Was it labeled "Wal*Mart Gardens" brand ...or some other brand-name?

Was it the usual kind of plastic pot ...or a plastic-sheet-wrapped peat-pot?

Regards,
JohnReb

John, the pot was black plastic, and there was no label directly on it. There were two tags on the plant itself -- the cardboard price tag ($7.96, as I recall), and the cardboard tag with the photo of the variety.

We bought several roses from various Wal-Mart stores this spring -- all seemed to be older non-patent varieties (Peace, Mirandy, Christian Dior, Oregold, Glowing Peace, just to name a few), and I've been pretty impressed with their condition. This one is the only one that threw me.

Okay Kathya, thanls for the info. What you describe isn't something I've seen at any of our local WalMart garden-centers during the past year. Every black-pot rose they've had has been a 2-gallon, with a 3" by 6.5" photo-&-info-&-price card stapled to the top edge of the pot, and also a 2.5" by 1" UPC price-sticker on the pot's side. The sticker also includes the name of the rose. (WalMart is getting smarter - if the main tag gets lost, the UPC sticker still identifies the rose.)

If you saved the "cardboard" tag with the photo & name, take it back to the store and ask to speak to the garden manager. (It'd be a good idea to phone first to make sure he/she is there.) The garden-manager might be able to give you info on the how to contact the rose's Supplier. This would be a lot easier if the rose had been WalMart's brand.

I mention all this because certain "discount" rose-wholesalers (such as Sexton, Paramount, and DeWars/Scotsman) have a bad habit of re-naming existing rose-varieties with whatever sort of name they think will help sell the rose. Some examples are "DeWar's Scottish Blue" hybrid-tea ...and the "Surprise" floribunda purchased by Name-That-Rose forum poster Angelsmell. This is most probably the reason there seems to be no info available on a "Christine Todd Whitman" rose.

If that does turn out to be what's going on, getting the Supplier's name from WalMart and then contacting the Supplier might be your best option. But perhaps one of the "ID-Helpers" who hang out in this forum will recognize your rose. When it blooms, can you get some photos of it and post them? (Please include detailed description-info, such as whether it blooms "mostly singly" or in clusters, bloom-size, average petal-count per bloom, fragrance-level, leaf-color and glossiness-level, etc.)

Just in case you're interested, here's some info about the person. If I recall correctly, she is a former Governor of New Jersey, and is currently the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Regards,
JohnReb

They must be getting roses from a different supplier for the stores in NJ -- here, nothing is stapled to the pot, and the only ones with price stickers on the pots are the AARS selections (terra-cotta-colored plastic pots). The plants in the black pots have the price card (which has care instructions) and the card with the plant name.

Interesting that you would bring up a name change in order to sell the plant -- since Whitman was governor here, perhaps the supplier thought that would sell more rosebushes. It wasn't a sellign point for me; I didn't go by the name (lifelong Democrat here, who isn't terribly thrilled that we have roses named after three Republicans in our yard -- my husband planted the two Reagan roses), but by the photo of the rose, which looked very pretty.

I should have blooms fairly soon -- there are several buds on the plant. But I've never posted a photo before -- can it be directly inserted into a emssage, or does it have to be hopsted elsewhere?

She was Governor of NJ, which is why the rose is probably named as such. I'd be interested in seeing a picture in order to find out what it really is.

kathya11, the pictures have to be hosted. Go to photobucket.com and upload your pictures there. Then, under the pictures there will be three boxes. Copy the text next to the "Tag" box and paste it into your message here. There is also Picturetrail.com, which I think works in a similar manner.

I just bought this rose at Walmart and couldn't find any info. on it either... How did it turn out?

Scott, I ended up shovel-pruning it this spring. It was a leggy plant that was a stingy bloomer no matter how much it was babied.