Old gardening magazine are full of advertisements by rose nurseries touting their wares, usually mentioning at least some of their stock. To take one (almost) at random, I reproduce here a Victorian advertisement from A. Lauer of 1210 East Broadway, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. It appeared in the "American Florist" magazine for March 1890.
It offers "healthy young plants in 2 and 2½-in. pots". Most were offered at $4 per 100 or $35 per 1000, but some (presumably considered a bit special, or perhaps a bit difficult), like 'Paul Neyron' and 'Général Jacqueminot' commanded the higher price of $6 per 100. Larger plants were available but for them you had to stump up $15 or $18 per 100.
What interests me about this list is how many of the plants are still commercially available (although admittedly you would have to search hard for most). For instance, of the first ten listed, nine (Perle des Jardins, Niphetos, Sunset, the Bride, Bon Silène, Sombreauil, Souvenir d'un Ami, Mme Scipion Cochet and Archduke Charles) still exist. Only poor Cornelia Cook seems to have been lost.
1210 East Broadway is now a nice residential area, but according to Google Maps (picture below) the rose nursery of 1890 is long gone!
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