PR> Don't waste your time with the "Grade 1 1/2" roses, they aren't worth
 PR> a wooden nickel!  It's CHEAPER to buy the "Grade 1" roses for $6-9.
 PR> This is one thing where buying quality is worth what it costs.
 BL> I would have to disagree with you, Paul. Not all of us are as
 BL> fortunate as you: we don't live in the "City of Roses", nor have the
Perhaps, but then does your State have a state Mollusc--the slug?
 BL> Sometimes the little $1.49 roses can grow where no others can -- as
 BL> long as they were properly packaged, and taken care of in the store
 BL> until they were purchased.
That's because you're getting different varieties.  There's no
relationship between the variety and the Grade.  However, you USUALLY
find the newer patented varieties in the big Grade 1 packs, and the
older "public-domain" varieties sometimes more often in the smaller
Grade 1 1/2 packs.  Both are bare-rooted.  The difference in grade is
in the age, number and size of the canes.  For any given variety in any
given environment, the Grade 1 rose will grow better than the Grade 1
1/2.  It's a year older, has more and larger canes and it will get
larger faster, and flower more and faster than the little 1 1/2, which
also means it may need more care during that first summer because it IS
larger and still not fully "grown-in".  In my experience the bare-
rooting process sets the little ones back so far that they take two or
three years to get to the point that the big one got in the first year.
 BL> There is no argument from me that the more expensive roses are
 BL> larger, fuller, have more features, but in poor soils and climates
 BL> (too hot, too cold, etc.) they just don't seem to survive for many of
That's an issue of picking the right variety, not the Grade of the plant.
... ...and now back to my original lurk mode...    
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