Roses fill the garden with beauty, fragrance, and colour from Spring through to winter, providing an abundance of blooms ready to pick for indoors or to enjoy in the garden, across an archway or caressing a front fence or patio.
Their colours are enticing, and the perfume divine. Roses come in many shapes with unique features and traits; some climb or spread across the ground, whilst others stand tall and upright or billow and have long canes that sprawl through the garden. Old fashioned garden roses, miniature roses, standard tree-like roses and hedge roses. Most roses have thorns or giant prickles that make caring for them a challenge at times.
Roses are woody perennials of the genus Rosa in the family Rosaceae and they come in three main types. There are over three hundred species of roses and tens of thousands of cultivars. With such a variety of roses available, it makes sense to understand the types and characteristics of roses to choose the right ones for our gardens and pots?
THE ROSE CATEGORIES
Old Garden Roses
Old Garden Roses are perfumed, double-flowered, hardy, and disease-resistant. They usually flower once a year and are sometimes referred to as Heritage, Antique or Heirloom roses. They date back before 1867. Old Garden roses are in several sub-classes –
- Albas are graceful, shade tolerant and hardy. The roses are pale in colour and are some of the oldest European roses.
- Bourbon roses were the favourites of French 1800s; romantic style that repeat bloom with strong scent.
- Centifolias are often the roses seen in old paintings, often called cabbage roses. They have a heady perfume and large blooms.
- China roses are the ancestors of modern roses and have a delicate habit and continuous blooms.
- Gallica roses are compact, easy care heritage roses that bloom once a year with deep colouring and rich scent.
- Noisettes are tall or climbers with small clusters of blooms suitable for warm climates
- Portlands
- Hybrid Perpetuals
- Damasks
- Teas
Wild Roses
Wild roses are often called Species roses and are considered the wildflowers of the rose family. They are not cross bred or hybridised like our modern roses. Usually, wild roses have a single bloom of five petals, and can be recognised mainly by colour, as they are predominantly pink.
Modern Garden Roses
Modern roses are roses that were bred after 1867, as it was after this date that the French rose breeder Jean-Baptiste André Guillot introduced the first Hybrid Tea rose, La France. Since then, rose breeders have developed a broad colour palette of roses that repeat bloom throughout the season and come in a diverse range of shapes, styles, and growing habits. The disadvantages are that roses lost some important features in the breeding process, namely fragrance, and were less hardy and disease-resistant. There are several types of Modern roses readily available today.
- Shrub Roses
- Hybrid Teas
- Floribundas
- Climbers
- Miniatures
- Grandiflora
SHRUB roses are the type of rose you need when you are after a mass of colour. Sometimes called landscape roses. Shrub roses have a rounded shape, are hardy, disease resistant, and cold tolerant. The perfect vigorous rose for clusters of blooms suitable for mass planting, hedges and in some styles for climbing over structures.
Shrub roses are a cross of Old roses with a Modern rose. If you want a graceful, repeat blooming rose that spreads easily and gives a mass of colour Shrub roses are the best choice. They will grow between 1. 5 to 5 metres in height.
Shrub or landscape roses include ground cover roses, Knockout roses and the Drift roses.
| Adorable | Cassanova | Auguste Luise |
| Soul sister | Molineux | Grace |
| The Lady of Shallot | Addictive Lure | Herkules |
| Summer Song | Elysium Fields | Caramella |
| Gov Marie Bashir | Elodie Gossuin | Emily Bronte |
| Heid’s Wedding | Forget me Knot | Bruce’s Dream |
| Strawberry Hill | Mango Tango | Silver Ghost |
| The Endeavour | The Poet’s Wife | Wollerton Old Hall |
| Graham Thomas | Tranquility | Windermere |
| Versigny | Miss Unique | The Opportunity Rose |
| Jubilee Celebration | Thank You | Jude the Obscure |
| Sharifa Asma | Rosendorf Sparrieshoop | Belle de Signeur |
| Desdomena | La Jago | Olivia Rose Austin |
| The Golden Child | Emilion Guillot | Seduction |
| Summer Memories | Guardian Angel | Sally Holmes |
HYBRID TEAS are the most popular roses because of the wide variety of colours, their elegance and stature of upright growth and high-centred bloom form. Usually Hybrid Teas have one flower per stem – a classic rose suitable for cutting. There are hundreds of varieties and colours including the stripped and two-tone coloured roses, Hybrid Teas are hardy and disease resistant and often collected by avid rose growers due to their diversity and colourful appeal. The examples below are some I’ve grown in recent seasons.
Hybrid Tea roses have been named to honour famous people, places, charities, sentiments and loved ones such as
| The Sisters Rose | Ashram | Parole |
| Violina | Day Breaker | Blackberry Nip |
| Fragrant Plum | Diana Princess of Wales | The Wedding Rose |
| Heaven Scent | Father of Peace | Aotearoa |
| Winter Sun | Dark Desire | Neptune |
| Duet | Vintage | Charles de Gaulle |
| Princess Charlene de Monaco | Elina | Duet |
| Auguste Luise | Beautiful Girl | Ophelia |
| Peace | Dame E Murdoch | Pope John Paul |
| Fiona’s Wish | Peter Frankenfeld | Queen Elizabeth 11 |
| Valencia | The Children’s Rose | Spiced Coffee |
| France Libre | Perfume Passion | Moonstone |
| Pink Intuition | Claude Monet | Madame Anisette |
| Gold Medal | Princes de Monaco | Just Joey |
| Magma | Mary McKillop | Double Delight |
| Sister Emmanuelle | Unconventional Lady | Vol de Nuit |
| Poetry | Summer of Love | Sprit of Peace |
| Coeur de Neige | Charles de Gaulle | Champagner |
| Grandma’s Rose | Kardinal | Shirley’s Rose |
FLORIBUNDA roses are prolific bloomers as Floribunda in Latin means ‘many flowering’. Floribundas have an abundance of rose blooms in clusters making them terrific for borders, pots, hedges and mass planting. They are similar in shape to Hybrid Teas but the growth is shorter 40-100cm. Floribundas are hardier and easier to care for than hybrid teas too. Examples include;
| Soul Sister | Star Bust | Coral Lion |
| Adorable | Double Pink Knockout | Dusky Moon |
| Heaven On Earth | Bengali | Fairy Tale Magic |
| Margaret Merril | Honey Perfume | Iceberg |
| Paolo | Love Song | Leonardo da Vinci™ |
| Twilight Zone | Tallulah | Thank You |
| Love Affair | Gold Bunny | Golden Beauty |
| Scentimental | Princess Claire of Belgium | Soul Mate |
| Amber Sun | Merry Maker | Fire Opal |
| Ice Princess | Fur Elise | Love Affair |
| Peach Profusion | Apricot Nectar | Aspirin |
| Perfume Perfection | Summer Sun | Tangles |
| As Good As It Gets | Dolce Vita | Gruss An Aachan |
| Coconut Ice | Daybreaker | Fabulous |
| French Lace | Ebb Tide | Pomponella |
| Novalis | Tuscan Sun | Frida Kahlo |
| Love Potion | Sweet Intoxication | Henri Matisse |
CLIMBING roses are not a class of rose as such, because climbing roses may be floribundas, hybrid teas or grandiflora roses or a sport of one of these. Climbing roses develop long canes up to 4-6 metres in length suitable for attaching to an archway, fence or obelisk, house or a wall. But, they do not “climb” like vines. They require some input from the gardener to achieve the effect of country charm where roses adorn walls, fences, pergolas, arbours, archways or to soften architectural features.
Climbing roses have different habits that vary and are categorised into 3 groups climbers, ramblers and pillar roses. All climbing roses will produce more flowers when grown and attached horizontally to the structure so that lateral growth will occur and more buds, hence larger blooms are possible.
Ramblers have rampant vigorous growth, and will cover a structure quite quickly. These climbing roses have many uses including the ability to cover unsightly objects, sheds, stumps and larger structures. The roses on ramblers are small to medium in large clusters and the plant will also grow long flexible canes from the base, growing to 4-6 metres. Ramblers create a stunning floral display but usually only once a year in Spring followed by beautiful rose hips in Autumn.
Climbers are roses suited for planting up a wall or over an arch or fence. Many of our modern climbing roses have come from a sport of popular Hybrid Tea or Floribunda roses. They will repeat flower prolifically all season especially if the canes are tied down horizontally. Climbers grow between 2 and 4 metres high.
Pillar roses are less vigorous than ramblers and climbers and grow up to 2.5 metres , These climbing roses are more manageable and can be grown on a patio post or smaller structures like obelisks and frames.
| Dublin Bay P | Crepuscule C or P | Papi Delbard C |
| Albertine R | Renae C | Joseph’s Coat C |
| Guy Savoy C | The Lady of Shallot C | The Wedgwood Rose P |
| Westerland R | Pierre Gagnaire C | Blossom Time P |
| Wedding Day C | New Dawn C | Nahema C or P |
| Compassion | Strawberry Hills R | Dublin Bay C |
| Cecil Brunner R | Bantry Bay | Reine Des Violettes C |
| Zéphirine Drouhin C | Mme Alfred Carriere C | Mme Issac Pereire C |
| Grand Amore C | Twilight Glow P | Shropshire Lad P |
| Rosa Banksiae C | Soaring Spirits | Lady Hillingdon |
| Buff Beauty C | Pinkie C | Iceberg C |
| Fourth of July C | Jeannie La Joie C | Gold Bunny C |
| Pierre de Ronsard P | Kiss Me Kate C | Sally Holmes C |
| Penelope C or P | Twilight Glow C | Quicksilver C |
To maximise flowering and coverage with all climbing rose leave the pruning until after the first few years of growth to allow the plants to be well established. Also, the flexible canes will need to be trained and secured to the structure in a horizontal position so that lateral canes will grow and easily cover the desired space and will then create masses of blooms.
MINIATURE roses are the smallest of the roses with delicate tiny rose blooms less than 5cm across. They grow to no more than 35-45 cm high and are best for borders, containers, and pots. Miniature roses are at times single, open faced, flat and also fully double and more classically formed only smaller blooms. They are compact so suitable for pot plants inside and out or rockeries and garden borders. Examples are
| Gra’s Blue | My Little Angel | Cecil Brunner |
| Fairy Dust | Chameleon | The Fairy |
| Sweet Chariot | Little Sunset | Mandarin |
GRANDIFLORA roses are a combination of Hybrid teas and Floribundas with some having clustered blooms and some single. In 1954, a rose was introduced, bred from crossing the Hybrid tea ‘Charlotte Armstrong’ with the Floribunda ‘Floradora’ The result was a rose with the characteristics of a Hybrid tea but could cluster and were more upright, larger and vigorous. The first Grandiflora Rose was the Queen Elizabeth rose.
Grandiflora roses are elegant and colourful with showy large blooms. They are usually tall and more vigorous than other roses so are suitable for the back of the garden where they will dominate the space. Grandiflora roses bring a long season of colour as they repeat bloom, are disease resistant and hardy. Often Grandiflora roses are fragrant and come in vibrant colours- rich gold and orange or crimson and red.
| Madame Ainsette | Twilight Zone | Gold Medal |
| Lagerfeld | Dark Desire | Beautiful Girl |
| Queen Elizabeth | Fragrant Plum | Honey Dijon |
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”
William Shakespeare
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