A good rose is a good rose everywhere. This applies to ‘Just Joey’. She charms with a subtle play of cream from the petals’ edges to a darker shade of buff down to the copper in the deep centre of each bloom.

Egg shaped buds unfold slowly into large copper-apricot, double blooms with frilly edges; bushes grow strong & healthy. A favourite.

Plant Height: Shoulder Height
Colours: Apricot , Cream , Copper
Uses: Bedding, Cut-flowers

An exert from an interesting article from The Heritage Rose Journal of the World Federation of Rose Societies:

Two famous rose breeding families call it a day

The origin of Just Joey

Post-war recovery
During the second World War rose production ceased in Britain and the fields were turned over to food production. It took time for breeding to start again. Alexander Dickson III (1893-1975) – known as ‘Sandy’ – began slowly rebuilding his rose breeding department. In 1954 he produced ‘Margaret’ and ‘Sir Winston Churchill’. Four years later his fiery orange red Floribunda, ‘Dickson’s Flame’, won the National Rose Society’s supreme award.

Sandy’s son, Pat Dickson (1926-2012), began breeding in 1957 producing some outstanding roses over his lifetime, including ‘Grandpa Dickson’ (1966) and ‘Red Devil’ (1967). ‘Redgold’ (1967) won an All America Award. ‘Beautiful Britain’ (1983) was voted ‘Rose of the Year’ by professional growers.

Over at Cants it took a little longer for breeding to resume. Roger Pawsey was born in 1941. In 1959, and just 17, he was sent to Northern Ireland to spend eight months at the Dicksons’ nursery. “They were trading rivals but good friends,” says Roger. “My father asked Pat if I could come over there, just to see how other businesses work. That’s where I saw Pat doing the breeding. When I got back, I persuaded my aunt, Miss Cant, who was my late mother’s sister, to let me use some of the old greenhouses to start breeding.”

He attributes his subsequent success not to any scientific method but simply having an eye for a good rose. He produced only 5-6,000 seedlings a year. But that was enough. It can take eight years to take a rose from a seedling to commercial viability. Roger’s most successful rose is probably Hall of Fame rose ‘Just Joey’ (1972) – the naming of which has gone down in history.

“I went into my Dad’s office and said I wanted to name a rose after my wife, who is called Joanna, but likes to be called ‘Joey’. And he turned around to me and said: ‘What? Just Joey?’ And that’s how it stuck. It wasn’t a perfect bloom, but its colour was unique. And people loved it.”