‘MY FAVORITE ROSES’ SERIES | ROSE ‘JUDE THE OBSCURE’ | DAVID AUSTIN 1995 

MY BELOVED ROSE ‘JUDE THE OBSCURE’

INTRODUCTION | THE RIGHT ROSES

At The Right Roses, we support two important causes:

1. ‘The Best Rose Experience’.
2. ‘Together We Protect This Planet’.

The team at The Right Roses firmly believes that, with the support from all members, collectively we can make a big difference. Moreover, sharing your own experience and stories will be such an important way to enrich the resources for rose-lovers all over the world, including YOU.

This time, we would like to share with you a story of a visitor from Oregon, USA about his beloved rose ‘Jude The Obscure’. According to him, rose ‘Jude The Obscure’ is such a wonderful rose. Therefore, he does not totally agree with our review!

This is exactly what The Right Roses is about. There is no ‘right roses’ for every garden. It is very specific to each garden, e.g., the soil, climate, aspect, etc. By sharing your own rose experiences, you can enhance the rose experience of millions of gardeners worldwide. And, The Right Roses highly appreciate any contributions visitors can provide.

We hope that this story can be a source of inspiration to many gardeners. We highly appreciate Mr N’s contribution.

We look forward to many other stories around the world. Please send your rose experience to RightRosesCom@gmail.com.

 ‘MY FAVORITE ROSES’ SERIES | ROSE ‘JUDE THE OBSCURE’

Name of the Rose: Jude The Obscure

Breeder: David Austin 1995

Country: Oregon USA

Zone: 8

Number of hours of direct sunlight in the summer: 3 or 4 hours a day

Spray or not: Totally organic

How long have you planted this rose in your garden?: 10+ years

Hi. Would like to disagree strongly with some of your description of Jude the Obscure. First of all, it is very shade tolerant. When it was first introduced at Heirloom Roses here in Oregon, they had a whole bed of it in the shade for years. It did fine. Mine is in the shade most of the day and is vigorous.

Secondly I have not found it to be either a slow grower OR susceptible to disease. I have had mine for years and it booms up every summer, and almost never has any black spot.

My biggest problem is how to control the color. I love the yummy creamy yellow. Not fond of the flesh pink that it sometimes has, although in the right setting this could come across as subtle and rich, I suppose. The difference seems to be temperature, but never been sure.

It is six feet tall and covered in blooms. I just cut some the other day and they are doing fine.  So I might also want to disagree with the idea that it is not a good cut flower.

I would note that the photo I sent is from this summer — in previous years that Jude had to deal with a third tree, even closer to it, that died and was removed.  (Not to mention the shed about 6 feet away on the south side.)  But even with three trees the Jude was happy.  It can be a short climber, and it was vigorous enough when there were three trees to clamber around on the closest tree.

Two of the three trees shading it were Carpinus Japonica which have high vase-shaped canopies, not dense low shade.  The third one, visible in the picture is an immense maple that shades it from about mid-afternoon on.

My Jude is own-root (as are all my roses).  Don’t know if that might make a difference.

Photo credit: Mr N