That's kind of scary! I've only ordered from a few nurseries, but so far I haven't had any problems. You might want to order from the nurseries you've had good luck with in the past, especially if others are making so many mistakes.

If a nursery sent you the wrong rose, I would send a picture of the rose to them with a copy of your order form and ask for them to send you the correct rose. It's not that the rose didn't perform well, but they sent you the WRONG rose. Good luck and let us know if you get the right rose this time :)

It sounds like Heirloom's track record has improved.
At one time, about 95% of what they sent us was wrong -- and they were not good about replacing them.

Every nursery makes mistakes (some more than others) -- I don't judge them for that (unless it happens over and over) but for what they DO about it.

Jeri

hi Lucretia,

I've ordered from most of the nurseries in the country and have only gotten the wrong rose once, from Rogue Valley. My Kordes Magenta that I'd been looking forward to turned out to be Rosa Mundi... Magenta, Mundi... close anyway in the alphabet.

They turned out to be out of stock on Magenta when I called them so they are sending another rose, free. So I hadn't planned on buying RM and won't get Magenta (this year!), but I'm satisfied.

It was aggravating though but I knew the leaves were probably not right from the very beginning.

I am sorry you're having such an aggravating time. Growing time seems to be so short up here that I can well understand your complaint.

Gean

Countryside, Northland Rosarium and Vintage Gardens have perfect records with me. All other mail order nurseries have at least one mistake. Sequoia used to send the wrong plant from time to time. It was easy with theirs to figure out who the imposter was. Their roses were grown in green houses in alphabetical order. If it was the wrong rose it would be either the roses before or after the one I had ordered. I put a small rose near a sidewalk that came from Heirloom. It turned out to be Francis E. Lester, a rambler.

Lance

Lance is right.
When I receive a rose I know is incorrect, I usually look to see what else that nursery carries -- and check in particular what is next in alphabetical order.
That usually pegs the imposter.

Though there have been a few exceptions . . .

Jeri

Maybe this is a matter of percentages. I ordered about 80 in 4 years while living in the south and about 60 so far while living here. Heirloom and Sequoia are both ones I've not ever ordered from, also.

Lucretia, I think you and Lance have been ordering for a lot longer than me and have way more roses - can't otherwise think why my rate of correct roses has been so high.

A reputable nursery should send the correct rose as soon as the mistake is brought to their attention, period.

When I accidently got the wrong rose from Vintage, they immediately sent me the correct rose as a replacement. Same thing when Palatine sent Princess de Monaco instead of Prinz Herzeprinchen. By the time I realized that my Sequoia roses were the wrong ones, they were no longer around. One of their mistakes was a really lucky accident ... I got the wonderful Schoener's Nutkana instead of Schultheis' American Beauty.

Connie

I've ordered from Antique Rose Emporium, Rogue Valley Roses, Vintage, Ashdown, and Countryside. I only once got the wrong rose. But the band had a tag marked Madame Isaac Pereire and I was missing a Rugosa, Scabrosa. Well, it's hard to mistake the two and the sent a replacement Scabrosa. They let me keep MIP -- not worth sending it back I suppose.

Lucretial, I too have gotten several "wrong" roses this year. And from top vendors, for the first time, plus I have been buying from these same vendors for years. I have been pondering what could be different about this year...

I usually just take it and go on, unless I really shelled out for a particular rose. I contacted a vendor this year relating to a rose. He told me that the rose was almost impossible to propagate and he likely would not have another for a while, if ever. He gave me credit towards future purchases.

I also have had the unpleasant surprise of that pokey grower that finally blooms, but the wrong color. A lot of time invested, only to have to begin again.

Lucretia, this is off topic, I just wanted to let you know that the Golden Budda you gave me has bloomed. It is a odd color..I agree! It has a nice fragrance..not real strong..Just a FYI. If you end up with an orange rose you don't like let me know. I like orange roses and could maybe buy it from you so it isn't a total loss for you.

I heard a nursery trades periodical once had an article claiming the mislabeling rate with American nursery stock was 33%.

Years ago I ordered a small assortment of species musk roses from one of the two big Ontario suppliers, not sure anything I got was true to name.

This was back when they were or appeared to be just about the only games in town, the number of US non-bedding rose sources not being what it is today. Even those local retail garden centers that were including some non-bedding types in their offerings were ordering these in from one or both of these two companies.

Only have gotten the wrong rose once and they refunded me and that was Roses unlimited.
Most reliable so far for me have been Rogue Valley roses and Chamblees when they were open Ashdowns.

I've had the wrong rose several times from several nurseries, including one of the ones you mention as being error-free. I make mistakes. I don't hold others to a higher standard than I myself am capable of reaching. What I do expect is that they will make good once the error is discovered. When I have made a claim, it has always been corrected.

(Sometimes I don't bother. I know it is a rose I didn't order, but I've forgotten what it ought to be.)

Rosefolly

A local nurseryman orders-in bare-root roses from several sources (including the Canadian growers).
He pots 'em up, and beginning in April sells them to landscapers and to the public.

One year, he had a huge section of red Austin roses, all marked 'The Squire.' Every single one of them was 'Fisherman's Friend,' and most had huge green vegetative centers.
This was no big surprise. In that period, almost every rose show included entries of 'Fisherman's Friend,' labelled 'The Squire.' The error in both cases was being shipped in large numbers by J&P.

When I told him what he had, the nurseryman moaned: "Ohhh, NO! I did NOT want 'Fisherman's Friend!'"
I asked him if J&P would make good on the mis-labelled plants, and he said no. They would probably not.

Another year, he ordered a couple thousand 'Happy Child' from Hortico. I bought one, early, on, not in bloom.
It NEVER bloomed.
I contacted him, and went out there. A few of his had bloomed, and they appeared to be 'White Bath.'
I asked if Hortico would make good, and he said no. They would not. That he would probably be trashed because they weren't going to bloom at the coast ". . . until the next Ice Age."

Jeri

I received wrong roses from Chamblees and J&P. But the rose I did receive from J&P I really love, St. Patrick. I probably never would have ordered it. So sometimes it works out.

I have pending orders in large numbers from heirloom, rogue and euro.... It never occurred to me they may be wrong.... argh.

I am glad I saw this post as I will photograph them when they come in and where they are planted so I have documented the mistake if it happens.
Patricia

Back in the days before internet ordering, I used to order by US mail and occasionally got the wrong plant. That was when I realized there was a place on the order form that asks if they can send a substitute (of equal or better value) if they run out of the ordered one. I started remembering to check that box "NO"--and even write prominently on the order form "No substitutes, please!" I never again received the wrong order, and out of habit, I always add even today on internet or email orders "No substitutes, please!" Don't know if those are the magic words or not, but I have never received an incorrect internet or email order either.

I think some nurseries sometimes pull the substitution thing when they run out--hoping you will like the substitute or forget what you originally ordered. To be safe, you might try adding "no substitutes" to your orders and see if that helps--or maybe I have just been favored by the gods of chance ???? LOL

Kate

I have received a few mislabeled roses in the past, but thought the most recent tale of mislabeling would fit in well here. I ordered a Felicite Parmentier back in 2006. I do not have any albas nor did I see a mature plant before ordering this rose. I expected it to get to be about 5 feet with arching growth. It came to me with a tag labeled 'Felicite Parmentier.' In 2008 I moved it to a different spot, so its growth was cut back. This year it has 10 to 12 foot canes and is rapidly outgrowing the little 2 foot wall planter where it currently resides. I just happened to see a FP at Vintage a month or so ago. It was then that I realized I did not have FP. I went to the nursery website from whence it came and found that my rose is in fact Felicite et Perpetue, a rambler that can reach at least 20 feet. Now I have to cut the dang thing down and take it out. Not only did I not get the correct rose, but it will likely take a day of my time to wrangle this monster out of it current, sorely inadequate location. FeP is a pretty rose, but I do not have any place for it in my garden. So you can see, receiving a mislabeled rose can be a real pain in the ...!

Ashdown's final sale must have been a super-hectic time for the staff. Of the three of those sale plants that have bloomed for me, all are mislabled. SDLM Rouge is unquestionably the climber Zeph D; 'Pride of Tryon' is maybe 'Kent'; 'General Cavaignac' is who knows what.

I've ordered a lot of roses over a period of about twenty years and have gotten a fair number of wrong roses. It just happens; if it doesn't happen often with a nursery I certainly don't hold it against them. A nursery should make good a mistake, though. Sometimes specialist growers get the wrong rose themselves and propagate it and send it out before they realize there's a mistake; and then, in the world of old and rare roses, there's often some confusion as to the correct identity of roses: I've received 'Comte de Chambord' under three different names, each name a legitimate possibility as the 'real' name of this variety. If I like a rose I receive as a mistake I just keep it and don't request a replacement, but that's just my choice (and you may be sure that when I received 'Paul's Scarlet' instead of the 'Paul's Lemon Pillar' I had ordered, that I asked for the correct rose!). Nurseries that grow roses for the mass market make tons of errors, at least here in Europe. I'm generally fairly tolerant of this kind of mistake, but then I have a big garden and can fit unplanned roses in. I did regret it recently when I found out that the 'Fruehlingsgold' I had waited a year and a half to see flower was actually 'Maigold'. This was my second attempt at getting 'Fruehlingsgold' after moving my original plant at the wrong time of year and losing it.
Melissa

The bad thing about getting the wrong rose is that you might not know for a long time that it's wrong, and so you've not just waisted a somewhat inconsequential cost of the plant ($20 or so is not a huge horrible deal in the long run...)
but the real cost is the years that you spent growing a rose that could have been the one that you wanted. :\

especially for me... it's hard for me to know if it's the wrong rose, (as a newbie) especially with older rarer roses. If the rose is about the same color/bloom as what I've seen online, there's no way for me to know otherwise until it doesn't behave properly.

AIMEE SAID: the real cost is the years that you spent growing a rose that could have been the one that you wanted. :\

*** VERY true Aimee!
And I've been there far too many times.
That's why I think it's especially important for a nursery to make good on these errors.

A nursery which makes errors is one thing (my grandmother said that's why they put erasers on lead pencils).
Failure to make good on the error is completely unacceptable.

THAT will make me cross the offender off the list of nurseries I recommend -- much less order from myself.

Jeri

You're getting wrong stock because they don't know what they have themselves, or are not keeping their operation adequately organized.

Period.

Suspect identifications are checked by using web sites (including descriptions they contain), print references and live specimens from labeled collections.

Written correspondence with those having something to do with the origination and/or introduction of the plant may sometimes also become necessary. Of course, you're not going to be able to talk to somebody who was on the scene when an old rose was developed 150 or 1500 years ago, but there may be someone around who has critical information about the introduction and distribution of a plant on the modern scene:

"The founder of our nursery got that from the so and so gardens when he was in France during WWII so we are pretty sure it is the true variety"

I have had accuracy with Antique Rose Emporium and Chamblees. I cannot think of mistakes if there were any.

If I have felt that the rose is inferior, they replace them immediately.

Sammy

You're getting wrong stock because they don't know what they have themselves, or are not keeping their operation adequately organized.

*** For sure.
But you will find that not every vendor wants to hear your opinion on that. :-)
All you can do in that case is consider them a lost cause.

Jeri

Yes, with walk-in retail outlets in particular there may be little point in saying anything, as they are often not even the originator of the error. You'd like to do your part to see improvements made, but often irrelevant responses - if not outright arguments - are to be expected.

Kind of like here on Garden Web.

Paraphrased examples of comebacks I've gotten:

"We've had as many people come in here and say it was the other as say it was was that"

"We don't want to say anything that could offend the grower, they'll get mad and cut us off"

and of course the favorite retort that has also been used on this site multiple times:

"We got it from so and so and therefore it must be right"

All going back to the people you are trying to tip off not knowing what they have.

In the first instance all the manager being talked to had to do was just once crack a book and see that the one it was supposed to be was pink, instead of the orange red they were displaying under the name.

Why the people (like me) pointing out (correctly) that it was not the pink one were (supposedly) countered by a more or less equal number of others saying the orange red one they had was correct I cannot explain.

Unless a bunch of people had bought the same stock under the wrong name elsewhere, were using that as a basis for their erroneous statements.

Nevermind that the cultivar even had "Pink" in the name.

"We got it from so and so and therefore it must be right"

*** ROTFLMAO!

Jeri