too. If we don't buy these roses at all the stores will simply assume that people don't want any roses and stop carrying them completely. That in turn will put more rose growers on hard times. Will we be eventually shooting ourselves in the foot? Many of the mail order nurseries also order the better quality roses from these same growers. If they stop producing them where will those nurseries get them? Will we all be left with vast gardens of Knock Outs to look forward to...?

Kippy is also correct in the fact that not everyone can afford to buy mail order, particularly with shipping costs getting so high. For some of us those tiny band plants are iffy at best their first winter and for newbies they probably have no idea how to bring up those bands to mature roses. Then again those body bags, not being of the best quality, are iffy too for the uninitiated.

So you see there are many things to consider in this debate. I won't have to wrestle with this issue until March here but I'm sure something will tempt me when they do come in.

I would be more than happy to confine my rose purchases to specialty providers, provided those providers could be relied on to not ship to the wrong address and to not ship mislabeled roses on a regular basis. Unfortunately my experience with a particular West Coast nursery so far has been such that I decline to order anything from them that I cannot get somewhere else.

Hi all, I bought three of these two days ago. Mr. Lincoln is in a very large pot and will hopefully stay there for a while. One of the Granadas is planted, but I pooped out after digging that hole and put the other one in a container for now. Yes, I did soak 'em for 24 hours first. This is my first out-of-body-bag experience and I hope it goes well.
I didn't see the variety of choices shown on this thread. They had lots of Iceberg, Summer Sunshine, Love, the three I bought, and a few others. I'd have snapped up Double Delight if I'd seen it.
My take is gardeners should just buy what they want, where they want, according to their own tastes and budgets. It's just like food: some may advocate local-sourced, all-organic, fair-trade goodies and others may not be able to afford that lifestyle. I hate rules anyway ;) Sylvia

I remember Kim answering a lady asking if her body bag was really Mr. Lincoln and he said maybe not because the dishonest growers will substitute a easier growing look a like and use the well known name to get the sale. So even if you get the right color, maybe it's an impostor. It happened that way a few times to me so now I never bother anymore. They shouldn't be allowed to cheat the public like that but the stores don't care. They know and they still keep selling them every year.

Just a foot note, but my two Coiner $8 roses are in bloom today. Not my favorite and planted where I might need access in a hurry and would not hesitate to remove, but they are happy and busy blooming away.

Irony is the cutting that I have spent about a year babying to first root, then sprout and finally it bloomed......I think is the wrong rose. Mom wanted a cutting from her favorite from her friend, I think I have something in a blah tone of yellow. At best it might be Peace (which I already have)

Swung by both Home Despot and Lowe's today. The most interesting rose at either store was the "Raspberry Kiss" at the Lowe's store. It's a new -- just imported from Europe -- hulthemia that Certified Roses has seen fit to market under a new name in the U.S. I suspect it's going to be a terrific rose. The European name that some may recognize is "Eyes on Me," of the getting-better-known "Eyes" series from Chris Warner. Gots me one.

At Home Depot, the most unusual roses were "Hailstorm," "Super Gold" (an older Joe Winchel Hybrid Tea bred from Gold Medal) and a tree-grafted "Perfume Tiger." I'm a big fan of Perfume Tiger, but I didn't need another one, so the only rose that actually jumped in my cart today was the Raspberry Kiss. Otherwise, both stores just had the same old usuals.