First bare root roses appear for the year

Well... the hardware store had their first lot of bare root roses in 'body bags' today... nothing very inspiring; lots of 'Iceberg' and 'Fressia' and more 'Icebergs'... some from Swanes, some from Knights Roses... Noticed prices were much higher this year than in previous years... roses in 'body bags' going for $20 each. Good thing we've had such cold weather lately as these are so early they would probably have tried to sprout again on planting. Will visit a nice little local nursery in Sulphur Creek over the weekend I think to see if they've got their BR roses yet and see if I can get first dibs at their old rose selection

I too was shocked at the $20 price tag on the bagged roses in the hardware shop down our way. Won't be buying any of those.
Closer to the old prices in Big W though. Somewhere around $8 but they were all HTs, florabundas and climbers. Maybe the DAs will come in later. Don't expect to see any Teas though except maybe at dedicated plant nurseries.

Gee, I hope that price won't apply here as well. Ours aren't due in till late this month or June.

Good selection of DA's in $8 bodybags at BigW on the Central Coast. Didn't take more than two seconds for the old addiction to kick in and there were two in my trolley lol I'd always wanted another Scepter'd Isle because it does so well here. And a new (to me) HT with the old fashioned quartered look called "Grandma's Rose" Can't resist the excitement of something unknown (like growing seedlings).

I planted them straight in the ground, where they will be OK in our mild frosty winters. Have put them in pots before and they've always done OK.

BTW I see Brindabella are still touting their roses as "completely resistant to blackspot" and loving heat and humidity. If that's the case, they'll soon monopolise the market on the east coast:)

Dave, Our Big W (Mudgee. N.S.W) has them for $13.99. I got three last week and I thought I got a bargain Not so eh! I will refrain from buying more for a couple of weeks to see if they come down. Nice to see that Brindabella finds there is no problem with them on the E.C. Carole

You know... the whole Brindabella thing... it's interesting you know! I notice that the rose called 'Brindabella Bouquet' was actually bred a C. Warner in the UK... 'Brindabella Blaze' WAS bred in Australia and received a bronze medal in 2008 from the National Rose Trial Garden of Australia which means it received a score between 70 and 72.99%. You can read about how they are judged here: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Dave, if you go to Big W again, is there any chance you might list the ones that are $8. If we have the same I would like to know why we are paying $14. Ours are grown by "The Rose Company"

I have bought bagged roses for as little as $5 in the from Kmart !

Went looking around for bagged roses today. The garden centres don't have any yet, K Mart doesn't have any yet. Mitre10 in Hobart has one year plants for around $8 and more advanced ones for $10. I suppose it is a bit early yet for them all to arrive down here. We are at the end of the line.
I would have bought a few to try out of the $10 lot if I only had the space to put them. they had Swanes labels on them and looked good and healthy. Gene Tierney was one. Has anyone heared of it? Also some of the Smooth Touch roses.

Mitre 10 had the Swanes ones (they were the $20 ones) and then the Knights Roses oens were about $15 and then there was another brand for around $8. They all looked ok but it's hit-and-miss as far as virus goes when they don't have leaves. Sulphur Creek said they won't get their roses until June (from Treloars mainly) and that any that turn up now have been defoliated and are not truly dormant (get a touch of the cold weather here lately and they soon will be though ).

We've just got our first lot in from Treloars this week. Defoliated like Simon said, I suspect, and more expensive this year. We pot most of ours for sale during the year so that puts the price up as well. Im not happy that a few have new shoots but what can you do

And it's funny you know... but the mailorder roses from the Treloars website don't seem more $$$ this year than they have been in previous years. I have four coming down this week actually (Hot Chocolate, Ebb Tide, Many Happy Returns, and Jean Kenneally)... on the lists do they state what they graft onto? I am thinking Dr Huey and Dr Huey isn't a good doer here... am expecting to have to regraft these ones whent hey arrive onto multiflora.

Simon, why not email Treloars and ask. I know their standards are on a stock I do not know the name of, other than ever green.

We didnt get our rose order from Treloars last year. Got them from another cheaper company that has a pretty good rep. but they let us down pretty bad and even though it wasnt really their fault- seasonal factors and whatnot- its a bit hard to explain to an angry elderly lady that her Candy Stripe didnt come and wont be coming even though she had ordered it 3 months previously, and no we coulnt have let her know sooner because we only just found out ourselves when only half our order turned up ...what was I saying before I started ranting about Rose growers...oh so even though Treloars are a bit more expensive their roses do seem to be very nice quality.