One of the most beautiful climbing or shrub roses available today is the Joseph’s Coat rose. It’s fantastically fragrant, but its best quality is its ability to bloom in different colors.
Interested in growing your own Joseph’s Coat Rose? Here’s what you need to know.
At A Glance: What You Should Know About The Joseph’s Coat Rose
This stunning cultivar is a floribunda rose, and this type is still fairly new when you consider that old roses, for example, have been around for the best part of four hundred years.
A floribunda rose is a hybrid, the result of crossing a hybrid tea rose and a polyantha, containing the best of both types.
In particular, the Joseph’s Coat rose is a repeat-bloomer, producing slightly smaller clusters of flowers but in a much greater number.
This rose can be a climbing rose, or you can grow it as a shrub rose. Just make sure you read the label or description carefully, so you know which type you’re getting.
Joseph’s Coat can get as large as 10 feet long or high, and each bloom can reach 10cm across, putting on a spectacular show in a multitude of colors.
This rose blooms in various shades of yellows, reds, oranges, and pinks, with at least two different colors at once. The growing conditions and the climate will dictate how bright these flowers get.
Each flower is made up of over 40 petals, and they are perfect for enjoying outside, or as cut flowers indoors.
The foliage, which is a rich green, has a lovely sheen to it, too.
Joseph’s Coat Rose Care
Like most roses, Joseph’s Coat needs full sunlight, at least 6 hours worth as a benchmark. This will allow your rose to produce as many blooms as possible, while also helping to prevent disease such as black spot or powdery mildew, as a position of full sunlight helps to eradicate excess moisture.
To get the best out of your Joseph’s Coat rose, plant it in rich, well-draining soil. At the time you plant it, it’s worth adding some mycorrhizal fungi to the roots, which will help boost the health of the roots.
It will need watering regularly, especially in hot and dry weather.
Feeding Your Joseph’s Coat Rose
As it blooms from spring all the way through to fall, you’ll need to support the plant’s growth with fertilizer regularly while it’s actively growing.
You can over do it, however, so be careful! For best results, use specially formulated rose feed, and give it a good feed once a month, using the manufacturer’s recommended dose.
Overfeeding your rose will lead to fabulous foliage, but no flowers, so make sure you go easy.
Supporting And Pruning Your Roses
If you’re growing a Joseph’s Coat rose as a shrub, there’s not much you’ll need to do in terms of support. Make sure you situate it in a sunny, sheltered position, away from high winds, but somewhere it can spread out easily, while still having enough airflow around the plant.
As a climbing rose, you’ll need to train it up a support in order for it to thrive. This may be a pillar, a wall, a fence, or an obelisk or archway. Just make sure you tie the stems in loosely, giving them room to sway with any winds, so they don’t rub against the ties and get injured.
No matter what type you go for, you’ll also need to do some occasional pruning. Always deadhead spent flowers, which allows more energy for new roses to bloom.
Always wear gloves when pruning roses, as most types feature thorns.
Joseph’s Coat roses produce flowers on fresh wood. This means that you’ll need to chop back old wood in the spring to allow the new growth to form.
Take back any damaged, diseased or crossing wood to the ground. Remove the oldest stems, apart from 3 or 4 which remain vigorous.
Common Joseph’s Coat Rose Problems
Joseph’s coat roses are susceptible to several types of fungal diseases. Black spot cause dark spots on leaves, and can inhibit growth.
Powdery mildew can settle on the whole plant, either spread to the rose from neighboring plants, or forming in wet and humid environments where there isn’t enough airflow.
Watering your roses in the morning largely helps prevent the majority of these problems.
Options For Companion Plants
Clematis is a good choice for climbing roses, as it will clamber up the same support, and you can pick a type which flowers at the same time as the Joseph’s Coat rose, or just before or after, ensuring that your vertical surfaces are never empty of beautiful flowers and color.
You may also decide to go for alliums, or marigolds. Both plants are believed to keep away slugs, snails, and aphids, which will protect your Joseph’s Coat rose from damage.
Final Thoughts
The Joseph’s Coat rose is perfect for adding dramatic interest, either as a shrub rose, or a climber. It’s an unusual cultivar that produces different colored roses on the same plant, introducing plenty of life and color into any garden.
As long as you prune and feed it regularly, it will flower reliably for years to come.
