What Types Of Roses Are There?

Floribunda Roses #

Features: A version of the modern bush rose, and one of the most popular types of roses. Floribunda roses have flowers in large clusters, usually with cup shaped blooms. These are popular due to their large clusters of blooms and long flowering season.

Planting: Ideally suited to beds and borders, these can also look wonderful in large containers.

Pruning & Deadheading: Floribundas will repeat flower throughout the season, so deadheading will encourage more flowers to be produced. When pruning, this variety is easy to take care of. Simply prune down in the spring to half their height, remove all dead wood, and that’s the job finished!

Hybrid Tea Roses #

Features: Also a version of the modern bush rose, and just as popular! They tend to have larger and more scented flowers than a floribunda, held in singles or small clusters. Their shapely blooms and long stems mean they are a favourite for cut displays.

Planting: As with the floribunda, hybrid tea roses are also wonderful in beds, borders and containers.

Pruning & Deadheading: Hybrid teas are very similar to floribundas, as they both originated from the bush rose. As hybrid teas will repeat flower, they benefit from regular deadheading throughout the season. Once the frosts have finished in early spring, prune down to half their height and remove any dead wood.

Grandiflora Roses #

Features: A cross between a hybrid tea and a floribunda. These types of roses combine large and shapely blooms held on strong stems with abundant clusters of flowers, creating a large and bushy, eye-catching rose. The flowers are also ideal for using in cut displays.

Queen Elizabeth Rose was the first grandiflora to be developed, in 1954 celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Planting: Tall and bushy, grandiflora roses make an eye-catching statement at the back of borders or alongside fences, walls and hedging.

Pruning & Deadheading: As a repeat flowerer, regular deadheading throughout the flowering season will encourage the production of more blooms. Growing large and bushy, give these roses a good prune in early spring once the frosts have finished, to reduce to your desired height and tidy up any stray stems.

Patio Roses #

Features: The epitome of “good things come in small packages”! Patio roses are generally robust, and in our experience are the first types of roses to bud in spring and flower well into the autumn. They produce dense clusters of small blooms that repeat flower, although typically are light on fragrance. Patio roses are small and compact, and therefore the perfect option for smaller gardens while still giving a splash of colour.

Planting: Patio roses grow well in containers, or as an edging to a border.

Pruning & Deadheading: Patio roses generally have a long flowering season and will repeat flower all the way through it, so deadheading can encourage more blooms to be produced. These varieties generally benefit from a hard pruning every year, ideally in early spring after the frosts have finished.

Climbing Roses #

Features: Climbing roses come in a range of colours, fragrances and heights, and are perfect for giving your garden a vertical accent. This variation of rose grows upwards, covering walls and fences, and covering arches, arbours and pergolas. Although slower growing than a rambler, most varieties of climbers repeat flower through the season.

Planting: Make sure your climbing rose has room and support for upward growth. Climbing roses can make wonderful features in large containers, growing up obelisks and trellises. They can also be planted at the base of arches and pergolas, to be grown up and over for cover, or even at the back of beds and borders.

Training: Train climbers horizontally for maximum flowering, and after three or four years start to remove the old stems (one per year) towards the bottom of the rose. This will promote newer growth lower down, so you get flowers all along the plant and not just at the top.

Pruning & Deadheading: Most climbers will repeat flower throughout the season, so deadheading can encourage more blooms to be produced. Climbers flower on this year’s new growth, so they should be pruned in the spring down to the height you require, plus remove any dead wood. This will promote new growth for this year’s flowers.

Patio/Miniature Climbing Roses #

Features: A patio or miniature climber is a smaller version of the climbing rose, best suited for trellises and obelisks than arches and arbours.

Rambling Roses #

Features: Rambling roses are more vigorous growers than climbing roses. They produce large clusters of usually small and fragrant flowers, in one big flowering flush in early summer. Many varieties also produce stunning hips in the autumn, which are attractive to wildlife as well as pretty to look at.

Planting: Ideal for covering large walls or pergolas, these can also be grown into trees and hedges to give an attractive effect. As vigorous growers they need strong support, and do best in sunny areas.

Training: When growing up large arches or pergolas, twist the growth around the upright pillars to provide support and have maximum flower coverage.

Pruning & Deadheading: Ramblers generally flower in flushes (the number of flushes depends on the variety), so wait for the flush to finish before deadheading. When it comes to pruning, it is important to remember that ramblers flower on the previous years growth, so if the rose is pruned in spring you will remove all the new stems and end up with no flowers. The correct time to prune ramblers is just after the last flush has finished flowering, as they will then start to produce new wood for the next years blooms.

Scented Roses #

Features: Typically the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of roses is the smell, but not all roses have the same fragrance or strength. Scented roses come in all shapes, sizes and colours, with the added condition that they smell incredible! A feast for all the senses, these beautiful roses will enhance any garden.

Bee Friendly Roses #

Features: Bees collect nectar from the centre of the flower and spread pollen from flower to flower. However, many modern roses have been bred with a tight ball of petals for aesthetic reasons.

Bee friendly roses offer open blooms that allow bees access to the centre of the flower. Instead of dense layers of ruffled petals these roses have a ring of petals that expose the reproductive elements of the flower.

Roses can also have colours or fragrances that are particularly attractive to a bees senses. A bees vision is heavily attuned to ultra-violet, blue and green light, meaning roses that have tones of purple and blue stand out well for them. Strong fragrances with floral and citrusy tones will also attract a bee.

Award Winning Roses #

Features: There are many awards that roses can enter, most notably in the UK is the Rose of the Year Award and the Gold Standard Award. Roses will be measured in a number of trials over several years and be ranked according to multiple features, including health, growth, and flowers.

Award winning roses come in all different shapes, sizes, and colours, meaning that you are sure to find an outstanding rose that is perfect for any outdoor space!