“”Trust, but verify.”😄

Use your eyes, too. I wonder about nursery people who propagate id errors along with the plants.

That's a cautionary tale indeed. Several of my rose-growing neighbors, including one who has 25 roses (approx.) don't seem to care about what they have, don't know, or don't understand that there are different versions of pink roses. To some, it's a 'pink' rose. Like there's only one pink rose in the whole world. The guy with 25 even pays someone else to water, prune, deadhead, topdress and mulch. He doesn't know anything about his roses, except that the one by the side of the garage is a 'very very old rose called McCartney-something like that".

The above tale makes me think that it must be because ... what... 75% of the general public doesn't care which roses they are buying (buy them by looking at the blooms) or understand that not all roses perform well in various climes, situations, etc. Kinda sad, come to think of it. I mean Google Search is fingertips away....

@roseseek - Ouch. Yes, I'm sorry to hear that - and it makes me want to apologize to you for all the ignorant comments that the general....general public makes toward conscientious shop owners, store managers, nursery workers and the like. It also makes me vow to not follow those sorts of examples, and to behave better towards other people, at all times, in the future.

By chance, my daughter called me for advice from Annie's today where she was shopping, so I asked her to snap a few photos (which I neglected to do) to illustrate what I saw yesterday. Here they are:

The sign:

The label:

Annie's changed ownership recently which may be a factor.

By the way, thought I should note that I personally have a plant of 'Mrs. Oakley Fisher' bought from Annie's some 5 years ago (along with an older one from Vintage) and it is the correct variety. Also saw the ones they were selling last year and those were also the correct variety. But something this year seems to have gone wrong...

@roseseek I think you've got the essence of it with your last comment -- the general, flower-buying public doesn't know and doesn't care and no need for vendors to care anymore as they will make money anyway -- sad but true.

@Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR Yes, could be. I wonder though if these weren't in production already by the time the new owner took over? I also talked to their head of propagation, who was summoned to the discussion, a young woman originally from San Diego, and she has only grown three roses ever: 'Hot Cocoa', 'Coco Loco' (in an area with a pink/brown scheme in her current garden in Santa Rosa), and 'Golden Celebration' -- from Annie's of course!.

She's a newbie Catspa for sure.