Here's what Hortico has to say about Sir Wilfred. Sounds very nice!

Walmart buys stock in very high quantities, or stock that no one else wants at a discount... They spread it out over all of their stores and so even though they can sell it cheaper than local nurseries, they are still making a profit...

Yes they have HUGE buying power.

Combined Rose List 2008 give a single source for Sir Wilford, a nursery (not Hortico) in Ontario and says it's a large flowered climber with pink blooms. No date of introduction and no hybridizer listed.
I can't help but wonder if it's something else, renamed. Or the sole source had a lot of plants to get rid of so some went to Hortico and others to ?Walmart?

The tag on the rose looks legit, but though I've been able to ascertain that it's a pink climber, and fragrant, I can't seem to find out how big it gets, any disease resistance or whether it's cut-worthy. Does it repeat well? Nor have I heard it spoken of on any forums. Since Walmart has it, I can't be the only one growing it! =) Hortico's website, although helpful, is sparse on information on this rose.

I, too, have been suspicious of "cheap" roses and Walmart roses. But. A book by a major expert happily points out that a patent, or a major name, doesn't really define how good a bush is. There was a post last year from a person raving about a striped "unknown" rose she got at Walmart, it bloomed well, was disease resistant - I wish I had one!

Frustrated with some of the newer varieties, I picked up 3 oldie roses at Walmart this spring, and they were as good as anything I have paid full price for - I'm delighted with them and just wish our Walmart had a bigger selection. I think our Walmart just gets older roses grown by a North Carolina company - but these were in superb condition. I also got a lovely "Grand Prize" floribunda and the shrub Lemon Zest at Walmart last year - yeah, I would buy from Walmart again!

I hope you can find out more about your rose, maybe someone here has one of those huge international rose encyclopedias. Now you have me curious so I will check in my books for it.

Well, I suppose if there's nothing inherently wrong with the Walmart roses, I should go and pick up a couple more. Still seems odd that such a mass marketing place can sell this rose, and yet it seems no one else grows it! Makes me a bit nervous that it's a dud. Well, at least it's a $5 dud, and not a $20 one. I think I might start another thread and ask if anyone out there has "Sir Wilfred Laurier". Thanks again, everyone!

This past spring I saw a huge bin full of OGRs in body bags at one of the local discount places....kinda like a "Dollar General" type store. Even though I had read posts against body bag roses, I bought a "Reine des Violettes" (sp?) It died. But I did buy 2 (Iceberg and Olympiad) from Walmart (DH calls it Wildmart) and they have been great.

I consider them to be annuals, and usually are good for a few cut flowers. Some have made it for a number of years in surprisingly good shape.

I learned my lesson the hard way this year, not from WalMart, but from Home Depot. They were offering some really REALLY cheap roses, which were flimsily potted in a peat container, were wrapped with plastic, and were selling for $4.00. I picked up Comte de Chambord and Sombreuil, and Sombreuil is as dead as a doornail already :( Today I dug up CdC and planted it in a pot, hoping it will do something. So far there is not only absolutely no growth above ground, but none in the roots either. So sad, but like I said, I learned the hard way.

---
Wendy

Wendy,
Sorry to hear that the roses you bought half price from HD are not doing well. I bought them back in February at full price and thought that was a good deal for the varieties offered. 7 of the 8 took off within a month, my Sombreuil took 7 weeks to get with the program but now is doing well. Comte was blooming it's little head off, but something decided pink buds were tasty. SIGH. Anyway, when I selected these I did check for good healthy canes that looked like there was some development starting and I wasn't disappointed.
My experience is wherever you get them, when the roses are on clearance, ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances. Sometimes I've been lucky and sometimes not.

I bought 13 bushes from Wal-Mart this year. I found out that most of them have mosaic disease and the cranks have diseases, too. Alot of new leave buds died. However, 11 of them have flower buds now. I do take good care of them. Well, also I found out that the sub-zero roses I bought last year from Springhill have mosaic disease, too . They did make their first winter. But, the mosaic disease and the deformed leaves are very noticeable now. I don't think the roses from Wal-Mart will make their first harsh new england winter. Iceberg is good performer, even from Wal-Mart.
I was very upset when I learned what is the bright yellow spots on the leaves means. Look at the bright side, I can buy new roses again next year, possible from J&P, they claim diseases free. I have very small sunny space for roses.

That's how they sell all the amendments. Give em a rose and they'll spend a fortune on the more profitable amendments, and chemicals they'll need later.

I bought a Don Juan about 3 weeks ago for $8, put him in a bigger pot with good soil and planted him last week. He's doing well and has one open bloom and two more buds. All look very healthy and happy. I think it's the luck of the draw...

3 years ago, I bought 4 Don Juans at Walmart on clearance and basically all they needed was some consistent watering-something the Walmarts I frequent don't do. Sigh! Anyway, I bought 3 Sally Holmes on clearance at HD. I planted all of them in containers, hung tomato trellis I had bought at Walmart sideways on cup hooks on the eaves of our garage and let the roses have at it. DJ is now a good 6 1/2 feet tall and Sally not far behind.

My first bloomer this year is a walmart bought rose Flaming peace $8.88

I've always been happy with my Walmart roses. I've found there's a certain window of opportunity to get them. Only in the last two weeks of April, but never past the first week of May, typically, when the green canes are starting to form leaf buds, or even have a few leaves. Any time before that will be too early to plant. Any time after that, if the leaves have grown so large and it has started to put up buds, it's too late. The plant won't have enough roots to sustain the topgrowth, planting it at that crucial time will be too much of a shock and will kill it. Even cutting off the new growth will shock it and it will die. So as much as my children and husband like to give me roses for Mother's Day every year, I'd prefer they didn't. By then it's too late and the roses have been baking in their bags too long.

Cheap roses = greater risk. Discount plants of this type are often from growers that don't bother to work with virus free rootstock, so your chances of getting a virused plant are fairly high. There is also a fairly high risk of getting mislabeled specimens, and plants that die in fairly short order. Some people occasionally get a plant that lasts a few years, but many of these discount plants fail to thrive. Its a gamble, but if you like games of chance, then go for it.

A gamble. I think that sums it up pretty well. I took another gamble today and bought another "Sir Winston Churchill", since I like to have multiples of 3 to pick from. I have one more to get and then I'll plant them far enough away from my other roses that hopefully nothing infectious will spread! I also noticed today that they have a Leonard Messel (?) magnolia for $11.00. That's tempting, too. Oh my.

The problem here in the Twin Cities is that most of the box store body bag roses I've seen this year are for Zone 5 and 6. But ooh! such big fat canes! I watched some poor uninformed lady buy 10, and felt guilty for not saying something.

I've seen Casino CL, Mojave, Double Delight, Kordes Perfecta to name a few. These will not like our winters. the Depot did have 2 Charles de Milles though.

Fleet Farm had some very nice own root 1 gal Hope for Humanity and Wm Baffin for $12.99.

I bought a body-bagged Wildberry Breeze at Walmart last year. It was clearly a rugosa, and looked very healthy. It bloomed last summer, and looks gorgeous this year.

I regret passing up a potted Julia Child at Walmart a few years ago. It looked fabulous. What was I thinking?

OTOH, the Sir Thomas Lipton I did buy at Walmart that year still hasn't bloomed or done much growing, and remains a mystery while it awaits shovel-pruning. I should have known by the foliage that it wasn't a rugosa.

What's a "body bag" ? Inquiring minds want to know.

Strange days. I just walked past a table of roses outside at Walmart and was very suprised, they were 1 gallon Bucks for ~$6.95. I came home with:

Hi Neighbor
Summer Wind
Winter Sunset

They appear to be ownroot plants.

They also had FJ Grootendorst (already grow that one). Definitely not your usual culprits.

Last year, HD had Distant Drums and Carefree Beauty. Even though I already had those plants from own root vendors, I bought several additional CB's for planting with my lilac hedge & they have done very well.

The ones I've found at HD and Walmart are grown in Utah, and are grade 1 1/2 plants. I think they must be someone who grows for a large outfit, and sells the lower quality plants to the discounters.

Cheers,
Michelle

old post very relevant still. I look at walmart roses two ways, its an easy way to start a rose collection if you know or research varities ahead of time at the right time of the year just right before spring arrives "here its feb/mid march". I have no problem picking up 20 or so walmart roses over a couple of years and mixing them in between hardier varities of things like Knock out and other plants which increases the chances I will catch a disease or quarantine before outbreak. I think that is the problem with most rose gardens and honestly why not plant some salvia, butterfly bush, and milkweed to go in with your roses to have a rose and butterfly garden? I have gotten a couple of insanely nice roses at walmart the last couple of years, namely Lincoln, JFK, Don Juan, Cecil Bruner, and some others. Know I live in an area that has massive problems growing traditional roses like blackspot and mildew but have learned to plant them in VERY well drained soil with a good consistent breeze and only watering the base at certain times of the year. As I write this I am going to plant a healthy looking Don Juan at walmart up a 10 foot trellis and expect it will get 7 foot by the end of the year "chicken/horse manure". Roses at walmart are like Russian roulette, I am slowing down and will only pick up one or two more and wouldn't get any in a very established rose garden, or would buy it keep it in a pot for a year or two and then plant.

I know better but just cant help it when the body bags start coming in. I have planted one so far, Broadway, and am going to get to the others as soon as it stops raining. The bitter cold has gone - I put all the roses in the greenhouse - so they were protected. Got a Comte de Chambourd at Home Depot. All canes on the roses look very green. I do plan to cut them back a bit after Feb. 14, our day to prune. When I pot them up, I carefully cut the plastic bag on the bottom and remove, then cut up the side. Set the rose in the hole, then slide the paper surrounding it off, fill with soil and water carefully. Then I use the paper that came around the rose, wrap it around the canes and fill that with fine mulch to protect the canes from cold and wind. I think one thing that can cause them to not put out is the unprotected canes. I have also used plastic grocery bags, torn hole in bottom and put over the canes then fill with fine mulch. Have found this to make a difference in whether the rose puts out or not. I also trim back the waxed canes. Mine in the bags are starting to wake up - I see swelling buds that are poking thru the wax. I think the warmer greenhouse helps with this. Also think getting them planted so roots can start growing is important. I have a Fragrant Cloud that I got last year that is really starting to put out - I bought 2 body bags to plant beside it to make it a fuller bush. Love this one!! Whatever happens, its fun!

Judith

Yesterday I purchased a grade 1 bagged Peace rose at Aldi's supermarket for $5.99. I traded it with a friend for a potted Double Delight and then gave it to another friend. Aldi's also had Joseph's Coat climbing rose which was really tempting me.

I found out about the Aldi's deal from a heads up on this forum, so thanks guys.