I tend to lump Julia's Rose in the same category as Sterling Silver. These are roses that are possible to grow well, but they require extra effort, very favorable conditions and constant attention to disease control. Your zone might very well provide the kind of environment that Julia requires. In my zone this rose had poor color, faded fast & shattered very quickly. This is a rose that requires pampering & might be at its best in a large container where you could control the soil, etc more readily.

Alternatives you might consider are the HTs Irish Creme & Leonidas, or the Floridunda Coffee Country. Leonidas often has a rich brownish color as a florist rose, but I don't know what coloration is tends toward in the garden. I don't grow any of the three I've mentioned, but plan to get Coffee Country from RU.

Leonidas is a loud shocking orange in the garden; a far cry or rather scream from those that grow in a greenhouse.

I have no problem with Julia here, but like cafe much better. Coffee country is much more floriferous, but not nearly the same coloration.

Thanks so much for responding, Windeaux, Ceterum and Mgleason (I forgot your names!)
After looking at your suggestions, boy, am I in love with Cafe! I LOVE the form and color! Gotta give it a try! :0) Phyl

I got Cafe this Spring and love it so far! It is just beautiful.

Cafe
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Is that the Kordes Cafe? Are you growing it own root? What a beauty!

Ooooh! That is BREATHTAKING!! And I'm enjoying your photo with my own big mug of steaming cafe! Thank you ALL for enabling me into a rose I had no idea existed. Is it small in stature? Any specific site situations it needs (I've read it "loves cooler temperatures"-I always wonder if that means it likes our average 80-85 degree summers better than someone else's average 95-100 degree summers?!) Also, is it as fragrant as they say? :0) Phyl

Hi berndoodle, Yes, that is Kordes Cafe. I got it at our local Raft Island Roses, a Hortico grafted rose.

Phyl, it seems to be growing like a regular Floribunda. It's colors really shine in our overcast, cool weather. It's pretty fragrant too.
Adrienne

Yes, 'Julia's Rose' is that hard to grow. I'd go so far as to say that it is a waste of time on its own roots and should only be grown budded to something strong and vigorous. Without spraying it is s leafless misery. With spraying it is an awkward, shapeless plant that offers a dozen decent blooms a year, and that's if you're lucky. I expect 'Honey Dijon' is a much better rose in the same color range.

Paul

I wanted to order Cafe and in the last minute I changed my mind. I read somewhere, maybe in Botanica's roses that this rose does well only in cooler climate. If that is true, this will be a perfect rose for you Phyl.

Thanks, Paul, for the honest answer. The pics I've seen of Honey Dijon-well, the color just isn't to my liking...but I have to say I've never seen it up close either.
Ceterum, I've read that Cafe likes a cooler climate...I just don't know what is meant by "cooler." I mean, our summers get pretty hot (usually)-into the 90s.
:0) Phyl

You are right Phyl. One doesn't know anymore where is cool and what counts as cool.

Beth's photos of Cafe on HMF are just phenomenal.

Pcnwgngirl your photo makes me want this rose again, bad girl you are.

Pacnw-I am moving to Gig harbor in the early part of next year...I will be real close to Raft Island Roses..I am only learning now about root stock. I took a class a few years back on pruning and I thought I knew everything. I want to try this Cafe rose

I've had an own-root Julia's Rose for three or so years, and while it is definitely stingy, I really love it. I knew going in that it wasn't going to be a workhorse producer and that it had a reputation for being a diva, but decided to try it for myself. As far as disease, I noticed this afternoon that mine is absolutely clean of PM and rust, which are my two main fungal diseases. I normally spray somewhere between sporadically and regularly, but I haven't sprayed my roses this year since maybe May. This has been a really bad year for PM here. Plus, I am about 1-2 months behind in fertilizing. Mine currently has 3 open blooms, 4 almost open blooms, and about 6-8 buds. I don't see an issue with it being own root. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that Julia's Rose isn't nearly as pitiful here as some folks above have experienced. I am in coastal So. Cal. I'm pretty ruthless with culling, and this one isn't close.

Susan

So glad that you posted this, Susan. Although I decided against trying her myself, I'm glad you enjoy her. Our summers are short enough, space limited enough that I don't plan to try her, but it's nice to know some can grow her somewhat successfully! Thanks for letting us know! :0) Phyl

Yeah, she's a stingy puppy, that's for sure. My plant is probably 10yrs old and she rarely blooms. If you want some similarly colored roses try these:

HONEY DIJON - gets the more mauvey tones in early spring, then turns more mustardy as the weather warms up.
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IRISH CREME - Also gets the mauve tones in cooler temps; then gets more brown later on.
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And then there's

SPICED COFFEE aka VIDAL SASSOON - Just look at the wide range of colors it goes thru!! Yummy!
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Beautiful, Beth! That's incredible...you'd never know they were the same rose with all those stages.
I especially like Irish Creme's last two stages, and Spiced Coffee's middle stage!
Thanks for the awesome photos! :0) Phyl

Wow Beth ~ Those shots are all just gorgeous! I wonder how mustardy looking Honey Dijon would get where I live. It never really gets too hot.
Adrienne

I tried growing both Julia's Rose and Irish Creme and had no luck with either. They were both just too wimpy growing and just dried up and died. I love the color and am going to try some others of this color range and see if I have better luck the next time with them. I do grow and enjoy the Honey Dijon rose and have found it very healthy and vigorous growing and always in bloom. I would certainly recommend it to anyone.
John

Thanks for the post, John. I think I'll still give Cafe from RU a try. I just wish I could find a grafted one from a nursery I like. I haven't heard very many good things about the one nursery that seems to offer a lot of the ones I would like (Hortico)....so I'm hesitant about sending them any of my hard-earned money. Is their less-than-great reputation still warranted? :0) Phyl

Well, I dunno what's going on for sure at Hortico, but one of the girls who I used to correspond with there recently quit to move on to another job. She emailed me thru another forum member to let me know she was leaving. I guess from what she was saying, Hortico seems to have over-extended themselves in an attempt to make things better there. I hope it works, because I'd hate to lose them, as they are the only source for many of the hard-to-get roses.
I haven't had too many problems with their plants. The size and quality has been quite good the last few yrs. And the Multiflora rootstock does pretty well here in my climate. I did lose quite a few of this season's crop, but I think it was because they shipped so late in the season. I will just not take shipments in the late spring to early summer anymore, and that should keep me from losing plants. Other than that, and the fact that they used to list roses that they don't really have available, I haven't had any problems dealing with them.
I see that now they only list a handful of the thousands of roses they carry as being available this season. The rest now have a "TBA" status. Meaning to be announced when they are available. Unfortunately, the issue they do have is a lot of crop failure. They graft a lot of roses for the coming season, but often by the time they harvest and store them, many perish. I'm not sure why, but that's what I was told as an explanation for them showing a rose as being available by a certain date, and then suddently it's not available when the time to ship comes, because much of the crop has died. Hopefully they will fix that with their plans to improve things. We'll have to wait and see I guess.

Beth,
Thanks for the explanation. :0) Phyl

I have grown Julia’s rose. When I moved I did not bring her. I am very annoyed with myself and have just ordered a standard Julia, my last Julia was a bush rose. She was a little pathetic bush but the blooms made up for all the faults. As faults I mean a small scraggy bush, no disease. They area I have moved appears to be rose heaven . I am looking forward to have Julia joint my rose family. The colour is something special

Ok,, please tell me where rose heaven is. I think that it is southern Oregon, at least to me. Where have you found it to be?

I have Julia’s Rose grafted from Burling, and it is a strong grower grafted like Paul said. It is in a pot. I didn’t baby it, and it grows well in my garden. Helen

I have Julia's Rose - it is in a prime spot where I keep an eye on it, etc. but it is still, going into its 2nd year, a little bitty thing. Burling told me recently that it would be much better grafted and tho I will coddle this one along, think I will opt for a grafted one. I tried to get Cafe from RU this spring but they are out. I can highly recommend Spiced Coffee! Beautiful coloration and its a strong plant. I have Distant Thunder and have its relative, Coffee Country, coming in April. Distant Drums is a similar coloration but more in the mauve tones.

Judith

Lavender Pinocchio runs the gamut of smoky colors from lavender to tan. I adore it.

Also Smoke Signals, Grey Pearl and Silver Cloud.

Kristine, I think you are right that southern Oregon is rose heaven. The San Jose, California, area is pretty good, too. You are so lucky. Diane

Jasmin, that is so pretty colour. Its very different that is for sure. Unique !!

Rose heaven is Seymour Australia, hot hot summers and cold winter no snow. I am waiting for 2 standard Julia’s rose and one bush . I cannot wait I plant on over 100 degrees days. Always with fish emulsion and also spray the leaves with seasol the fish emulsion. None have died and the roses I transported from my last home have grown and bloomed as never before,especially Just Joey and double delight

Julia s rose did not do well in Sydney where i am, it needed more than twice the care I was giving the other roses and still never thrived , produced minimal bloom of poor quality and scrappy foliage as well , . Would not recommend this rose.... the colour is beautiful and so hard to find similar unfortunately.... the honey dijon looks more yellow than tan in pictures?