From 45+ years of “gardening” and 30+ growing roses; from studying marketing and observing behavior, particularly regarding purchases and being continually frustrated by the dishonest and lack of self understanding regarding such selections and behavior; from 10 years actively employed in the “nursery trade”; many years of volunteer efforts for Friends of the Huntington Plant Sales, Huntington Rose Festivals and Old Rose Symposiums, rose sales for The Homestead Acre, rose society auctions for various societies, I am convinced that until there are sufficient resources to permit the average person to BE selective, price is the bottom line. No matter what the words are which come from the mouth, nor what the beliefs are in heart and head, until a person has the MONEY, time, energy and other required resources, most will base the decision and selection primarily on price. No matter what you believe, what you want to believe, how you want to interact with your environment, until you have the necessary dollars to permit it, what you buy, where you buy it and how you process it will be determined by dollars.
Many people who have the necessary disposable income must be convinced the $10 plant is at least five time superior to the $2 plant, or they’ll happily pay the $2, fully expecting it to perform as they expect the $10 to. You can encounter it in nurseries and other stores, as well as on line and in person, daily. With all the talk of wanting “virus free”, well grown, true to name, properly handled plants, for a nursery which supplies just that to ask $17, PLUS tax and shipping, for a wimpy, small, own root band of the “same” rose just encountered either bud and bloom in a gallon can or dried out body bag at Home Depot for $3 is “gouging”, “outrageous”, “absurd”.
I have continually dealt with people who would come from across the street, where a six and a half decade old, family owned and run chain of REAL garden centers does business, railing about how “over priced” their $17, five gallon bud and bloom patented, first year introductions were, compared to our “landscape grade”, out of patent, $11 bud and bloom plants designed to appeal to the wholesale buyer/“gardener” trade. Quickly followed by surprised complaints that WE didn’t offer the first year intro, patented varieties. People just have NO clue. That company propagated their own stock in 90% of the cases, focusing on plants which grew easily in the areas they served and were “no brainers” to propagate. Across the street, everything was purchased, very well grown, usually mature, nearly “florist quality” and priced accordingly. Yet, few could/would understand why their Salvia greggii cost $7.95-$9.95 (depending upon source) while ours cost only $3.95 for the same variety, same gallon size. Yup, while across the street sold some of theirs, we sold out each year.
People would read the Armstrong Garden Center ads for $15 bare root roses with their “one year, free replacement guaranty”, then come to the department store garden shop to buy the Armstrong brand, same variety $5 body bag non patent and $7 body bag patented roses, fully expecting them to also be guaranteed for one year. I can’t tell you how many of those conversations I had over the years. No thought is given that these products are “produce” instead of hard goods pumped out of machines on conveyor belts. Need more? Fire up the production line, they’ll be there tomorrow! “It’s March, where are the tomatoes?” Never mind it’s been the coldest, wettest spring on record and they aren’t even germinating yet. The calender says “March” and that is when the tomatoes are on the racks, complete with fruit. “I want to return a dead plant. All the flowers died.” The plant is completely fine, it dropped its color. No one told them it had to be PLANTED and WATERED, that it required SUN.
Part of it is due to people being so far “from the land” for so long. “Farming”, growing plants for pleasure and home use aren’t taught in schools, and fewer and fewer are learning it at home. It gets worse the more urban you are and the more generations you get away from one which actually grew anything themselves. From observation, higher levels of disposable resources exacerbates the problems. The more money there is to throw at the problem, the more unrealistic the expectations. Even when explanations are requested and given as to why one rose is superior to another for the climate, position and use, all too frequently it is the “pretty face” that wins. The better variety, the higher quality plant, even at the same price gets rejected in favor of the one with the pretty flower on it. People are weird.
As incomes shrink; time becomes more precious due to extended work hours and multiple jobs; disposable income dwindles due to ever increasing prices for necessary goods, services, housing, etc., it gets worse. Add that in urban areas land is so outrageously, unrealistically expensive, resulting in the “mc mansions” on postage stamp lots where there honestly is no room for anything to grow well. In seismically active areas, compaction rates up to 98 percentile makes it virtually impossible for much of anything to flourish. “Drainage” becomes amount of run-off instead of percolation through the soil. Ever try to sink a shovel into 98 percentile compacted soil? There isn’t really any naturally occurring “top soil” in these parts to speak of. Scrape off anything that even resembles it, excavate to the level necessary to find sufficiently “solid” footing, then refill with the excavated sub soil, compacting it to the level of bed rock as it’s replaced, then try planting a tree on it, much less sod. Turf is grown hydroponically on three inches of “compost” which came from ground wood byproducts, and must be watered daily much of the year. Planting holes become buckets where run off seeps, collects and rots out plantings. The city replaced one homeowner’s street tree five times in two years due to each one rotting because of standing water, on level ground.
The “favorites” referred to earlier have the look and scent demanded, but require more assistance to grow well than an Escallonia or Privet. They require “proper pruning”, fertilizing, dead heading, spraying and other chemical assistance. Retailers must tack on the “add-on sales” of the associated chemicals to pay the bills. The same chemicals we’re trying to eliminate and breed past. Increasingly more homeowners resist them (rightfully!) due to expense, time, energy, toxicity. Aging people experience increasingly greater allergies to all of them (myself, included!), developing greater awareness of how damaging these chemicals are and can be. Our own mortality becomes increasingly real.
Rose creators are faced with a dying market. Too little space; too little time; too little money; too little energy; inappropriate planting places and increasingly more “pots” on decks, stoops, balconies; when financially achievable, “organic” solutions to growing the desired plants; elimination of chemical assistance; demand for florist HT flowered, no care, bullet proof plants which look good all the time. Breed for ourselves? Probably the only true “success”.
I realize my views and experiences are terribly skewed due to being in upscale, densely populated “urban areas” outside a major city and that they are very likely less “saturated” in more rural areas and smaller cities. I offer that as the smaller cities expand as population increases and resources shrink even further, it’s very likely to become more of everyone’s “norm”.
I’ve long thought to succeed in breeding new roses, and other landscape plants as well, more compact, smaller plants are required. They can’t be had at the expense of strength and ‘vigor’, but must not result in the 6’ and larger bushes many of today’s HT and floribunda plants achieve in decent climates now. New homes in many areas only have ten foot deep rear yards, no matter how upscale or expensive the neighborhood. Many have little more than 18" deep “planters” against house or property walls, in compacted sub soils where plants growing to many feet in all directions just can’t be accommodated. They CAN be pruned, but they won’t flourish and fewer will remain healthy nor flower with any continuity. “Miniatures” are often resorted to, but aren’t sufficiently pleasing because people still want the larger HT flower, lots of them, in an endless succession and in a variety of colors.
We need vigorous plants which remain no more than two feet in all directions, with three inch or larger, double, relatively formally shaped, cuttable, fragrant blooms which can grow in half day sun in most climates. They shouldn’t require more than occasional fertilizing with an all purpose type which is likely to be thrown about by the “mow/blow/goer” a couple of times a year when they hit everything. Hopefully, they will be self cleaning, relatively sterile to prevent the need for dead heading, have detectable fragrance and be available in several colors.
Ideally, they should accomplish all of this own root and also be suitable for culture in appropriate types and sizes of pots. Something as ‘no brainer’ as Iceberg is in this climate would be perfect.
I know, plant silk plants, but those are the directions I have seen here to be able to sell to the largest growing segment I see in these parts.