Julia Child is a parent in two new Knock Outs and two new(ish) True Bloom roses.
Easy Bee-zy Knock OutOrange Glow Knock Out
True Friendship
True Perfume
Early on, when looking for healthy seed parents I wound up acquiring an Easy Bee-zy Knock Out. I’m impressed with its vigor and health, and most importantly the fact that it doesn’t stop blooming after going to seed. Coincidentally, around that same time I was gifted a True Perfume rose which, while much more prone to blackspot, shares that same characteristic of blooming after setting hips. This year these roses have both continued this trait even as the heat has picked up and my more selective roses have begun to abort new pollinations.
I’m somewhat wary of inbreeding, especially knowing how hit or miss Julia Child can be based on climate, but more than anything I’m curious what it is about Julia Child that’s led it to become so heavily used in the breeding programs of the two most prevalent landscaping rose lines throughout the country.
It’s also a pollen parent of Cinco de Mayo, so at any given time a garden center might be selling up to five roses descended from Julia Child. I don’t grow this rose, and am now disincentized from ever doing so, so I am curious what factors might have led it to being utilized so much.
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Well for one, where it is well-suited to the climate, it is a STUNNINGLY lovely plant, usually with at least a few flowers, if not covered in them! Check out this “post of inquiry”, wherein I know exactly the plant she’s asking about, as we live in the same city. It does spectacularly here on Vancouver Island, and the adjacent Mainland.
That kind of health, vigour and floriferousness…AND it’s fertile!? It’s not perfect, but it’s very very good.
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As VanisleDWSmith wrote, where suited, it’s impossible to beat. This plant was planted too close to a HOT southern wall in the California mid desert. It received enough water and regular feeding with pelletized fertilizer but no sprays or systemics of any kind and the blamed thing did this all the time.
The only other rose which performed as well reliably was Iceberg. It IS stunning and totally reliable where suited. Of course it was going to be mined for all it was worth.
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Great point and question. I have been hesitant to use it because Julia Child struggles in my region (Twin Cities- black spot and tender during winter). From my understanding one big key reason besides what was mentioned already is that it imparts resistance to rose rust. It is also a parent of Orange Glow Knock Out.
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Julia Child is among the worst roses I’ve grown when it comes to blackspot here in Maryland; while it might have something to contribute in breeding, I would have to be arm-twisted into trying some of its offspring to offer an opinion on them. For the most part, Julia Child has been used in Weeks Roses breeding work, and they do not seem to experience or meaningfully test for blackspot resistance. I see that Easy Bee-zy Knock Out does not have fade-resistant flowers, which is a serious downside and something that should be considered in further breeding. I don’t know if inbreeding is as serious of a concern in tetraploid roses as it might be in diploids.
Stefan
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Interesting question. I, personally, am more inclined to wonder, when I learn of a highly reviewed rose and don’t see a number of descendents, why that might be. It sometimes seems to me that a rose’s reputation results in greater use than does its actual merits as a parent. I used to look at successful offspring of a rose as a gauge of merit for breeding, but that may be more an indication as to how stubbornly a breeding house pursued a singular cross.
I did not know of Easy Bee-zy’s pegigree(zy), but I had purchased JC several years ago with the intention of crossing with a whole host of parents including Carefree Sunshine. Alas, JC was hugely disappointing in my low-rainfall, high humidity and heat TX garden, grew backwards and died.
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In its third year in my z11 Mediterranean climate JC is flawless. Never even a hint of powdery mildew, unbothered by heat and wind, ignored by aphids, just perfect. Only once, diring an extremely long heatwave, its petal count went down to almost single for a short while:
I usually deadhead my JC but it set a hip by accident in my garden in 2024. I tried those OP seeds but none germinated for me, so I didn’t pursue it as a seed parent this year.
I did use its pollen on a few roses this year just to see what will happen in terms of passing on that health and the yellow color.
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