I'm curious too as I have a one gallon own-root Julia Child arriving in May...

The first couple of years mine got maybe 4x4 ft. After the two polar ones it was smaller because I had to prune it to the ground in the spring. So like 3x3 feet. If it's really happy or in a place with a long growing season I suspect it could get to as big as 5x5 feet.

I'm much colder than you are Sara and Julia is not cane hardy. We had 2 winters here that were warm enough for her to have cane left and she grew to 4ft. In a normal winter 3x3.

Thanks! I would be ecstatic if my JC grew to be 4x4, but 3x3 would make me happy too! I really did think mine would be larger by now, than it is.

3X3 or 4x4 is ok with me too... :) I'm taking it your established JC is smaller than these stated sizes Sara Ann?

I have 6 of the same type rose bushes bought & planted at the same time 2 out of 6 are runts... 4 are near 4ftx3ft the runts are 18" x 18"

Jim, I would say mine is no larger than 30 inches tall, maybe 2 ft wide. Most of my duplicate roses are pretty consistent on size, however there are exceptions. Maybe a different location will help. I'm even thinking I might put it in a large pot, I have pretty good success with growing them that way.

3 1/2 by 3 in my chicagoland garden 5b

Mine is definitely on the small side from what I'm reading here. Thanks everyone.

Shoulder high here. Took several years to reach that size, though. It actually looks better shorter--the blooms are closer together that way, making the display much more impressive, so I prune it kind of hard every winter to get that effect.

Hoovb, yours does get fairly large, which would be understandable in your zone. Mine is looking like it might be getting a little more height on it, hopefully it will get a little wider too.

My friend has a Julia child which goes 5 ft x 5ft

Mine is about 5x3 & about 3 years old. I don't get much heat in the summer, about 66 today but nor do we have extreme winters.

Smithdale...where did u buy urs? Asking bcoz I am in pnw too..

I believe it was Northland Rosarium.

At the Portland International Rose Test Garden it's approximately 5x5 and a gorgeous shape.

I have an own root from Nor' East Miniature Roses that is about 3 x 3 feet. Definitely on the smaller side. A nice healthy plant.

Love those pics Nanadoll...

Such a beautiful sight, I could look at them every day, love them, Diane!

I do not expect our own root JC to get very big but that's ok as it blooms its head off...Two blocks away a woman has a JC but I do not know if its own root or grafted...It's approx. 3.5-4ft X 3ft...

Mine gets pretty big. It was smaller after the two polar years but it's gotten right back up there now. I'd say it's at least 4 x 4 if not a little bigger already this season. If I don't prune it back some who knows how big it will get?

@seil - how big does your bull's eye get?

My julia is still too new to comment on. But I do love the rose so far.

Thanks so much Sara Ann and Jim..... Jim, I have a third Julia the same age as yours and an own root. Comparing the two of them, I think your Julia and mine are pretty much the same size with the same number of blooms. Yours is doing great, and I think you should grow a few more.....Sara how is your Julia doing this year? Has she grown some--I'll bet she has. Don't be afraid to prune her if you need to. I prune mine a lot every year, and remove a lot of thick old canes, including a few that have canker, which is inevitable around here...... Yours is a beautiful Julia, seil, and I love the Bullseye growing up into her. We had something similar to the polar vortex in November of 2014 that occurred while the roses weren't yet dormant. That did a lot of damage to about half of my roses, including the Julias. So in 2015, the Julias were smaller. I removed several garbage cans of cane from them that spring, and it took me two days to prune those two roses. They have dozens of canes. I did use my gauntlets! Diane

Nanadoll .. this is what exactly my friend gets in her front yard. And it becomes the talk of the town every year..:).. but I don't expect mine to be this big as it's an ownroot.urs is amazing..

My Julia Child spent last year in a big pot and only grew to less than 2x2. Canes survived fully overwinter in my garage. This year she is in the ground and only gets marginally full sun(4 hours before noon, then noon until around 3 PM). She's still only about 2x2, but has leafed out nicely. Based on how my other roses have performed I would be surprised if she gets much more than 3 feet, which would fit her current location (front of the bed on the walkway near my front door) very nicely.

Thank you, Diane! My Julias have both gotten a little bigger and did okay during the spring flush. With all the rain during that time they both lost their foliage because of blackspot, but are recovering. Several of my roses had that problem, things are much better now.

My Julia was up to 3-1/2x3-1/2 but got knocked down by last winter (which was odd because so many other roses came through with little or no damage) and currently is blooming at about 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 ft. She doesn't look interested in getting taller at the moment but she does look healthy so I'm not going to hold her lack of true Julia Child stature against her. ;-)

Nanadoll, if only. Sigh.

As you can see Bull's Eye is nearly as tall and wide as Julia. It isn't as well shaped though. Julia has a nice full bushy shape while Bull's Eye is very long limbed and lanky.

Seil, they look good together.

They sure do look good together. I wish I could figure out good combinations for doing this kind of intertwined growth. I've tried with Young Lycidas, and he mostly leans on other roses. He probably isn't planted close enough to the others. Seil, do you "help" Bullseye grow up through Julia? I don't think I've done enough of that. Diane

My two Julias never really gain meaningful size. One is about 2 x 2 or 3x3 after five years, and other (own root) remains barely bigger than a band after two years. Here, it gets blackspot pretty badly towards the end of the season, which weakens cane survive during the winter. I like Julia enough to keep around, but I, boy, wouldn't I love to see it grow anywhere close to Diane's.

Here's my newest Julia, one year old and an own root. She's coming along like the others did years ago. I think own root JCs have the potential to grow and bloom just as well as the grafted ones. I agree that black spot is detrimental to cane survival from what I've read here, and also think it slows growth down as the rose is having to replace its leaves on a yearly basis. Diane

One year old, own root Julia

Diane, your pictures of Julia Child just made me order her. Just gorgeous!

My Julias are tiny little shrimps compared to Dianes.

I have 4 and they are all about 3x3 but fully loaded with blooms.

kristine_legault's ideas · More Info

Kristine I love the contrast between those luscious roses and the little purple flowers!

What fun to see this thread pop up again. Kristine, your Julia in the photo above looks wonderful. My own root Julia, which was one year old (a bit above in the photos) is a lot bigger, but nowhere near as large as the two grafted Julias in front (I've grown them since 2006 or so--the year they were first sold). What I've noticed with the own root is that it does not bloom nearly as much as the grafted roses, and the blooms are somewhat smaller. The growth habit is beautiful and own root Julia requires little pruning. But my gardening friend, and superb grower of roses, will probably take own root Julia for her garden. I need the space for my only plant of Rouge Royale, currently growing out in the middle of nowhere, and I want to see RR in a flower bed. It's always in bloom. So, it may be byebye to own root Julia. As for the two old grafted Julias, they are bigger than even and totally healthy. They are at least 7 feet tall and very wide--in spite of lots of pruning in spring, which takes forever because of the number of canes. These Julias have more canes than any other rose in my garden. Here are some pics from 2021. Diane

Julia fits in beautifully with the drapey Young Lycidas and other roses.

Kristine they may be smaller but they look so good next to the fence and the blue of the tree!

Sadly, we had to remove that tree this fall. It had a beetle infestation.

We are still deciding what to put in that nice vacant space.