Julia Child Roses Still Opening
The growing seasons is largely over here in Northern California. As of mid-November, our roses are no longer growing new buds, but the buds that developed on our rose bushes in October are continuing to open this month.
This photograph shows a few of the flowers that are open on our Julia Child floribunda rose bush. The flowers of this rose have an eye-catching pale orange color and a mildly sweet candy smell that is very different from the typical rose smell. The flowers resemble an English rose in terms of their shape and petal pattern. Like many other floribunda roses, our Julia Child rose tends to produce many more flowers than a hybrid tea, although its flowers are smaller than the flowers of a hybrid tea rose.
We planted our Julia Child rose bush in our garden about 2 years ago, and it has doubled in size since then. This rose has a bushy growing habit. Rather than growing a few long canes like a hybrid tea rose, it grows lots of short stems and lots of glossy leaves that give the bush a filled-out rounded shape. However, its flowers are not ideal for cutting, because their stems are so short.
November 10 2008 04:39 pm | Roses