Nice comparison Seil!

Seil, is the foliage of Doris Day out of proportion (too large), to the flower? I know this is a minor point, but I would like your input.

Thanks, Jim!

You know, Thornworn, you may have a point there. The leaves are on the large size. More like what you would see on a big HT plant rather than on a floribunda with a 3 inch flower.

I love them both!

Doris Day blooms can also be huge!

Dan, how many blooms in a flush achieve the phenomenal size shown in your photo? HMFR states that 5" is its AVERAGE bloom size.

I have never had a 5 inch bloom on mine. Like I said, maybe 3 inches tops.

thornworn, that's a shot of Doris Day I took at a rose garden. There were probably 10 blooms on the bush, I just remember the one being gigantic and the others small. It was interesting.. I should've took a shot of the whole bush. It's a very pretty rose, at first I thought it was Peace since it was so huge.

Hi, I have a 8ft border where I'd like to plant some Julia Child rose. I'd like to get a thick "wall of flowers" so could you please tell me the correct planting distances? thank you

What is your growing zone, and how wide is your 8' bed?

I live in Italy and growing zone should be 8-9... the bed is wide at least 3'

domanton, there are a few size estimates from warmer zones on here. Julia Child

Nice comparison Seil. I remember the blooms on my Doris Day are huge and bright yellow, I was so surprised by the bloom size. I got a few Doris Day from Breck's bargain sales last year 5 for $19.99, I got piles of those (may be 5-7 sets) and a few Doris Day were in the piles. I don't recall BS on them though, will pay more attention next year. I do love the size of blooms, they are huge and bright, eye catching. I ordered 8 Julia Child after seeing Diane's beautiful photos, 1 st season in my garden, not big yet, went through a hot summer and they're all alive. The blooms are beautiful, smaller than DD, they might be bigger when the plants are older.......Diane's blooms on JC look much bigger than mine.

Diane, always love to see those photos. They are pretty powerful, got me to buy 8 JC! :-) I didn' t give mine enough room in the garden, I might have to pull out some rose near them later....... :-)

Diane, I thought I could plant one JC every 2' for a total of 5 roses, this to get a compact wall of flowers, but if the JC roses grow in that way I'm afraid I need only one or two... how do you advice me?

Domanton,

In your climate, in full sun (were in Italy is it not full sun?), rich soil, and well watered, your Julia Childs should easily reach 1300 cm high and 1300 cm wide, each bush. It would take a number of years for young bushes to get to this point, about 3-4 yrs. if they are young own rooted bushes.

If you want a dense hedge then plant them on 1 Meter centers. Planted at this distance you will not be able to easily walk, or wiggle through the outer perimeter areas between the bushes since adjacent bushes will grow into each other a bit, although Julia Child is not very thorny.

Your Julia Child's, planted on 1.3 M to 1.5 M centers, would allow a bit of room between the outer perimeters of adjacent bushes. This may be preferable for management/access concerns and for better air circulation between bushes if fungus diseases are an issue for you.

Of course, your annual pruning, heavy or light, will have a lot to do with how large your Julia Childs will get by season's end, coupled with the level of care they will get.

So, that's three (3), bushes for a denser hedge, 50 cm in from each bed's edge, left and right, and one in the middle of the bed. If things get too jumbled with bushes growing into each other by the end of the growing season prune back farther down in the future. If you go 4 bushes, squeezing them in a bit more you may have an impenetrable hedge if that is what you want.

If you plant just two bushes in the bed, the hedge effect is somewhat lost with the rounded bush shapes of the individual Julia Childs showing, although they should just about touch each other or a bit into each other by season's end after they reach maturity.

Send me air fare, and I'll plant them for you!

Thank you Moses, very exhaustive! just beside the hedge there's a little space, 2 meters x 1 (6,5'x3,3') where I will plant Blue For You... is it the same size?

I need to renew my garden and I think about 25-30 bushes of rose, so many advices from you ;)

(not in this thread of course)

Domenic, I do not grow Blue For You.

It has an uniquely beautiful cupped bloom with neat inner most petals when fully open. I like the 'blue', fading to white effect toward the flower's center. It has reports on being nicey fragrant. Strangely, it is described at HMFR (do you know about HMFR, Help Me Find Roses?), as being 90-200 cm high and 120 cm wide. I would think in your climate it would get very large, easily reaching the upper size limits or beyond.

Since a rose's winter hardiness is not a factor for you, you can grow just about anything in the rose world with success, and to its extreme size limit. My Julia Childs will never get over 75 cm high and 90 cm wide. Winter kill, even with protection, is the governing factor.

But, I will recommend some roses for you to consider that are my favorites:

Firefighter

Folklore

Fragrant Cloud

Double Delight

Pope John Paul II

Sugar Moon

Grand Dame

Beverly

Elina

Evelyn (If I could grow only one D. Austin rose, this would be it.)

All the above roses have 'souls,' that many roses do not. They are inspirational and very fragrant too, except for Elina's lack of/weak fragrance. You should have little trouble growing them, but acquiring them, other than Evelyn and Beverly, may present problems.

Do you have any interest in miniature and miniflora roses?

Thank you Moses for all the usefull infos! My garden is pretty huge but the places where I'd like to plant roses may want not big bushes, I mean not taller than 3,5' (1 meter more or less). I sadly know that our climate is too hot for Austin roses in summertime.... I didn't consider miniature/miniflora so far, maybe I should ;)

Moses, I agree with you about Evelyn. How I love that rose. Do you have any photos of Evelyn to post? She can take our heat here, but she would be too large for Domenic's selected growing spots, perhaps.

Summers, thank you. I love those photos you posted on another thread--pink Austin, but now I can't remember which one. It was gorgeous and reminded me of Brother Cadfael. Diane

Diane,

Sorry, I am barely computer literate and have not yet learned the photographic features of my system. I doubt if I will ever get to this point soon because I am too old to self-instruct, and need to be given private lessons. Young folks just don't have the patience or time.

One further word about Evelyn...there are quite a few reports on Evelyn being stingy of bloom. My Evelyn is excetionally vigorous and free blooming. Maybe mine is an anomaly, but I'm truly amazed at how quickly new flowers are produced from spring to fall, no let up. If only her flowers didn't nod, but you can't have everything!

Mosses,

I am also barely computer literate. I could assist you but only if you use an apple computer. Were it not for the help of a kind lady on here I would still not be able to post photos.

Diane, which violet roses are showed on your second pictures?

Domenic, that is an Austin rose, Young Lycidas. I like him a lot, but he does have floppy canes. The canes get better as YL ages, but the floppy canes never entirely go away. I just lean YL against a few other roses, and he fits in nicely. YL has a lovely scent and blooms well. Diane

Young Lycidas

Diane,

I never knew Young Lydicas had such beautiful blooms. All your roses are grown to perfection. How tall does YL get for you? Do the petals drop fast?

Patty,

In some ways I am OK with my limited techno-skills. My most influential art teacher was an extreme anti-technology proponent. This was years ago, long before computers, cell phones, etc. He practically regarded the camera a tool of the devil!

One weekend assignment he gave was a trap for us students, in which we were assigned to draw a self portrait while looking into the mirror. Many of us, I included, cheated and drew from photos of ourselves.

The reflection we see in a mirror reverses our image. A left handed part in ones hair becomes a right handed part in a mirror reflection. In a photo it does not. What's worse, when we were individually confronted about drawing from a photo for the assignment, just about everyone, to a student, lied, especially me! The undeniable evidence of my cheating and subsequent lie was the left part in my hair (should have been a right part to be a mirror image), staring me in my face on paper, by my own hand. Talk about self incrimination!

Hoho, Moses. That's pretty funny about your art assignment, and I'll bet you have stayed on the straight and narrow since then, never fibbing again (maybe). Your professor sounds like he was a bit of a character. I'm not too thrilled by current technology, either. I like to call myself a "flat earther" because I refuse to use Kindle and must have a real book in hand. All of us flat earthers know the computer is a tool of the devil, and that gnomes live in the box that holds the computer itself. Of course, the gnomes are what really do the computer's work, and they sense when a computer illiterate (me) is at the keyboard. They cause my errors, and I call for help from my son in law. He is high up doing something at a tech company and a computer engineer. The minute he walks in the room to help me with the infernal contraption (computer), the computer works just fine. The gnomes know "the Master" has arrived and immediately behave themselves. I half believe all this.

Back to roses--Young Lycidas is about five feet tall and fairly wide. I like the way he fits in with his surroundings so well, never trying to take another rose's space. He just leans companionably. A rose like Ascot would elbow his neighbors aside and take over the entire surrounding area. I think YL's blooms last quite well, and I intend to keep him. Thank you so much for your comments on my roses. I hope someday you are able to post photos of your roses, or perhaps you have drawings to show. That would be wonderful. Diane

DD is beautiful but I would probably still prefer JC due to its disease resistance. Having said that, my second JC that I've planted last spring is not as disease resistant as my first JC that I've planted two years ago. I am hoping that the second year would be better.

Your Young Lycidas is breathtaking!!! What a gorgeous rose!!

Carol

Thanks, Carol. I'm so glad to see you posting again. Diane

Yes, I'm feeling more like myself. :)

I am zone 9 - very hot dry summers. JC never got over 3 feet for me - had her about 6 years. I just moved and have been rose shopping. I went to nursery last year in our record breaking hot spell - over 105 - the only roses blooming in their black containers were Doris Day. All of them were blooming - so thats the yellow rose for me.

Here's Julia on July 26. It was probably in the 100F range at that time. Diane

Diane - it sure is tall and wide. Gorgeous blooms!!! I wish I could visit it in person. :)
Carol

I’m going to prune all my roses, and JC too of course. Here are 2 pictures taken 24th october. It’s the first prune ever for them, so I need some advice... How to do it? Thank you

JC1

JC2

Hi Domenic, I would do just a light trim to even things up (since it's a first prune), and go for a nice rounded look that would fit well as part of your informal hedge. Your roses look great--she's one of my favorites. But expect them, especially in your warm zone, to get quite a bit bigger. Diane

Domenic - what a lovely bright yellow!!

Thank you! A question a little off topic: near JC there are four Blue For You (first year too) and they have grown a lot in height with a long big single cane (6 feet). I like a bushy shape, so I thought about trimming at 20 inches from the ground... do you agree?

Blueforyou