I bought two -- one from Heirloom last fall and one early summer this year from Rogue Valley Roses. In both cases, the bands were small and took some time to get going. The once from last fall has started putting on some bulk. It's in a 2 gallon pot now about ready to graduate to the garden. It's bloomed a few times -- very lovely! Once it started blooming I bought the second one. Just like it's older sister it sat there a while. Now it's putting on growth. No buds yet -- it's too small.

I have more mild winters than you but equally baking summers. I have kept the little one shaded on those 100 degree days but the larger one's pot is in full sun and it doesn't even wilt.

Get one, or two! You'll love them!

Debbie

Thanks, Debbie, for the reply! I WANT one so bad! I will check out the two sources that you've mentioned and will ask for immediate delivery. I've never purchased a band before so hopefully I won't be in too much of a shock when I receive it.

It may be a bit of a shock, but they weren't as hard as I feared. There's a few threads on this forum that discuss care of new bands. Keep it out of the sun and well watered until you pot it up into a 1 gallon pot. Make sure the soil drains well in the soil when you pot it up. I keep mine out of the baking sun until they put on some new growth. Mine new bands get morning sun, then shade but I live in a hot summer climate. My Pretty Jessica I bought in June is just starting to show new growth now but it was very small when it came. Once it starts growing, you'll be fine.

It's really a great rose, which is why I bought the second one. One to put in a pot on the patio and one to plant in the front of the garden.

Have fun!

Debbie

You just wait until you smell that first bloom! La parfume is so strong it is gonna knock you over the head then drag you by the hair into a giggling state of rosy euphoria.

Rogue Valley kept my rose many weeks longer, letting it grow on before shipping. I got it a couple weeks ago, but it is SOOOO small. It has not offered to put on ANY new growth at all. I hope it is not pouty like Jude and take forever to come into her own. In my zone 5 I will likely keep her in her pot but bury it for the winter. She is that tiny. Not even six inches. :o(

I think Pickerings is still selling a grafted version have a grafted Pretty Jessica did'nt have to nurse a band. h.

It's a gloriously good rose for small gardens and for containers.

I have one growing in the garden that I got from Roses Unlimited back when they used to carry it. It arrived as a relatively large, one gallon plant. Unfortunately, they no longer carry it. They may have been "forced" to stop carrying it by the David Austin organization in order to receive other, newer varieties from David Austin, as he is attempting to end distribution of 'Pretty Jessica' in the US.

I was so happy with that first 'Pretty Jessica' that I got a second one from Rogue Valley Roses to grow in a container on the patio. As Debbie mentioned, the one from Rogue Valley is a band-sized rose and is still very small. If you order a band-sized 'Pretty Jessica', you must be prepared to give it LOTS of time to get established. But it is so worth it, because once this rose finally does get established it is fantastic in every way ... fragrance, bloom form, color, frequent repeat, and long-lasting bloom duration.

Once established, this rose is very happy living here in my zone 8 North Texas climate. I am very saddened by the fact that this great rose is so difficult to obtain. But I'm very pleased to have been able to get my hands on two of them.

Randy

Try googling up "Orion Farms" in Minnesota. I'm not sure, but I think I may have bought my grafted Pretty Jessica from them--unless I got mine from Roses Unlimited--hmmm--just can't remember for sure. But what I do remember is that it was not a band--cuz I've never ever ordered a band. The Orion Farms people are really nice on the phone--call them.

Good luck.

Kate

It's listed as Ausjess on the Longago Roses website; they are in North Carolina. I don't know if it's in stock, but it's worth an email.

Here is a link that might be useful: longago roses

I have just planted a Pretty Jessica, so it was good to read this thread. Thankyou all.

I second Kate's suggestion of 'Orion Farms'. I ordered two from them (thanks, Randy for your enabling!) in mid-June and they were large, grafted bushes, and already had several buds on them. They settled in nicely and have bloomed several times since. And yes, Mrs. Johnson is indeed a very nice lady!
-terry

I'm pretty sure that Longago sells own-root, so it's nice that there's a choice available. That is, assuming that LA still sells it.

I have emailed the owner several times about roses, but have never purchased. I had just noticed that PJ is on her plant list for this year.

vuwugarden, I also have been enabled by a member of this forum (Celeste) and got Pretty Jessica this winter from Heirloom Roses. The band was very small but otherwise healthy when it arrived and I was very skeptical if it would grow. But it did and it flowered in the Spring for the first time giving me three of these incredible "Pretty Jessica only" flowers. The fragrance, as others have stated already, is truly delightful and so are the lovely flowers (color and shape is really beautiful). Now the band is an a five gallon container and is still a small rose in comparison to other bands that I bought at the same time, but it is putting out a lot of growth and I hope that it will give me some more flowers in Autumn.

I would recommend Heirloom Roses as source to buy from if they still carry it, but where ever you decide to get it from, own-root or grafted, just get it!!!. It is such a beautiful rose and I really believe you won't regret it.

I got FIVE of these babies from Heirloom a few weeks ago as little bands. They are doing GREAT in raised beds and one in a half whiskey barrel. I plan to mulch 'em BIG TIME through the winter, and hope that I don't lose any of them. I've already cut a couple of bouquets for friends from them. So far, I'm CRAZY about this rose! Know it's early to really judge, but I'm seeing 100% healthy roses with fantastic blooms with wonderful fragrance. I'm SO glad that I was so easily enabled, with Celeste being the ring leader!
Barb

vuwugarden, I just found these two photos of the first flowers of my Pretty Jessica band. They are from June this year. I hope you like them!

{{gwi:302471}}

{{gwi:302472}}

Although I am a lurker, I was enabled into buying this rose from Heirloom Roses in spring 2008 by Molineux and Celeste and others' lovely pictures. Being a newbie to roses, I did not know that others planted these small roses into pots first and planted her right into the ground. I dug a large hole and amended the soil first. She made it through a zone 5 winter with no protection other than the abundant snow cover we received last year from Mother Nature. She has given me two lovely flushes of blooms this year and has black spotted a little but it is easy to control. I hope you can find her. Heirloom still lists her on their website.

organicgardendreams, those are really wonderful pictures! PJ really has an old rose look, and I love the many-petaled flower formation and the color. You must be very happy with this rose.

Ingrid

Thanks so much for the report on the Pretty Jessicas surviving the zone 5 winter as "youngsters". Verrrry encouraging!
The photos are lovely. Mine don't "nod" that much but, other than that, they look just like my blooms here in Oklahoma.
Barb

OGD, your 'Pretty Jessica' is beautiful. Thanks for posting those pics.

Here's a shot of a fully open bloom of Pretty Jessica:
{{gwi:209986}}

Randy

Ingrid, thanks for your compliment regarding my photos of PJ, I am glad you liked the pics! You are right, so far I am very happy with this rose, in fact this is a rose that I truly love.

Barb, thank you for you kind words, about my photos, too. My first flowers of PJ were pretty "noddy", but I think that is because they were the first flowers of that rose ever and I expect the necks become a little stronger over time, but I still think that over all the rose has a nodding habit. Other may correct me, if I am wrong. Either way I will like her anyway!

Randy, if I hadn't been enabled by Celeste already to get PJ, I would be by you! I always enjoy your enthusiasm about this rose. I am glad that you like my PJ and just can return your compliment.

If this forum continues to write about Pretty Jessica like it does, I guess PJ will not disappear from the face of the earth and I have to say I like that ;-)!

One of the truly annoying things about AUSjess is the hybridizer's intent to do everything in his power to make her extinct. As we've seen from the comments on this and other threads, AUSjess is a superb rose under the right conditions. In a grouping dominated by Jolly Green Giants she is one of the few blessed with a petite bush, which is perfect for the front of flower borders, containers and small gardens in general. She is also showing herself to be hardy to zone 5. The flowers are also very beautiful, resembling your classic Bourbon and literally drenched in perfume. The only complaints I've read about this rose are from West Coast rosarians. Sorry, but not everybody gardens in California or Oregon.

In the right climate and under certain conditions this is an acceptable variety. However, in my garden this is an 18" runt that spends most of its time being a leafless twig farm, sans bloom. For me, one of the least satisfying of all the Austins I have grown. There are much better varieties to choose from, including the superb 'Sharifa Asma' which will Winter just fine in a zone 5 garden.

organic.....Your PJ, upon maturity, will have stronger 'necks' and will hold those petal-packed blooms straight upright. I am posting some pics from today of mine to illustrate how totally straight and strong they are.
I am SO happy that so many of you are enjoying this petite little gem! Just to clarify, I live in zone 4, and do not
protect my PJ other than a little mounding and she comes through my winters fine. My PJ blooms the entire summer, right up until frost in mid-Sept. and the quantity of her blooms is outstanding. I have had my PJ for many years, and her performance has always been stellar. As I have often stated, NO rose is perfect in all climates and conditions. If this rose doesn't do well for you, get rid of it and try another. But if it does delight you, then spread the word!

Celeste

{{gwi:302473}}

{{gwi:302474}}

Celeste, thanks for confirming that my PJ will get stronger necks, when she grows up. It is really interesting to see how upright your PJ holds her blooms. I am looking so much forward to get my PJ in the ground and see her mature.

Your photos are very lovely as always and your PJ looks so healthy and just drop dead gorgeous. Thanks for posting the pics!

SHARIFA ASMA is a fantastic rose (IMHO David Austin's best pink) that can be grown over a wider climatic range, but her flowers do look different. Sharifa is lighter and the pink is warmer in tone. The flower form is also not as "tight". In my Mid-Atlantic garden AUSjess, which I've nicknamed "Free Jessica" because David Austin holds the rights ON THE NAME, has deeply cupped to globular flowers that are lilac to lavender on the outer petals, blushed a deeper cherry pink in the middle.

I have Sharifa on the west side of my house, which is dominated by bright, Easter-egg-like pastels. FREE JESSICA is in a flower bed in the front (North-East), which has a cool color theme (lilac-pinks, lavender, blue, ivory, glistening white, and silvery gray).

Sharifa is also a bigger rose in my Temperate zone 6b climate. In M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D. a well cared for Sharifa Asma is capable of reaching 4-5 feet in all directions. Don't believe me? Just ask Olga. She has pictures. FREE JESSICA stays put at approximately two feet.

Paul, I'm sorry AUSjess was such a dog in your Pacific Northwest garden. For East-coast rosarians in zones 4/5/6, she is a very beautiful and much appreciated rose. In my garden her only fault is a propensity for blackspot, which IS controllable with spraying.

Patrick

What Patrick said about "Free Jessica"--except that in Kansas Zone 6, she is practically disease-free at all times.

Such full, fat blooms for a little 2 ft. bush--I love her!

Kate

I see Regan Roses is also listing it on their website for Spring Delivery.

Celeste your pics of Pretty Jessica are awesome. Thank you for enabling so many of us to give this superlative rose a try. If it weren't for you, I might not have experienced this rose first hand. It has proven to be absolutely perfect for my garden. I like several of the Austins, but there is no other like this one.

Randy

Thanks, Randy! It has been my pleasure to enable you & others, and to know that your gardens (and hearts) have been enriched by this enchanting little rose.

Celeste

{{gwi:302292}}

I purchased a Pretty Jessica and Sharifa Asma band from Heirloom about a month and half ago. My first PJ bloom will probably open tomorrow. There were 2 blooms but aphids got one of them. Both PJ and SA are putting out new growth like clockwork in the 20" containers I have them in. They are putting out similar growth and new basal canes at the exact same time after I gave them another stronger dosing of Rosetone(and the growth hormone from alf alfa inside it). SA just finished her first flush. PJ has a globular form that I love, so I'm excited to see how she turns out.

All of my bands are in 20" containers that I amend the soil with rosetone. My Evelyn band that I planted in July is 3ft tall now and taller than the 2year old Jackson Perkins Golden Celebration I purchased from my local nursery........now if I can just stop the squirrels from burying their nuts in my containers. hmmmmm

I happened to see Pretty Jessica rose here and I am totally in love with it. I tried to contact a couple nurseries which used to carry it. However, they all said they don’t offer this rose anymore :( Is anyone interested in exchanging cuttings with me? Thanks so much.

Thanks a lot