Comments regarding Heirloom Roses

Posted on November 22, 2021, updated November 22, 2021
Absolutely would NOT recommend ordering from Heirloom Roses! I placed an order on behalf of a non-profit for roses for a public rose garden installation. I provided our sales tax exemption and asked to be refunded for the amount of sales tax charged ($15.12). Every other rose supplier has more than happily refunded this (or not charged it upfront at all). Heirloom Roses refused to refund it. They claimed because they "are a small business" they're incapable. Every other "small business" (and these are smaller businesses than them, I might add) have managed.

They are already the most expensive place to order roses from. The other rose retailers graciously offered not just to refund the sales tax, but also provided a discount for our orders - ranging from 10% to 25% off of their (already cheaper than Heirloom) prices.

I disputed a portion of the charge with our bank (JUST $15.12 of the total amount). After reviewing the dispute, Wells Fargo issued a credit in our favor of $15.12. Heirloom Roses canceled our entire order and claims we were refunded the full amount (though I've sent them a screenshot from Wells Fargo to prove otherwise!)

I will be telling all of my friends and colleagues about this experience!

After searching high and low for Griffith Buck's "Hawkeye Belle" rose, I signed onto on a waiting list with Heirloom Roses. I was excited to have an own-root rose of this variety and dug a "4 Star" hole for it when I knew it was coming in 2018.
Unfortunately, the plant that arrived in July was very spindly and almost defoliated.
After waiting a bit for new growth I sent the company a photo and asked for a refund. The customer service representative agreed that the plant looked substandard, and issued a credit for the price of the plant. Unfortunately this did not include the cost paid for delivery. Also, Hawkeye Belle was sold out.
Rather than spend another $25 (on top of the $50 already spent) to have a replacement rose delivered, I decided to give the original plant more time. In 2019 it produced one bloom and no additional growth. In 2020 the plant was still alive but didn't bloom. I moved it to another location in August 2020. Perhaps will do better this year.
A different rose had performed spectacularly for years in the spot where I'd originally planted Hawkeye Belle.
This review is neutral rather than negative because I appreciate that the company offers varieties that are hard to find. However, I do not think that a customer should have to pay delivery charges for a replacement plant when the original was in such poor condition.

In the past I have ordered all my roses from this company. I had fabulous climbers and rose bushes that are still alive and are prolific bloomers. Two years ago I ordered Glowing Peace and Figi. I noticed they no longer carry Figi, which is good because my rose has only produced 2 or 3 roses after being in the ground for two years. I am disappointed and I am not writing this to get a refund or replacement. My Glowing Peace has produced about a half dozen yellow roses. Very nice looking but, 5 roses after two years.

But, on a positive note, I did order 3 miniature roses which are doing well. Mary Kay; Cupcake and Old Country Charm. I am happy with these miniature roses; just disappointed in my other two rose bushes.

Perhaps one of your most expensive options when looking at roses. The roses I have bought have been very healthy, but nothing special. I would look elsewhere UNLESS they and only they had a rose I was looking for.

I've ordered 5 roses from them, all are still living and, as far as I know, healthy. On the other-hand there are other rose sellers out there that are more economical and also sell rarer varieties.

"On Apr 24, 2017 9:45 AM, Heirloom Roses responded with:

Dear Swaty_Gardner,

Thank you for your post.

We at Heirloom Roses work diligently to provide premium own-root roses, backed by a one year guarantee.

Own-root roses provide more disease resistance, longevity, up to 20% more blooms, hardiness, and are guaranteed to be virus free.

We offer an extensive collection including many old garden roses as well as more traditional varieties.

Additionally, we allow our customers to sign up to be notified when a particular rose they have been waiting for returns to inventory and is able to be purchased. This is much more convenient for our customer than constantly returning to our website to see if it is back in stock.

We also offer regular sales and promotions and free shipping on orders over $50.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide you with healthy, beautiful, own-root roses and look forward to serving your garden needs in the future.



"

I have been buying roses from Heirloom for maybe 20 years. I know that own root plants will be small and then take off.. I have only ( that I can remember) had 1 problem... which Heirloom took care quickly and with no issues. I have lived in very inhospitable places too.
HOWEVER..they used to have an outstanding collection of hard to find and actual heirloom roses..that is a thing of the past.Now mostly modern roses. I go else where for old fashioned roses now. It is too bad to loose such resource. I understand that High Country Roses has also changed hands. Another valuable resource.

"On Jul 20, 2016 2:07 PM, Heirloom Roses responded with:

Hello Landscapergal. Our inventory of old garden roses is always growing, though some may currently be out of stock. We allow our customers to subscribe to be notified when something they are waiting for comes available again. Simply enter your email address for the variety that you are interested in on it's product page.

We hope this is helpful."

I ordered a Gallon of Elle Hybrid Tea Rose and a Gallon of Memorial Day on March 8 , 2016. According to the confirmation receipt , shipping will be on March 10 , 2016 and will take about 3 to 5 business days to arrive. It's already March 16 , 2016 and still no plants delivered. I already e - mailed them but no response. I am getting a bit worried about the negative reviews here and other sites due to Heirloom Roses' poor tracking of their plant delivery as well as poor communication of their customer service.

Still hoping for a positive resolution to this issue.

"On Mar 17, 2016 10:38 AM, Heirloom Roses responded with:

Dear Blutsauger,

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your post.

Our records show that the order was placed on 3/7/16 and was set by you to be shipped on 3/10/16. Elle is being delivered today which is five business days from when the order shipped.

Memorial Day showed on the website at the time of order (See link below) and on your confirmation that it would not begin shipping until April. This order will ship seperately on April 4, and you will receive a shipping confirmation at that time.

http://www.heirloomroses.com/memorial-day.html

If we can be of further assistance, don't hesitate to contact us at 800-820-0465.

Thank you!"

I understand this company has a new owner. So what's the problem with them mailing out a catalog?

Posted on August 1, 2012, updated May 18, 2015
Posted on July 28, 2012, updated August 1, 2012
Posted on July 23, 2012, updated July 28, 2012
This was my first experience ordering from this company. I will confess that it was because I could not find The ingenious Mr. Fairchild elsewhere, and it was enthusiastically recommended by Peter Schneider, author of Right Rose, Right Place and the Combined Rose List. I also had long coveted Jacqueline du Pre, so I ordered that too. I have always ordered much larger roses.
Jacqueline
I was pleasantly surprised by the small jewels I received. They have healthy leaves and no disease. They are already growing from being cut back. And they arrived on a 94 degree day!

Yes, they are small but they look raring to go. I am very pleased and will be back.

I ordered two roses in January, scheduled to be shipped the second week of April. On May 10, the roses had still not been shipped and my order status was still pending. Unknowing that I had already ordered a particular rose, my family presented me with one that I had already ordered for Mother's Day. Since my order from heirloom's had not yet shipped, I emailed them to ask for a substitute rose, as I had no need for two of the same kind. I made sure that the rose I was asking for was in stock. I also noted that I was happy to pay any restocking or substitution fees. I received no response from Heirloom, but 5 hours later, I coincidentally received a shipment notice that my order had been shipped. A bit too coincidental for me, considering that my order was a month late late in shipping. Of course, the substitution was not made.

My neutral rating is not so much that they did not make the substitution, but more that they couldn't be bothered to reply to let me know that they would not entertain my request. The only correspondence I received from them was my shipment notice.

Of the two roses ordered, the one I really wanted and was looking forward to is quite puny, just a stick with some healthy leaves at the top and small yellowing leaves at the bottom. Of course, the duplicate rose that I now don't need is thriving and even has buds.

I run a mail order business and understand seasonal rushes. And of course, it is not their fault that I was gifted a rose I had already ordered from them. However, I feel that it is common courtesy, especially considering that the order was to have been shipped a month earlier, to respond to an email request, whether the answer is to the customer's liking or not.

"On Jun 5, 2015 6:06 AM, Heirloom Roses responded with:

Thank you for your feedback, it is important to us.

We appreciate your understanding of seasonal business and will work diligently to stay ahead of the rush of volume when spring hits.

Our customers love our roses and we are passionate about providing them with beautiful blooms."

I have yet to order anything as I am worried about the heat in hemet california. I want to get Sharifa Asma for myself and my mom in time for Mother's Day. Her Garden has very hard dry dirt with no shade. I know she will need to buy good soil to plant it but will it thrive or die?

I ordered my roses May 23rd and received an email stating they had been shipped June 2nd. It's June 17th and no roses! I spent quite a bit and am pretty frustrated at this point, I'd heard so many great things about heirloomroses.com that I was excited to be getting such a great deal - roses are very expensive in my area. I really want my roses and just want a reply to my emails! I wish their customer service phone line was more flexible too and I could call on Saturday's. This feedback is neutral because I am still waiting for them to come through and hopeful everything will work out...

Here it is spring, and all the roses I purchased from them and planted last fall made it through the winter; they all show new growth with blooms starting on a few. This is good news, but I'm still smarting from their shipping cost.

I don't like how they advertise a sale, you use their web site, and the high cost of shipping isn't revealed until the last order page. It takes away the pleasure of a sale. Other companies ship in a similar fashion without such a high charge.

I have ordered from Heirloom several times for roses that are very hard to impossible to find anywhere else.
As a rule I have found the health of the roses I receive from them to be acceptable. But, they are way too small to be shipped in my opinion. They need a whole other season of growing at their place before being mature enough to ship and survive the shock of the trip.
I have grown roses for many years now and am not a novice rosarian by any means. I currently have 250+ roses. I have had success ordering bands, bareroots, cuttings, and potted roses alike from many different companies, but I just cannot seem to get my Heirloom roses to grow. They never take off and start growing and within a year they are always dead as a doornail.
The price and shipping fees that they charge are way too high for what you get from them. I think that I am better off purchasing roses from other vendors even though that means I won't have some of the harder to find roses I so desperately want. After all, if I can't get their roses the thrive what have I gained anyway??? Rare or not, if they die I still don't have the roses I want.
Customer service is not one of their strong suits either. If I get a reply from them it is usually a long time in coming and is generally of little or no help at all.
This year they have contacted me and replaced five roses for me free of charge to make up for what I have lost in the past. This is the only reason I am giving them a Neutral rating instead of a Negative one.
Even still, one of the five was very poor quality and when I contacted them about it after it promptly died in two weeks they sent me another that was worse than the original that died and I am doing my level best to keep it alive but I don't think it is going to make it either. The other four roses are actually better quality and size than the others I have ever recieved from them and I think they will survive, though it will still take them several years to mature because they are very small and immature.
All in all, I think that Heirloom is a vendor to shy away from unless you are very desperate for a particular rose and want to take the chance and pay the high price of aquiring some of their bands.

I am very annoyed and disappointed with this company. I've bought from them before without incident, however after today I will not be buying from them again.

I placed an order for a rose 2 weeks ago, 3 days ago I got notice that my mailing address didn't match my credit card address, so I called up and clarified my proper address and thought that was all. The very next day (Saturday) they started a 1/2 price sale on the rose I ordered. Their offices are closed on the weekend so today (Monday) I called up and spoke to a very unpleasant woman, named Antonia, who said she could do nothing about this. I asked to speak to a manager and this launched an argument from her that a manager would be of no use to me. She also said there was no manager on the premises - this turned out to be a lie! She was rude, interupted me, and sounded angry. Very unprofessional!

Finally I said, "Antonia, I am not going to argue with you. Please either leave a message for a manager to call me or tell me when I should call back to reach a manager." She then put me on hold, returned after a minute or two stating the manager said she should cancel the order and I can order the rose on the site at the sale price.

After the sale began, I ordered 2 other roses over the weekend. I will not be able to get the orders combined to save on shipping and I feel very angry at the attitude of indifference and hostility I received from their customer service people.

Heirloom offers a tremendous selection of cultivars, and that is what keeps customers coming back. Unfortunately, they do not offer the best plants... in fact, they are a far cry from those that you receive from other vendors. I have purchased many roses from Heirloom, but donated most to our community garden and only planted two in my own. They have had a very hard time getting established and pale in comparison to all the roses from other vendors that I planted at the same time. Both still look like sticks with one bloom each all season. I know they will survive and will eventually thrive, and if I wanted a cultivar that NO ONE else had, then I would order from Heirloom again. It's worth it to throw one order their way each season just to keep their most rare cultivars available commercially. But, if I want a cultivar that has alternative sources, I will not order from Heirloom. It's just not worth it to wait many seasons before seeing the rose fluorish in the garden. Ev

I always buy own root roses from Roses Unlimited as they have a reputation for supplying larger, more mature plants. I bought two from Heirloom Roses that were not available from Roses Unlimited. The service was excellent. But the plants are extraordinarily small...which seems to be the norm with own root suppliers. For the same or less money one can buy much more developed roses from Roses Unlimited.

Ordered Roses from this company .Beware product is very small, almost like tender green cuttings with some fragile roots. They do take very good care in packing them and getting them shipped. However, if you attempt to plant in the hot summer (early morning or evening) the little guys may shrivel up and die anyway, even if shade is provided. Better luck planting these types in late fall or winter when its cooler here in Calif. I only wish they would put an actual picture of what you get, otherwise I would not have ordered, because I would have known their survival rate would be fragile.
I wonder what these great swings in weather will do to us gardening folk.

I ordered a David Austin - Evelyn rose last year from Heirloom Roses. I had to make multiple phone calls before I received the plant. I was never told it wasn't "in stock", and that they were GROWING it from a teeny-tiny cutting. I had to wait over 2 mos before I received my TINY (5") plant for the same price I would have paid for a full size potted rose from my local nursery (who didn't have it in stock). It was in good shape however, and I hoped and prayed it would survive our winter.

A year later, the plant is about the 2-1/2' tall and blooming beautifully. I just wish the plant had been bigger to begin with for the price I paid for it!

Received two small and not so green roses today and, unfortunately have two more on the way. I hope the two yet to come are much better. They arrived the same day as the Chamblees rose which was bushy, green with new growth and in a large pot. No comparison! I am very afraid these roses will not make it.

The roses are a tiny! Literally, two inches tall. Shipping was prompt. Packaging was good. Not sure if I would buy from them again. Got much larger and mature roses from Nor'East Miniatures. Those are blooming, not sure if the ones from Heirloom will even bloom this year!

I' ve ordered twice from Heirloom Roses and have had little luck both times. The roses are rooted cuttings that are generally much more expensive than larger rooted cuttings (and budded roses). And in spite of assurances that these would outgrow budded roses in several years, only a few have ever "taken off". In addition to this mislabeling of roses seems to be a problem.
I thought that I was alone in my experience until I mentioned my problems to several other members of my local rose society. Who shared similar experiences. Mislabeling seemed to be a particular common theme.
As has been previously stated, Heirloom has a great catalogue; however, if they are interested in keeping mail-order customers I would strongly suggest higher quality control and/or lower prices.

I am taking a wait & see attitude on this company - I was looking for unusual roses & sure found them on this website - but what I received was questionable at best. They say it will take a full year to see results, so next season will be the test. I am disappointed in that the site did not state how small & young the plants are.

I understand about own-root roses being smaller. That is no excuse for the tiny little thing I received 4 weeks ago. For the price, they can certainly let the thing grow for another year before selling it for $16 and almost $9 shipping (the box weighed about a pound, and 90% of that was soil).

I rooted cuttings 9 months ago that are bigger than what I received from this company. A very generous trader paid for this rose, I feel so bad that she was charged $25 for something this tiny, I did not have the heart to tell her and I pray she doesn't ask for pictures anytime soon (as in, any time in 2005).

I called to let them know how I felt about this, and although the gal was polite enough, the end result was basically "it's resting now and building up roots and will grow next year." In other words, I expressed unhappiness, and nothing is being done about it.

The guarantee is only for 3 months, and only covers it if it doesn't make it, not if you are unhappy with the size or if it is not growing (mine has not made one new leaf, while I have received bare roots from other companies that are already blooming (not just leafing out, but BLOOMING) 6 weeks after planting).

Me personally, I would NEVER order from this company with my own money. There are many companies out there that sell own root roses 10 times bigger for the same money. If they insist on selling these tiny things, then the price should be cut in half, at the very least.

I ordered 3 roses from them, 2 last summer and 1 this spring. Sarah did not survive the winter, Sweet Bouquet did, and is a robust 1 1/2 ft. tall with blooms the size of a nickle. Mary Rose, planted 5/6/04, is a runt at 12 inches with no hint of blooms to come.

I emailed them to complain about the lack of progress and to inform them that I have minature roses that are larger than the three (full size roses) I got from them, all of which were planted at the same time. Their response was, that I was made aware, at the time of purchase, that their roses were, "young and small, but, if planted according to instruction, in a big hole, in full sunshine, will respond very well". NOT! All were planted in a 2'x2' hole, in full sun and have been pampered beyond belief. I do not mind receiving small rose bushes, I just don't expect them to STAY that way, especially when all my other roses, acquired this year, are doing so much better.

The fact that they tried to insult my intelligence by saying I had probably planted them wrong is what I'm complaining about. The other complaint is, why did it take them 9 days to respond to my message?

I placed my first order with Heirloom Roses last month. As requested, they sent the plants in mid-April.

The roses were very well packed and arrived in good condition, although two of them have small yellow spots on their leaves, which hopefully are due to the trip from Oregon to Florida and not a sign of disease.

This is my first experience with own-root roses, so I didn't really expect anything. Therefore, I wasn't disappointed when I unpacked five small pots with iddy-biddy roses. However, what I certainly didn't expect were buds on such small plants!

The planting instructions included with the plants contain great information. It certainly sounds like the people at HR have a lot of experience growing roses. I'm going to follow their instructions and let y'all know how things go. :)

I have 9 plants from this nursery - I ordered 3 early last year (2001) and I was visiting OR this year, so I stopped by and got 6 more. From my last year roses, one is not doing good at all (have in mind that I have big rose bed with at least 15 plants in it, so the conditions are the same for all the plants), I don't think it will make it. From this year plants, 5 like good, but the 6th one (Sexy Rexy) had NO ROOTS! whatsoever, so I am in serious doubt that one will survice. The website is not user friendly, so far I haven't found a way to talk to them with my complaint. I also feel that their prices are kind of high, especially the shipping and handling.

During Spring 1993 I ordered maybe 9 different roses from them. Today I have 3 varieties,2 of which are David Austin roses. The third is an unknown--because I had ordered "Lady Hillington" and got a rose of a different color. The other six roses were uprooted and discarded by 1995 because I was thoroughly disgusted with the roses I was seeing. They were not what I wanted. I had ordered them because of their catalog descriptions, and the descriptions were either wrong or I received (without being told) substitutes. I keep the Austin roses because my wife likes them. I like the other rose: it is a small rose plant that had been uprooted 3 times and each time just recovered and grew like nothing ever happened. That is another good reason to put roses in 100% compost, and use generous amounts of kelp when planting .