Mine is also very small.It grows close to the ground and is very compact. Could be the hot summer?? I'm watching it next year and if it doesn't improve, it's gone. Mine could be a root problem, I'll have to check.

Mine is most assuredly NOT growing like a bonsai! I thought it was dead last year, but it is bravely shooting for the sky and I actually got one or two blooms before the jap beetles did.

I would suspect a problem with the particular plant, and consider replacing it. Is it own-root or grafted?

I have three of them -- one on its own roots, one on Dr. Huey and one on Fortuniana. The one on Fortuniana is doing very well. The other two are anemic growers. This is a rose that just seems to need the kind of vigor that Fortuniana rootstock imparts.

I bought it through Jackson Perkins, so I am assuming it is grafted, but I have no idea onto what.

I will look at replacing it next year. I have 2 other nice whites, but since this one has like 50 petals, it looks good for a long time as it opens whereas other roses I have with fewer petals seem to open and fade more quickly. Not sure I'm describing that in a way that makes sense, but you know what I mean.

Thanks for your replies. I haven't received any notifications of them. Not sure what's going on.

Benrx, Your Jackson & Perkins PJPII is an own-root rose. J&P markets all their own-roots as "New Generation" roses, and PJPII has carried that designation since its introduction. PJPII is available from J&P on Fortuniana, but they've never made it available on Dr Huey. It seems that lots of gardeners who are growing PJPII on its own roots assume their plants are grafted.

Some of us have reported here about distinct differences we've noted in growth habits among individual plants of PJPII. Here's a link to a recent thread on the topic --

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Pope John Paul II'

Hey thanks a bunch! I went and posted on that thread. Looks like maybe there was a bad batch of these or something.

Yep, Windeaux, I am one of those that was assuming my bareroot PJPII was grafted to Dr. Huey. Now I am doubting that. It was probably a "new generation" bareroot. And it has struggled here -- not a good grower at all.

I started this thread almost a year ago. My Pope John Paul is still growing like a bonsai. Is it time to toss it? I'm someone who can never toss a plant, but this is getting old.

Interesting...the New Generation Roses were supposed to be tested for ease of rooting and acceptable growth own root. Would some of you who are having difficulty with this rose please try potting it in a good potting soil and see if warmer roots, better soil and perhaps better feeding make a difference? There is nothing that should cause "a bad batch" unless they were hit with weed killer or something. If the rose performs well own root and these aren't, then it seems more likely this variety doesn't like either the climate, soil or water types it's being grown in. Might any of you having difficulties with it know whether your soil and water are more alkaline or acidic? It has to be a fault of the adaptability of the variety and not particular bad plants. Kim

Apparently the testing for New Generation roses wasn't thorough enough to included trials under a wide variety of growing conditions. Another rose that was a failure for me as a New Generation is 'Sedona'.

After that rose's first year on the market, J&P suspended its sale as a New Generation and began distributing it only as a graft on Dr Huey. The difference between the two 'Sedona' plants in my garden is truly amazing. In its first season here, my grafted 'Sedona' is a robust plant with remarkably dense, healthy foliage. The older New Generation plant remains anemic-looking in comparison. It's a beautiful rose, BTW. VERY glad I decided to give the grafted plant a chance.

PJP II has struggled for me but his blooms make up for it. I keep him despite the look of the plant. He blooms well in the heat and keeps on keeping on. Smells heavenly.

I actually got into bonsai when I lived in Houston. To bonsai any plant (any woody plant), first you cut bace the above ground part and then you root pruned the plant. In Houston's summers, bonsais needed to be watered three or four times a day to keep them alive because the roots were so limited.

When I read your title, I wondered why anyone would want to bonsai a rose. Now I wonder if nature and an incompatibility of soils and PJPII roots is doing a natural bonsai....which follows Roseseek's wonderings.

And also points to how a common rootstock, suitable for wider ranges of soil, water and climate can produce a far more uniform and reliable crop. Kim

Mine is so-so. The year I got it, 2008, it looked fabulous. The next year it did nothing but that was a particularly cool, gray summer here. Last year we got warm early and stayed warm and it did much better. It's just now in it's second flush this season but the plant is still pretty short, maybe 18 inches to 2 feet tall at the most. My thinking was that this one liked it hot rather than cool but now I'm wondering.

Seil, it's quite possible this could be a warmer weather rose, but not necessarily. Each cultivar has a genetic 'preference' for each variable, just as people do. Many overlap and have the same ranges of tolerance, but there are quite a few which are just intolerant of extremes in either direction. As mixed a bag of genes modern roses are, they can pick up those traits from many ancestors, combined with parallel as well as conflicted 'instructions' or traits.

Hopefully, we can hear more of the conditions the good and the bad ones are grown under. It will definitely help to determine what this rose wants/needs and whether it is worth messing with own root in many instances or if it should be offered budded for most, if not all markets. Not that it is going to become the way it is, but it is definitely interesting and instructive! Thanks! Kim

Trust me, PJP II is not dependent on warmer weather to do its best. In response to roseseek's quest to determine what this rose wants/needs, I offer this: I suspect it wants/needs to be grafted.

My second PJP is planted in my garden. My first (which arrived as the smallest bareroot I've every received) was transferred last season to a large pot. The potted rose has finally surpassed the garden plant in both growth and bloom production, but it remains unimpressive with its rather lax and spindly growth. I'm hoping someone growing this rose on Fortuniana will chime in here to let us know how PJP is doing on that rootstock . . .