My JC is in its 3rd year. Doesn't particularly have a scent, but its a bloom machine. They last on the bush forever, and rebloom time is excellent. She ranges in colour from a deep buttery yellow, to a pale almost white depending on the age of the bloom.

I keep her around for the fact that she's a power horse. When the rest are taking a break, she's still going.

There are definitely better yellows out there (for form, scent, etc) but JC works over time for me, which I appreciate.

@Gillian (zone 5b/6a) Ontario, Canada that's good advice. Mine is not a blooming machine (yet) but it blooms a lot. The roses seem to shatter almost instantly (quicker than an Austin!) currently. I might need to give this one more time.

Honestly, I think that Julia is the best bloomer in my yard. Not a particularly fragrant or stunning rose bur she makes up for ir with het generous blooms. As far as blowing quickly, I think that get better with age.

But as I always say if it doesnt make you smile say goodbye but with Julia, I think that you should give her a chance.

kristine_legault's ideas · More Info

She makes a great hedge.

@Diane Brakefield I saw your praise for JC in another post. Your plants are gorgeous. My Julia blooms look NOTHING like this. I think I need to wait for it to mature. Thanks for these! You've changed my mind.

Also, what is the pink climber?

Beautiful Kristine! I don't think I've ever seen that hedge before or your friends. Me likey!! Lol!

PDX Robert, Thank you so much. The climber is Colette a Romantica from Meilland. It's actually a peach color,

rather than a true pink. It has a massive show for quite a while in spring--one of my first bloomers, then reblooms sporadically during the summer. Right now, I doing big clean up from the heat here. Ugh. Diane

Holy smokes @Diane Brakefield! That's the finest Colette I've seen. The ones I've seen here in Portland have tiny little flowers that are blanched and lifeless. However, I think I've seen them later in the summer and probably missed their great show first thing. It's absolutely beautiful! So sorry about the heatwave--that happens here as well. Such a bummer.

I agree that after the heat Colette is the biggest mess to clean up. But she starts blooming way before my other roses, so that kind of makes up for her current state. Meanwhile, the Julias take up the slack. Is it hot in Portland right now? I'm sure the Colettes in Portland put on a good show earlier. Our heatwaves aren't really waves--they last about two months. This rose can really take the cold. Something you don't have to worry about much. I love western Oregon, my first childhood home, just post WWll (that gives you an idea of how ancient I am). Diane

PDXRobert,

My evaluation of Julia Child reflects yours.

This is how Julia Child grew for me under my care, in my garden.

I grew JC for about 7 years.

It black spotted if not sprayed, losing about 1/3-1/2 of its lowest foliage by mid-August. This trait makes it unacceptable in my new, no spray for disease, makeover rose garden. There are too many other no spray for disease roses available in the rose world to coddle along a black spotter these days.

Its scent in my garden was not memorable. It (about 1.5 out of 5 for potency), was neither strong enough to waft, nor special enough to put a smile on my face when a bloom was held right up to my nose.

An individual bloom itself was not long lived on the bush, just average, 2, rarely 3 days in the heat of the summer....nothing exceptional in this department. Crisping or wilting during intense heat did not occur, which is a good trait, well above average.

Winter survival without any protection in my zone 6b, Pittsburgh, PA garden was very good, although not entirely tip hardy. There was plenty of live wood left in good condition to cause my spring pruning cuts to be made where I wanted to make them, not where winter die back dictated I make them.

The flower form was just so-so, like many modern floribundas, no complexity. The color had no varying tones, just a lightening of yellow through aging. However, the bush form was nicely tailored, not leggy or with out of bounds growth. The flowers were held mostly upright just above the foliage, with minimal nodding, looking very appealing to the eye. This is JC's strongest asset, IMHO. It easily passes mustard as a stand alone bush, unlike so many wonky looking floribunda bush forms out there.

The flower output was generous for the first, spring flush, a step above average, but thereafter....all season long...it was typical among floribundas, not exceptional.

In my quest for growing only no/minimal black spot issue roses, my JCs were shovel pruned this spring.

I don't miss them one bit.

In a black spot free climate, or in a spray for black spot garden, I think Julia Child would be well worth growing, but in my locale, it can easily be passed over in favor of newer introductions that exhibit strong black spot immunity/resistance.

Moses

Me neither. JC is small and fade quickly. Not repeat that well mot much fragrance either. But it is very healthy. I might just keep it.

I’d like to make one comment about Moses’ detailed review.

When he says JC’s bush form ” … easily passes mustard ..”, I believe he does so because, under certain ambient conditions, JC’s aging color may call to mind Grey Poupon.

Completely understandable.

I recollect discussing this topic (the expression) with roseseek in another Rose Forum discussion here, some time ago.

Did not Julia Child herself say the color reminded her of fresh butter? I have a vague recollection of reading this.

I visited San Jose municipal rose garden a few years ago. I remember seeing black spots on Julia Child, and I was very surprised because I heard this variety is supposed to be very healthy.

Moses,

Would you be willing to share a list of your favorite roses that have done well for you without spraying? (I am in the rainy PNW where blackspot is a common problem)

I am always recommending Julia Child because it has been my most successful rose over an 8 year period. I started with the intention of having a 'no spray garden'. Julia Child was one of the first roses I bought after I tried a number of David Austins without the success I was looking for. David Austins had blackspot.

Mine is vigorous, has healthy foliage, and does rebloom for me. This year in particular, it's the healthiest it's ever been and looks great. It's already reblooming and forming more buds. It's very reliable and dependable for me. It's had a few seasons that it didn't perform it's best, but that was either after I'd moved it, or had a hard winter, or a lot of hot and humid weather, but I don't really get black spot and it's never lost 1/3 of it's foliage. This year is year 3 after the last time I moved it, so it's looking very settled in.

I agree that it really makes a nicely shaped shrub. Mine has good fragrance. The flowers stand up to rain and don't ball up. The one complaint I've had from the beginning is that the flowers are smaller than I wanted and they are in clusters on short stems so that it's not the easiest to fit into a vase. To me, if that is all I have to complain about, then I'm doing pretty good. It's not a surprise to hear that it doesn't perform the same in everyone's garden. And now there are a lot of roses to choose from that are being developed with disease resistance. When I first started to grow roses, there were not a lot.

abseraka,

These roses have done very well with no spraying for black spot:

Quietness

Dee-Lish

Princess Charlene of Monaco

Moonlight Romantica

Pinkerbelle

Apricot Candy

Earth Angel

South Africa

Poseidon

Wedding Bells

Bliss

Quick Silver

also the Drift Roses:

Apricot Drift

Sweet Drift

Popcorn Drift

Moses

I tried a JC own-root here in Central Pa a few years ago... Blooms blew fairly quick and

she got terrible blackspot here.... Gone! Just not a rose for my area...

I did enjoy taking her pic though...lol

You may not be alone. But you don't have much company. Julia is tops on my list.

You go hugogurll. Diane

@hugogurll Diane has changed my mind. I appreciate hearing everyone's experiences. Roses have so much variance from one region to another. I can sympathize with others who have not had a good experience with JC.

They have quite a few JC planted at Descanso gardens near my house that are 3-4 years old now. They are constantly in bloom with perfect foliage. For SoCal that means mildew and rust resistant, since we don’t get blackspot. She has really great fragrance that is kinda spicy and sweet and the blooms look good even in the heat. They start dark yellow and age to light yellow so the bushes alway covered in several shades of yellow. Nice rounded shrubs with foliage to the ground. I don’t recall seeing any branches. All you see is thick foliage and flowers.

That is my experience, too. Blooms all over the bush. And in our current 100F+ weather, Julia continues to bloom, and those blooms hold up probably better than any other rose I grow in this heat. Diane

I've definitely changed my opinion at this point. Thanks to @Diane Brakefield for the wise words.

Julia child has been the best performer in my garden, granted i have not many roses yet. It is a blooming machine, which fabulous colors : deep rich butter yellow fading to near white, never balled, and always neat( I still dead head it). in our humid hot summer it is holding well. It is getting a little black spot now, but still reasonably clean and even better than knockout roses. It does not have the strongest fragrance but light pleasant scent. This picture was taking just now after a stormy night

The biggest trouble with JC is it is a Japaneses Beatles magnet. I had to prune out all the blooms and buds last week after coming back from vacation. they were covered with JBs

I recall `Christian Bedard saying Julia Child is THE ideal rose that he aims for in his hybridizing work .I agree this rose has so many vitues: Heavy flowering, great repeat, tidy plant, good fragrance, I think its greatest attribute is that the whole plant looks good…dense rounded shape, flowers all over. I personally prefer more a HT type rose than a floribunda, but no doubt Julia Child is a top notch variety, and yes the ideal floribunda. A few decades ago yellow roses were largely considered the weakest color , if you grew an older yellow like Bucaneer or Eclipse you’d know it was no match for the best pink and red roses. It’s great how far yellow roses have come and that this one can easily contend for best in class.

I don't normally have a japanese beetle issue. I get a few oriental beetles every year, so I'm probably not a good measure, but this year, I just had to do the same thing, cut off a bunch of new blooms that the beetles had made a mess of. Normally I have the time to monitor every day and get to them and remove them before they make a mess and only lose a few flowers, but this year I haven't. My first flush of blooms had no beetle activity and were bug free. This is the second flush just starting. But I did hand pick all the beetles, mostly oriental, yesterday and I'm going to keep that up every day now. I still have a lot of buds ready to open on both JC and Beverly.

Same here, I have been handpicking JBs for weeks. After a week since back from vacation, the JB counts are finally kept under 20 per day. I can start enjoying Julia Child and other roses blooming again.

When I grew Julia Child here in Sacramento heat, it quickly faded to cardboad white and had almost no scent. Quickly shovel pruned.

Carla in Sac

When planting bare root roses first time,how long do they soak for (I have seen 30minutes-24hours),do I use black kow composte, and/or soil and fertilizer,and bio tone or rose tone?

When potted roses are planted what is the protocol?

Julia Child was my first own root rose and reccomended by Brad Jalbert in BC for a wet PNW climate. My has a wonderful scent, and almost continuous bloom. My big complaint is that it wants to get 6 foot + and I hack it down several times a growing season. It did get BS this year along with ALL my other roses, but normally super healthy. I am guessing that it could be Dr. Huey causing you issues since I had the same experiences that Brad recommneded it for and he suggested own root. Sounds like it is not as great in some other locations, but for PDX it should be marvelous. (Portland ARS also highly reccomends it too.)

Thanks @ann beck 8a ruralish WA! I believe mine is grafted. I got it dirt cheap at Freddies and at the time thought, "why not?" Since I posted this it has been doing marvelously, and I will keep it. But I wonder if it would improve on its own roots. Worth investigating further for sure.

Robert, I've grown two Julias, both grafted since 2006. My third Julia, about 8 years old, is own root. All are excellent roses, but the grafted outperform the own root and have larger blooms, too. So, if I were to get a fourth Julia, it would grafted. The Julias in the photos way above are in their 17th years and still going strong. Diane

That's great to hear @Diane Brakefield. Thank you! I wish I had the time and garden space to trial all the roses on their own roots vs grafted for my own education, but that's impossible of course. I really appreciate your insight and experience shared here.

In central FL , Julia Child bloomed a lot but the blooms blew away quickly and had no scent ,and was relatively disease free . This year for some reason it had lots of cane die back then finally died .