Just Joey Rose - An English Orange

I always wondered about the name behind the Just Joey rose. It's a popular orange hybrid tea with a strong reputation in several areas. It has an interesting history of hybridization as well.

Into the history books…

The town of Colchester in England is one of the oldest on record and has a climate that is superbly suited for the hybridization of high quality roses.  It is here in the year of 1765 the Cants of Colchester was established who have been engaged in hybridization of roses since the past 245 years. Being a family business to this day, the Cants of Colchester were equipped with a long history of rose hybridization. During the 1970s, the company trialed with compositions of hybrid perpetuals and old fashioned tea roses to create a cross between them in an apricot flavor. Driven by this inspiration and experience, Roger Pawsey of Cants of Colchester created the Just Joey in 1972 using the above mentioned method of hybridization. Just Joey was a massive success and is considered one of the master creations hybridized by the company owing to its unprecedented characteristics and qualities. Just Joey is revered as one of the top five roses in the hybrid tea rose category when considering the beauty, fragrance, color, compressed form and resistance to disease.

The beauty…

The orange color pointed buds of the Just Joey are trademarks of hybrid tea roses and open up into the large blossoms. The plant is covered in these large apricot colored blossoms measuring an average of 4 to 6 inches in diameter.  The edge of the Just Joey’s petals is not perfectly smooth, but is slightly crimped. The petals of new blossoms bear a rich apricot color which lightens out to a peachy pink or light peach towards the outer edges during maturity. With a beautiful fruity-like fragrance, the blossoms often occur in clusters but single flowers are also seen at times. The glossy dark green leaves of the Just Joey roseare very disease resistant.

Gardening

Just Joey roses exhibit their best colors in regions with hot summers and a plant in full bloom is a delightful sight. Gardeners with small gardens love this as it grows in a sort of rounded bush-like shape that reaches a height around 3 – 4 feet but may even stay around 02 feet and widen out its branches. Exceptionally suited for borders and flower beds, its long stems make it an excellent candidate for cutting and flower arrangements. This medium sized rose plant is and its unprecedented characteristics paved the way for it to be introduced into the World Rose Hall of Fame in 1994.