Bare Rooted Rose Quality

What I do if I have concerns about  the quality of a bare rooted rose sent to me by  a nursery is I inform the nursery of my concerns and tell the nursery I will plant the rose and see what happens. Most times my concerns are unfounded and the rose grows quite normall acouple of times the rose didn't survive so I contacted the nursery and on both occasions they sent me a replacement.

Well, it will have been a week tomorrow since I called and spoke to the fellow at Misty Downs and he still hasn't called me back. It's very disappointing. I suppose I will have to call and harass him again tomorrow.

Why wait Zoe, it is obviously playing on your mind so annoy them some more. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

When You ring Zoe, ask directly for either Judy or Noel.

brettv68 wrote:Why wait Zoe, it is obviously playing on your mind so annoy them some more. The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Well said Brett.

There is no better time than know, strike while you are in the mood Zoe.

It was Noel that I spoke to last week David, so I will ask to speak to him again. I will just call them now Brett, you're right - all my other roses are in and I'm getting anxious to start putting down all the mulch, so if they're going to send out replacements I would like to get them in the ground!

Priority mail to Zoe.

Well, I called him back. Nothing has happened since last time we spoke. He said he will chase it up and call me back - same as last time.

I will just have to wait and see what he says now, since it will be too late to order replacements from elsewhere by the time he gets back to me. Very irritating.

Zoe, you can always put in roses which have been potted of course.  I know, it extremely annoying to put it politely!!
I'd phone morning and evening, just be a pest!  You could always say you have been discussing this on the forum, to let them know many people from all around Australia know of their service or lack of it!  Just a thought!

Thanks Sue, I really had forgotten about potted roses. I planted a potted Kathleen Harrop last November and it has done very well, despite the heat. Then I dug it up and moved it last week, lol. Poor thing.

Judy called me back. They are sending me one replacement rose for the split Marie van Houtte (she's sold out so I asked for Mme Joseph Schwartz instead). She was quite adamant that the mouldy ones will live (one might, but Cl. SDLM is definitely toast in my opinion). She said they had gone mouldy because they dug my order in July, then unpacked it and re-packed it twice because, she said, they were unable to get payment from me (what??? That account always has several thousand dollars available)!!! She said I was contacted several times about this (umm...no!!! This is the first I'm hearing about it)!!!

Over-all, she was very unapologetic, and she basically said that the two mouldy roses were my fault for not making prompt payment, which is of, course, not true.

I can't be bothered pursuing this any further. I will chuck SDLM in the bin, plant the other mouldy one and hope it lives, and see if Mme Joseph Schwartz ever arrives. I just hope the rest of the order does OK after being packed and unpacked so many times.

Next year I will order from Thomas' instead.

Check your statement and see when the payment was taken out....

Apart from one year when there order system crashed and they lost ours we have had no problems with them.

This years order had to be put in pots as the garden renovations are not ready yet and they have done really well. Some have flowers coming on them but all have had loads of foliage happening.

Check your statement. They usually take out 50% when you order and the rest when they post it out. Did they send you a confirmation of your order? They usually do this when they take out the 50%.

Unless Thomas's have changed you usually don't have to pay until you receive their plants. Unfortunately they are on Dr Huey rootstock and not many of he ones that we have ordered from them have done very well. I'd be surprised if we have too many left actually. There was nothing wrong with their plants (apart from some being obviously older than 2 years) it is just their rootstock and our soil do not get one.

The second payment was taken the 19th August, which is the day the roses were sent. But my statements show more than enough available funds since I ordered in early April.

They sent me the invoice via email the following day (20th August). The confirmation of order email was sent way back in May, soon after ordering, and I didn't receive any correspondence between these dates.

Thanks for the heads-up about Dr Huey from Thomas' Gary. I don't know how if performs here, but I will ask Jean from Reliable before making any orders from them, as she's just up the road and would know.

I appreciate that you've all had great experiences ordering for Misty Downs, which is why I am so surprised that mine has been sub-par. I'm glad your roses are doing well, Gary

Can you check when the first one was taken Zoe and see if it is around your order placement.

Yep, first payment was taken on 4th May. Order was placed online 14th April.

Me again, I bet you did not keep the conformation email >?

Yes! I keep everything. I'm like a digital hoarder. One day they'll make a crappy reality TV show about people like me.

Zoe, can you copy all these dates from your account without details, lets say transaction days, amounts, to whom and from where, copy these and send to the people concerned(that is how we talk about them fro now on), this is only lines from and to, NO other transcript of your account to be seen.

David, I could do that, but I don't think I'm going to worry about it any longer, so long as the other roses do OK. I've just got a bit of other stuff going on at the moment, and I don't want to spend any more of my time being grumpy. Just going to try to enjoy these rare sunny days when I'm not at work

If I end up with a bunch of dead roses in 3 months time, I will look into it further.

WRONG attitude young lady

I know where you are coming from David and I agree with you,....... BUT, Zoe has a lot on her plate at the moment!  I/we can take up the fight for her if you like!  I hate it when this sort of thing happens.
I think Zoe, maybe you should write/email them and tell them you have discussed this on the forum and "we" are not amused!

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The photo above shows the size diffrence between a young 'Charlotte", because I wanted it and a old garden rose named "Macrantha"
The photo below just shows the size of the plants in general
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This is thier bath till the weekend
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Mme Joseph Schwartz arrived today (replacement for Marie van Houtte who had the split root stock). I've put her in her bath but I won't be able to plant her or see her in the daylight until Friday, which is my first day off work now. I think she looks OK.