The tree is vigorous, upright, compact, and highly productive. It is reliably prolific and performs especially well on the West Coast. This is an excellent choice for a cold-hardy, easy-to-grow plum. It is self-fertile, but it should be grown with another midseason Japanese plum for optimal fruit quality. Suitable partners include Burbank, Shiro, Satsuma, and Elephant Heart. It is an excellent pollenizer, considered by many growers to be a "universal pollenizer" for Japanese and hybrid plums. Santa Rosa is quite susceptible to bacterial spot but somewhat resistant to black knot.

Santa Rosa produces a medium-sized, round plum with a purplish-red skin that is speckled with tiny pale dots. Yellow around the pit, the juicy flesh is a luscious, deep red near the skin. The flavor is rich, aromatic, and delicious. It ripens in early August, about a month before Stanley.

Long considered the industry standard for plum flavor, Santa Rosa was bred by Luther Burbank of Santa Rosa, California and introduced in 1906. From UC Davis: "‘Santa Rosa’ was described as “‘a complex hybrid containing a mixture of Prunus triflora [salicina], P. Simonii, and P. americana, with the salicina characters predominating.’ The exact cultivars will never be known, but the red flesh would indicate that the ‘Satsuma’ played a part” (Howard, 1945). However, Boonprakob and Byrne (2003) found that ‘Santa Rosa’ did not have P. americana in its parentage, but did have P. cerasifera." This heritage makes Santa Rosa comparable to Russian hybrids such as Lavina and Obilinaya. Santa Rosa was Luther Burbank's most successful and celebrated introduction. It remains one of the most commonly cultivated plums in America, southern Europe, North Africa, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.