I no longer have General Gallieni (a bit too bright for my color scheme) but have the other two and think they are two of the finest tea roses. Both of mine are young and one is in too much shade (doing better now since part of a tree toppled over in the rain), but I have something to look forward to that will get better with every year. Ingrid

I have ordered hundreds of roses in the last 10 years, and I have received mislabeled roses from every nursery I ordered from ... when dealing in these quantities, it's likely to have at least one or two mislabels among the hundreds. The only nursery I can think that I haven't ordered from is Antique Rose Emporium. Not yet, anyway. Vintage has sent me a few. 'September Morn' is actually a deep pink HT of the same style. Since SM is a sport, I wonder if it may be a reversion but I doubt it. I was supposed to get 'Gloire des Rosomanes', and what bloomed was a weird, pink, Noisette-looking rose. Gregg said that he thinks it's 'Jacques Amiot'. It looks like the JA photos on HMF, and I love having it in my Noisette collection. 'Mrs. Aaron Ward' turned out to be a deep pink HP. I received 'Gloire des Rosomanes' twice instead of 'Birdie Blye'. I blame this on someone, perhaps, collecting old rootstock instead of the rose itself. It's understandable ... how many times have we stood in front of a rose with a label and the rose was clearly Dr. Huey now? Most of my mislabels are better than the ones I ordered. When Sequoia was closing, I ordered a HT they called 'Schultheis' American Beauty'. What I got was 'Schoener's Nutkana', which is a superstar in my garden. It is far too large for the HT-sized space that it occupies, and its HT neighbors will appreciate it when I finally move it to a larger spot. Rogue Valley sent "Reuter China" instead of 'Reveil Dijonnais' one year. I wonder if they accidently dropped the pots or something, because I discovered the rose in that same order that was tagged as "Hoag House Cream" was actually 'Reveil Dijonnais' ... and nothing turned out to be HHC. Anyway, "Reuter China" is an interesting China/Tea that I'm really pleased to have in my collection. Palatine sent me 'Princess de Monaco' instead of 'Prinz Herzeprinzchen'. This was a computer error where both links on their order page pointed to the same rose in their inventory list. They sent me the correct rose in the spring. The only time this happened and I was angry about it was early on in my rose-buying career when I ordered and received "Smith's Parish" and 'Fortune's Five-Color Rose' in the same order ... not knowing that these are considered to be the same rose. I've got a million of 'em. Ashdown sent me 'Manetti' instead of "Ralph Moore's South African OGR". (Perhaps another case of someone along the line propagating rootstock.) I perpetuated this mistake one year myself. I propagated this rose when it was young (and I had no reason to believe that it was misidentified) and I sold two of them. I did the right thing as soon as I realized my mistake, replacing the incorrect rose with another rose of the customer's choice ... since I obviously didn't have the rose they ordered in my garden to replace the wrong rose with. There are a million reasons why a rose you order won't be the rose you actually receive. A reputable nursery will do what they can to make it right. The labels on my garden mysteries have been edited to fit their situation. For most of them, the mistaken ID has a strike through it, with the word 'NOT' above, and I have things listed in my database as "Not Mrs. Aaron Ward", "Not September Morn", "Not Pristine", etc. It's the best I can do.

My PDJ was one of the victims of "early pruning". I rooted a cutting given to me at a cutting exchange and I was so impressed with how easily it rooted that I may have planted it prematurely in the rose bed. To add insult to injury, I decided that I should cut the young little canes so I would have a fuller rose bush. That was about 3 years ago and the plant has never become vigorous. It did bloom in the spring, but the blooms balled. So, in short, I don't think its PDJ, but my treatment of it. I went out a few moments ago to water the roses and I do see new growth emerging, so I may have to grant a stay of execution. (not mine....PDJ's)

I agree with Marlorena - I would put it in a pot in a nice sunny location - once you have a better idea of it's habit & how you like it, you can plant it in the ground next spring (or not). Either way, it's a fun gardening experiment! But, if you really don't want a pink rose (since you were shopping for a white rose!), I also think it's totally reasonable to return it - just don't wait too long, as the sooner you bring it back the more likely they are to take it.