Dear LPG, 

I don’t often online shop, even though the pandemic has taught me how, but we all know how doubly important it is to make sure that you know what you are buying online.  I perceive myself as a sensible person who knows a scam when I see one but just how stupid can you be?

When you take a walk down the high street and look in the shop windows nothing is forcing you to go in to investigate, and after a little experience with internet shopping one would think that a pretty picture should not be enough to entice further exploration either, but I was recently taken in. 

I always think that the shop has a lot to do with it, we all know that you can trust some more than others.  Not including food and depending on what you are buying, I would look to John Lewis, Homebase, Marks & Spencer’s and Wicks for a credible purchase while you sort of feel safe at Amazon if you are online I suppose. 

The other day I found myself at Amazon in search of a particular book but, while I was navigating my way through, I was drawn to one of the pictures above.  Well, I found and ordered what I first went looking for, but I could not get that rose out of my mind.

I am no horticulturist, but I have a friend who is, and I just couldn’t help myself.  They weren’t too expensive, and to make things even more interesting the bottom of the page had one of those ‘frequently bought together sections’ which showed the other one and I pressed for the double deal.

They arrived and I eagerly showed them to my known expert who looked very sceptical especially when we saw the seeds.  They were much smaller than I expected, and I did not really expect them to be rainbow coloured.  My more informed friend agreed that it was as though they had been painted.  The instructions mentioned that they must be kept at a constant 40° for the first 24 hours of the germination process.  

My more knowledgeable friend was a bit sceptical, so we looked at what the internet had to say with less than encouraging results.  What we found tells us that these roses don’t grow from seed very well and rainbow roses are usually painted or doctored after growth. My friend said something that made a lot of sense at the time, ‘If they were that easy to grow they would be scattering the gardening shops and flower shops not to mention the gardens of the borough.’, and I do concede that she does have a point.

I suppose I could have sent them back but, Amazon informs that they have a 73% success rate of survival.  I don’t know whether I will be throwing good money after bad, but I have found an incubator which might give them that 40° kick start.  Even though it costs more than half as much as the seeds did, I feel the need to lean on my more informed friend and have a go.

I suppose I have written this to keep any other unsuspecting online shopper informed, but now that I have got them, and having weighed up the amount that I will lose if all is as predicted due to the evidence so far, I am going to give them a go.

I will let you know how I get on…

TG, Sevenoaks 

TG shares what she has found about growing rainbow roses from seed…

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… and other ways to achieve the effect … 

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