Nik,
funny how mood can change so quickly at the mention of a rose sale.
it's good to know I'm not the only one that finally broke down and bought Alchymist this year, partly because of such incredibly
beautiful, plump sunrise colored blossom photos and comments on Help Me Find.
I've never heard of Macmillan nurse, have to take a virtual stroll to Beales.
Linda

Nik, have a look at Trevor Whites roses - they are MUCH cheaper than Beales....and absolutely outstanding - the best bare-roots I have ever seen in 20 years of rose shopping. Huge, vigorous, impossibly healthy roses... and they ship to the EU.

Macmillan Nurse - yep, this is always on show at the nursery - although it does not make my heart beat any faster (I have no love at all for full petals with no stamens), it is a perfectly innocuous little rose - fairly stiff and thorny, nicely scented and colour varies from a creamy colour with the odd blush, to white. Probably make a good bedding rose as it stays a nicely compact, tight shape. I vaguely recall it doesn't die terribly well (the sin of many white full petalled roses) but it has a fairly good repeat right through till almost Xmas.

Thanks Camps. I was thinking if it could replace a rose in a pot which will have to go in the ground this year. Linda, I've seen Alchymist in 'person', it's not often I can say this for a rose I buy, and he's wonderful even though he's once flowering.
NIk

This post was edited by nikthegreek on Fri, Jan 31, 14 at 13:59

Checked Trevor White's. Prices almost half of top dollar sorry pound ones. They ship to the EU (EC they still call it, oh the British..imo it's not a real union and it certainly is not a community..). Will try them next season. Wish I'd never left the UK despite the weather. Or do I? Thanks Camps,
Nik

Noooooo, you really don't (want to be in England). The wettest winter in over 100 years (and we are only halfway through) - horrible, horrible. This is a nightmare - we can't get out to work without wrecking the ground. Everything is either under water or in mud and slush....and it's grey and cold. I yearn for a crisp bright day. My greenhouse is rank, mildewy and I know there are going to be losses to botrytis, pythiums, rotting cotyledons......

Always, life takes its chances......i planted 2,000 narcissi and several hundred bluebells and wood anemones last autumn. The leaves are up and looking enormous. I swear, twice as big as anything at home. 50 years of fallow woodland, deep leaf litter.....the soil is deep, rich and friable, yet has perfect drainage. The bluebells are also sending up deep green rosettes of leaves and I am finding stray snowdrops too. There are 100 or so common primroses growing away at home, ready to go in the ground in a month or so and signs of P.wilsonii and P.secundiflora just about showing in the coldframes (I have craved primula for a hundred years).
My meconopsis seeds arrived in the post and my knitting is growing by the day.
Macmillan Nurse will be perfect in a pot.

I'm just so envious that anyone is buying roses right now. I'm freezing and waiting for the 6 inches of snow they're predicting to start tonight. Enjoy and share pictures, please!

seil, over here it's prime time for planting bare-roots. It's cool and wet, but not too cold or too muddy. The window for planting is usually until the end of Feb.
Nik

By the way, Nik, do you ever look at Italian rose nurseries? There are one or two I can recommend, the prices are probably better than in Great Britain, and it's closer.
Suzy,
You have my sympathies for your awful weather, which sounds likes ours x 10, but I must say the soil sounds incredible. I saw soil like that once in Italy, around a marshy lake in the neighborhood of Viareggio, in Tuscany. The stuff was as brown and crumbly as cocoa, and looked nearly as edible. And everything grew in it. Once you get past this dreadful weather you'll be in heaven.
My experimental handful of bulbs shows no signs of sprouting.
Melissa

Nik, I had that e-mail from Peter Beales too and I thought noooo! please don't tempt me. I have no more room.
I like the photo of Macmillan Nurse too, although, I have never seen it in person.

As well as the OGRs, Trevor White also does a selection of the Delbard roses. They are supposed to be good in a warm climate.

Campanula, please, please, please, take loads of photos of your bulbs when they flower. 2000 narcissus sound wonderful. Because my garden is so small, my narcissus are in 10s and 20s.
Daisy

Hi Melissa,

I've had bad experience in the past with Italian and French (and some German) nurseries due to the language barrier despite me having a rudimentary knowledge of German and a basic understanding of Italian and at least being able to navigate and make sense of a German or Italian language site. Also many of them do not ship abroad or have complicated processes for ordering.

If you know of any in Italy that pass these tests and stock more than the usual HT's etc, I would like to hear about them.

I have promised myself not to patronise any provider who only provides a site in his native language because I know I'll be asking for trouble and I know he does not really welcome foreign business. I can excuse the British because their language is the de facto lingua franca of commerce but that's it.

I have no particular inclination to help with the British balance of payments, it is just that communication is easy and both them and the Dutch providers seem to have mastered better the art of internet selling.

PS I can recall of one particular German nursery specializing in OGRs with, apparently, good reputation regarding their plants, who explicitly state on their site that they expect communication by phone or fax only and they check their email only once in a blue moon... And that was written in German!
Nik

This post was edited by nikthegreek on Sat, Feb 1, 14 at 1:39

Camps,
I got my bachelor's degree from a university in England. I also got my master's from another over there. I even worked there for a couple of years. Stayed for about 6 years in total. I decided to leave after a horrible winter since I found myself doing what the Brits do when they see the sun coming out after a horrible season, that is lying on the green and look at the blue sky as if they're seeing a UFO. That was back in the 80s, a most depressing period in the UK I should add. Still, with hindsight, I cannot help but wonder if that was one of the many mistakes I've done in my life.
Nik

It's true - we are desperate for the sun.......we immediately flock to a public park, get down to our vests and stretch out like basking sharks (in March, if we get a chance). I am old enough to recall liberty bodices - sort of felted undergarments which we wore from November through to Easter.

Melissa, the soil, when I get to it, is truly remarkable....the only thing is the acres of ivy crossing and recrossing every inch of ground.....along with the vicious brambles (although mulching head of the brushcutter is sorting that). Oh yeah, those nettles which cover every inch between the ivy vines.........it's going to be a long job.....but as soon as the spade cuts through the top layer of vine and root, it sinks into the earth like a huge downy pillow - tantalisingly out of reach but there still, waiting for many hands to start the ivy pulling and rakeover (off again later today and taking my boys (men) to help.

Nik, we are all turning our eyes east to Europe these days and shivering in the chill winds of emerging fascism. We have 2 strands of this in the UK - the crazy but delusional UKIP (no immigrants...and a whole slew of other, less publicised goals) and the horrific coalition of thugs and hate-mongers which comprises the EDL and assorted racist bullies.Truly hope all is well for you and yours.

Daisy, I surely will take pics....but 2500, while it sounds a lot, is actually hardly anything when spread around 5 acres. With an eye to establishing colonies, the bulbs have been planted in groups of 100 or so, spread around the woodland - it will be a start but I expect to be waiting at least 5 years before we really have something worth looking at.