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jont1

J&P Test Roses--Long reading!!

jont1
16 years ago

I love growing the J&P Test Rose Panel roses each year. Alot of people think it is a game by J&P to get rid of sub-standard roses they were going to offer but have deemed them not worthy for some reason or other. They even say J&P doesn't read the evaluations we who grow and rate these roses fill out and return each fall after growing the roses that previous growing season. Personally I believe they do even if they don't always come to the same conclusion I do. Whoever said we had to agree.

Sometimes they do some things I don't agree with like when they repeated offering a coral pink rose two years in a row because they apparently couldn't make up their mind. Finally they decided not to commercially market the rose due to the flower stems having weak necks that permitted the rose blooms to sag and look down at the ground. I didn't find that problem with my rose at all and so kept mine, named it, and planted it in a spot in my front yard deck bed. It's first year in the ground this own-root roses first flush of bloom had 25 large single blooms--single as meaning no sprays but the blooms themselves were very double with lots of petals, nice coral pink color that stayed the entire bloom cycle, decent fragrance, and disease resistant and winter hardy. Insects seemed to leave it alone as well.

When they decide to not commercially market the rose that of course leaves the rose unnamed. To live in my garden my roses have to have a name so I get the plesure of naming them myself. The coral pink from last year that I liked so well I had the pleasure to name after my dear now deceased mother-in-law Lois Davis, so that is the monniker I put on her nameplate in the garden. Lois loved the color of the rose and this was her favorite. It sort of reminds me in color and form and bloom amount of Elizabeth Taylor. It's registered name is JACcomag so I assume at least one of it's parents is the hybrid tea Color Magic.

I have two other roses in my garden that are also named after relations who are still living. They too, like Lois Davis, were test roses that J&P decided not to market for one reason or another even though I personally liked them well enough to keep them for my own enjoyment. I did have a white HT that I accidentally killed trying to transplant it this past year that I liked mainly because of it's unique and wonderful scent that I have never smelled on any other rose before or since. I know I will never be able to replace this one which is unfortunate as I would have liked to try and pass along it's fragrance in my hybridyzing program. It was worth keeping for that reason alone. It was indeed slow growing,blooming and repeating, but the blooms were pretty pink/white and again had a wonderful fragrance.

This years batch is already interesting. The pictures that J&P posted on their website show very striking rose blooms that if are true I would love to have. There is a red/white stripe rose that I particularly like registered as JACdrama but I don't know the parentage yet. It is about the most vigorous growing of the four trying to break dormancy which I find exciting.

Scuttlebutt has it that the dark red registered as JACelvet is not breaking dormancy well for most people. Some have been trying for a month or more with no results to report. Mine is breaking dormancy pretty good so far so I consider myself lucky.

JACemini is the orange/white obviously parented by the beautiful HT of J&P's production a few years back named Gemini. IF it is 1/2 as good as it's parent it will still be a good rose. It is my slowest grower so far as the red foliage buds are still small but they are still alive and the canes are green and plump all the way to the tip-top of the canes it has, so I am not worried yet.

JACsammy is a fairly non-descript rose so far and I believe is supposed to be an orange blend of some sort. It is breaking dormancy at a reasonable rate and the canes look to be good and healthy. Time will tell with this one.

All in all I am so far rather pleased with this group of roses and hope they do as well as last years-2007-group.

Last years group composed of the aforementioned coral-pink rose now named Lois Davis, a mauve, a pink/white blend, and a yellow grandiflora. After you read my ramblings about these roses you will understand why my one real problem or flaw as I see it with the J&P evaluation system is that you only evaluate them for one year so you don't get the "whole story" of how that particular rose grows through a winter and into another year after having a chance to establish itself a little more. Keep in mind the adage as they apply to new roses--"First year they sleep, Second year they creep, Third year they leap. OR at least they better!!!!LOL!!!!

The mauve started out super vigorous growing with lots of buds and it bloomed fast and furious with large and well formed mauve blooms with a nice scent and good substance. However the blooms only lasted about 7 days on the bush and it's repeat blooming was a disappointing almost non existant entity. I only got about 8 blooms the entire rest of the year and it didn't get much bigger than it's initial 3' tall. This year according to the J&P website is now named "Sweetness" and will be the Rose of The Year for J&P. It also didn't winter as well as I would have hoped in it's container even though it spent the majority of the winter in my garage for protection. I will just have to wait and see how it comes around this spring if it does. Right now it doesn't look real good. One thing I didn't mention that I should have is that this rose was very healthy and disease resistant the whole first year and now into the spring of it's second. It wasn't obviously the most winter hardy however.

The pink/white blend was named, commercially marketed, and awarded the J&P's Rose of the Year as April in Paris. It's blooms didn't really impressed me alot last year but they were okay. They didn't have much scent and the color was a little on the muddy side to me. Bloom production was fair to middling and repeat bloom was rather good. Disease resistance and winter hardiness were excellent. It seems to have wintered well and this spring it is breaking dormancy well and has a lot of foliage that appears to be strong, thick, and shiny--good substance so to speak. I don't know that it is "ROY" award worthy, but it is an okay rose. Maybe this year will be better.

The yellow grandiflora was also commercially marketed early on last year and the people at J&P settled on "Southern Belle" for a name. It is a pretty shade of yellow and I think the name fits it well. Kind of soft and soothing. The scent is quite the same--kind of fresh and soft. NOt what I would call fragrant, more aromatic. It grew with good vigor and disease resistance most of the year. I believe it was the slowest breaking dormancy last year than the other three were. It produced a good amount of bloom with a large size, good substance and prolific stamens that prettied this one up nicely. Very strong upright growth and that appears to be the way it is starting up this year as well. I think this one will be kind of tall. The foliage is shiny and a medium green in color and the leaves individually are big. One thing I noted with this particular cultivar is that it responded quickly and prolificly to spraying the foliage with Messenger and with other wpray fertilizers like Respond, Superthrive, etc...and I would guess it is the same with other sprays like Compass, Honor Guard, and Mancozeb and the like though you really don't see those results except that you don't see the plant affected with the particular disease which was the case with this rose. It was healthy and vigorous growing which I really like.

I don't like wimpy and runty growing and blooming roses and will get them out of my garden in a hurry if they turn out to be that way. But you do have to give them at least a couple of years to make that assessment supposing they live that long through the winters and the like.

In this particular group of four roses three of them--"April in Paris", "Southern Belle", and "Sweetness" all went commercial which is good for J&P and for the consumer as well. As for the fourth or the coral-pink JACcomag rose even though they decided not to commercially market it I still like it just as well and better than the mauve for sure. So I named it and will keep it in my garden. I will probably also send some budwood out to have it budded to R.Multiflora understock so I can take a look at it budded as well as on it's own roots as it currently is.

If you have never tried the Test Panel roses, give them a shot you might be surprised as I was about how well I like doing them and being hopefully part of the evaluation of these roses for J&P. I think it is fun to do and I plan to continue on.

Sorry this was so long. If you decide to try this, post it here so we can all hear about it. The cost is only $50 for four J&P roses which I think is a good price. Most years they really prove they were worth it, just like last year when I got four pretty nice roses in the deal.

John

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