from the 2018 American Rose Society Handbook for Selecting Roses

Classification of Roses

The American Rose Society recently approved a new classification scheme that reflects both the botanical and evolutionary progress of the rose. There are three main groupings: Species (i.e. wild roses); Old Garden Roses (classes in existence before 1867); and Modern Roses (classes not in existence before 1867).

Classification Characteristics — No other flower has a wider range of size, color, shape and flower form than the rose for attractive and easy adaptation to any garden setting. Roses are among the most versatile of plants. They come in every shape, size and color imaginable with architectural dimensions, both in bloom and plant size, that make it possible to please everyone! They bloom constantly from early spring to late fall, providing a rich tapestry of color in the garden.

Starting out on the rose selection pathway, the architectural shape and dimensions are of prime importance. To navigate this panorama of size and space, the following explanations have been compiled to explain the range of classifications available.

Species Roses — Often referred to as “wild roses,” species roses are usually single-petaled (4-8 petals), once-blooming and have a bush size ranging from two2 to 20 feet. They are listed according to their Latin name, beginning with R. for Rosa and can have common synonyms. For example, R. foetida bicolor is also known as ‘Austrian Copper’.

Old Garden Roses — In 1966, the American Rose Society defined old garden roses as those types that existed prior to 1867, the year of introduction of the very first hybrid tea, ‘La France’. Within this generic definition, a number of popular subdivisions exist based on natural historical developments and characteristics. The flower form can be quartered, cupped, imbricated or expanded, reflexed, globular or compact. After an initial spring crop of blooms, some varieties may produce no more flowers the rest of year, but their hip production does add a different kind of beauty to the garden. The beauty of the old garden roses often lies in the heavy fragrance they can impart to the garden. The most popular classes are:

Alba — Known as “white roses,” these plants are upright, often climbing, have dense blue-green foliage and are disease resistant.

Ayrshire — This group of climbing, sprawling roses originated in Scotland and are once blooming.

Bourbon — Developed from the hybrid chinas, these were the first repeat-flowering roses. They derive their name from the location of the first members of the class, the Ile de Bourbon in the Indian Ocean. Plant size can range from 2 to 15 feet tall. Repeat blooming.

Boursault — This is a small group of thornless rambling-type, once-blooming roses developed by the French gardener who gave his name to the class.

Centifolia —These Dutch hybridized roses derive their class name from the fact that the flowers often contain more than 100 petals. Plants are 4 to 8 feet tall, winter hardy and are once blooming. They are also referred to as “cabbage roses” and are featured in Dutch flower paintings of the 17th century.

China — This group’s most important characteristic is its ability to repeat bloom. The plants are variable in height, with relatively few thorns. They are generally winter-tender, not surviving well below USDA zone 7. The flowers tend to be borne in small clusters. China roses originated in Southeast Asia and are one of the most important historical groups of roses.

Damask — These roses are best known for their intense heavy fragrance. Plants generally range in size from 3 to 6 feet. Some varieties are repeat blooming.

Hybrid China — These plants are generally small, ranging from 2 to 3 feet tall, and are repeat blooming. Stems are often too weak to support the clusters of blooms, which have a spicy fragrance. Plants are not hardy and require winter protection in cold climates.

Hybrid Gallica — These plants are small, 3 to 4 feet tall, and are winter hardy. Blooms are fragrant, come in brilliant colors, and are once blooming.

Hybrid Perpetual — Popular during the 19th century, these roses are characterized by their repeat bloom, plant size (about six feet tall, upright), fragrance and color range (mostly pinks and reds).

Moss — Named for the mossy thorn growth on the peduncle just below the bloom and sepals, this group releases a pine-scented oleoresin when the moss is rubbed between the fingers. Plants are generally winter hardy and 3 to 6 feet tall. Some varieties are repeat blooming.

Noisette — This classification originated in the United States by Philippe Noisette of Charleston, SC, who later introduced them in France when he moved there in 1817. Plants are large and sprawling, often reaching up to 20 feet tall. Blooms are produced in fragrant clusters.

Portland — This small group of roses was derived from crosses involving hybrid gallica, damask, centifolia and hybrid china. They are small in stature, usually 4 feet tall, repeat blooming and have very short peduncles. This class was named in honor of the Duchess of Portland.

Tea — Characterized as variable in height, with some of the best cultivars being Climbing Teas. Teas have large blooms on weak stems, resulting in drooping, or nodding, flowers. This group is one of the immediate ancestors of the modern Hybrid Tea. Tea roses are relatively winter-tender. They grow best when only lightly pruned.

Modern Roses

The era of modern roses was established in 1867 with the introduction of the first hybrid tea, ‘La France’, by the French breeder Guillot. This variety was considered unique for a number of important horticultural reasons. First, it possessed the general habit of a hybrid perpetual as well as the elegant shaped buds and free-flowering character of a tea rose. By the late 20th century, more than 10,000 hybrid teas had been bred with great success. The introduction of ‘La France’ heralded the era of modern roses. Breeders were quick to recognize that planned parenthood could evolve new flower forms, size, growth habit and colors. Therefore, the following new classifications based on growth habit evolved.

Hybrid Tea & Grandiflora — Perhaps the most popular class of modern roses is the hybrid tea, easily recognized by the large shapely blooms containing 30 to 50 petals. Flowers are borne on long stems either singly or with several sidebuds. In 1945, the ‘Peace’ rose heralded the modern era of the elegantly formed hybrid teas. So dramatic was the overwhelming public acceptance and praise accorded this variety that its place in history was instantaneous. Since 1945, many thousands of new hybrid teas have been bred and introduced.

In 1954, the introduction of a rose bred from crossing the hybrid tea ‘Charlotte Armstrong’ with the floribunda ‘Floradora’ resulted in a carmine‑rose and dawn pink variety. It displayed not only the characteristics of a hybrid tea but also the ability to bear clusters or trusses and grow to a commanding height of 6 to 8 feet or more. To accommodate this variety, the class of grandiflora was born. ‘Queen Elizabeth’ had the distinction of being the very first member of this class.

Floribunda & Polyantha — Second only to the hybrid tea and grandiflora in popularity, the floribunda is characterized by its profuse ability to bear flowers in large clusters or trusses with more than one bloom in flower at any one time. This class is unrivaled for providing massive, colorful, long-lasting garden displays. The distinct advantage of the floribunda is its ability to bloom continually whereas the hybrid tea exhibits a bloom cycle every six to seven weeks. Floribundas as a class are hardier, easier to care for and more reliable in wet weather than their hybrid tea counterparts.

Polyanthas are generally smaller but sturdy plants with large clusters of small 1-inch diameter blooms often used for massing, edging and hedges.

Miniature & Miniflora — These classes have increased in popularity due to their novelty and versatility. They can be used for edging beds, growing in containers and rockeries or even for taking indoors as temporary pot plants for decoration. The height of the average plant is about 15 to 30 inches, and flower form and foliage are indeed miniature versions of both hybrid teas and floribundas.

Miniflora roses are a new classification adopted by the ARS in 1999 to recognize another step in the evolution of the rose, intermediate bloom size and foliage falling between miniatures and floribundas.

Shrub (Classic & Modern) — Shrubs are easily characterized by their sprawling habit. There are five popular subdivisions within the class: hybrid kordesii, hybrid moyesii, hybrid musk, hybrid rugosa and shrub. They can grow from 5 to 15 feet or more in every direction given the correct climate and growing conditions. Noted for their hardiness, they are usually vigorous and produce large quantities of clusters of flowers.

The unique group of roses hybridized by David Austin (often called English Roses) belong to this class. They resemble old garden roses in shape and form but are recurrent bloomers and often have fragrance.

Large Flowered Climber, Hybrid Gigantea, Hybrid Wichurana — These varieties are dominated by their growth habit, long arching canes with the ability to climb up fences, over walls, and through trellises, arbors and pergolas if properly trained and tied. These varieties offer a wide range of flower forms, shapes and colors.

Petals, Form & Substance

One of the wonderful aspects of growing roses is the range of wide choices offered — petals, flower form and foliage. Over the last two centuries, a large selection of pleasing shapes has evolved.

For instance, roses can have a petal count stretching from the simplicity of five petals all the way to 50 petals or more. Petals even have their own architecture whether it be plain, reflexed, ruffled or frilled similar to a carnation.

Roses offer a very wide selection of flower colors — single, bi-color, multi-color, blend, striped and hand-painted. Overall shape of the blooms comes in an equally diverse selection — globular, open-cupped, quartered, flat, rosette, pompon and high centered (often called exhibition form).

Foliage surfaces can be glossy, semi-glossy or matte with a range of color from light green to dark green including even bronze-tinted. All these factors add up to a versatile flower with an appearance to please everyone.

In the late 19th century, old garden roses dominated the scene, bringing the grace and elegance of such forms as globular, quartered, flat, rosette and pompon. With the advent of hybrid teas, grandifloras, floribundas and miniature roses in the 20th century, the high-centered, symmetrical floret became a popular addition to flower form — petals arranged symmetrically in a circular outline with a high center or point to the bloom.

Another criterion for selecting roses is referred to as “substance of the petals.” This quality is extremely important in warm climates where temperatures may soar into the 90° Fahrenheit range. Essentially, substance depends on the amount of starch in the petals capable of holding moisture. The more starch, the better the variety can sustain exposure to high temperatures. Otherwise, moisture is lost, and the blooms begin to droop.

Finally, some roses that are only once blooming in the spring have the added value of putting on an autumn display of rose hips. Most shrubs and old garden roses have the edge here. They produce that extra bonus of massive clusters of rose hips of various shapes and sizes — round to elongated and prickly. For instance, ‘Dagmar Hastrup’ has one of the largest, tomato-like, red hips you can find in roses.

Rest assured that despite my leading title I am not trying to drive you to liquor, but rather want to interest you in a popular class of 19th century roses. Originating on the volcanic Île de Bourbon (now known as Réunion) in the Indian Ocean, these beauties started as the love children of damask and china roses planted in hedgerows in the early 1800s. Some of these hips were sent to the French royal gardener, who produced a seedling named ‘Rosier de l’Île de Bourbon’. Fragrant and blooming in flushes, a whole new class of roses was born.

Bourbons are intensely romantic and overwhelmingly fragrant. Draped over arbors or climbing up pillars, they will bring French charm to any garden and evoke a bygone era with a gentler pace of life, when there was time to smell the roses and revel in their sensual scent.

Many Bourbons can get quite large and require support such as fences or trellises. They are excellent candidates for pegging to the ground for maximum flower production. One of my absolute favorites, ‘Zéphirine Drouhin’ (pictured below) is a large, deliciously fragrant climber with the added benefit of being thornless! It is planted on the north side of my house and is almost never watered because my hosepipe doesn’t reach easily. Nonetheless, it rewards me for my horrible treatment with a spectacular display early in the season and then intermittently throughout the summer.

Many Bourbons are widely available from the usual sources and I know that they are appreciated by several CT rose society members like the Longs, who grow Mme. Isaac Pereire and Louise Odier with great success.

‘Mme. Issac Pereire’ (Above and right) ranks amongst the most fragrant roses in existence and produces very large, pinkish magenta flowers that start off cupped and reflex into quartered blooms with a button eye. Mature blossoms fade at the edges and create a two-tone effect. Bright pink ‘Louise Odier’ (See Below) can easily reach 6 or 7 feet and benefits from some support or training on an espalier against a wall. Deeply cupped and quartered blooms appear almost continuously and are rich in fragrance. ‘Mme. Ernest Calvat’ is the pale, bushier sport of ‘Mme. Isaac Pereire’. You can grow it as a pillar rose or prune it into a luxurious shrub that will produce fragrant blooms for cutting.

‘Boule de Neige’ produces clusters of blushpink buds on fairly upright canes that open to reveal creamy white blooms, with the occasional green eye in the center. If you are fond of striped roses, try growing ‘Honorine de Brabant’. This modest climber has pale pink blooms streaked with delicate shades of mauve. The silvery blush pink of ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ is almost unsurpassed, and blooms, produced in clusters, are sweetly scented and have a mass of quartered petals. Despite its large flowers, it is one of the smallest in this class at about 3-4 feet in height and spread, but also comes in a climbing form. Marci has told me how she still pines for her ‘Mme. Pierre Oger’ that had to be left behind when she moved to Windsor from her previous home. This sport of ‘La Reine Victoria’ has dainty blooms of shell pink that make this a delicate and refined looking shrub.

Before you rush out and buy a garden full of Bourbons, I feel that I ought to mention the small matter of disease. Of all the Bourbons I grow, ‘La Reine Victoria’ can attract a fungal spore a mile off and is the best indicator that it is time to spray! Not all Bourbons are this susceptible, but I suggest you plant them in areas with good air circulation, water and fertilize them well, and keep up a spray program.

We are not talking ‘Knock Outs’ here, but maybe not quite Hybrid Teas in terms of maintenance. I have found these roses to be quite hardy in my garden, but remember to plant them deeply and, if you live in a very cold microclimate, hill them up for the winter.

Old Garden Roses have a lot of beauty and variety to offer the modern garden. They are living history and a wonderful link to the great and ordinary folk who grew them: from Napoléon’s Joséphine at Malmaison to our great grandparents and their country gardens. I feel passionately that they should to be preserved for future generations to love and appreciate. On that note, let’s raise a glass and toast these old ladies! Long may they flourish!

Well, yeah. Sort of. Botanically speaking, at least. Any plant that arises from the ground without a single woody trunk separating the roots from the branches is technically a shrub rather than a tree. That makes roses—at least those growing on their own God-given roots—shrubs. (The thing in the rose catalog called a tree rose is a Frankenstein creation of grafted parts from several roses; it doesn’t exist in nature.)

So why would we refer to just some roses as shrub roses? On his website, Minnesota nurseryman Sam Kedem admits that, “The term ‘shrub rose’ is somewhat arbitrary and may lead to ambiguity.” Sam’s right, so let’s try to clear up the picture as much as we can.

When the American Rose Society talks about shrub roses, we’re talking about something quite specific. Officially, thereare two major divisions of the ARS shrub rose classification. Under classic shrubs we plahybrid rugosas, hybrid musks, Kordesii hybrids, and moyesii hybrids. Musks, rugosas, moyesiis and Kordeare splendid old rose lines that have been used to hybridize many roses, a few handsful of which are still grown.

However, it’s the other major division— modern shrubs —that have put shrub roses on gardeners’ view screens because this is where David Austin placed his wildly popular new-old-fashioned English roses. I suspect that without Austin and like-minded breeders swelling this category with innovative looks in roses that didn’t quite fit in the usual groupings, the ARS shrub category would have remained insignificant. For a good portion of the 20th century, hybrid teas held the field with growers and exhibitors, and it is Austin who gets most of the credit for giving legitimacy to roses that didn’t fit in the mainstrecategories but are marvelous in their own right. That’s benefited both exhibitors (there are exhibition trophies just for shrub roses) as well as growers looking for great garden roses.

So if you’re a rose exhibitor, you can only use the term “shrub” if the ARS classifies your rose that way. If, like me, you’re just a gardener who loves roses, you couldn’t care less what label someone put on a rose: if it’s pretty, healthy, productive, and easy to grow, I want to make its acquaintance. Informally, rose growers often refer to roses like that as shrub roses. Many nurseries, too, use the term to refer to a broader selection of roses than is included in the ARS classification. Sam Kedem (who’s done much to promote tough shrubs for his weather-challenged Minnesota customers) explains his shrub rose list this way: “There is an inherent difficulty in separating modern from antique, ground covers from bushes, floribunda from shrub, landscape from garden roses and so on. This category comprises delegates from many types of roses, past and present, with a single common denominator: garden beautiful.”

So when nurserymen and gardeners talk about shrub roses, they’re usually not confining themselves to musks, Kordesiis, rugosas and Austins; they’ll include any rose that has superb garden qualities like these:

• Unfussy growers. A good shrub rose should be one that an amateur can grow.

• Roses that look good in the yard. I love hybrid teas, but I think you’d have a hard time making the case that most hybrid tea bushes look as nice in a landscape as their blossoms do in a vase. While shrubs may have bouquet-quality flowers, They’ll also do good service in the landscape.

• Disease resistance. Disease resistance is currently the holy grail of rose breeding. While resistance is improving in all rose categories, you’ll have the best chance of finding it among the shrubs.

• Cold hardiness. Several hybridizers (the late Dr. Griffith Buck, and the Morden Research Station in Manitoba, among others) have worked to develop handsome shrub roses that will stand up to bitterly cold northern winters—and they’ve succeeded.

• Unconventional blossoms. Thanks to florists and illustrators, a lot of folks for a long time supposed that a real rose always had to look like a hybrid tea. As a consequence, lots of gorgeous roses were ignored because they didn’t match that ideal. If you, like me, love old-fashioned looking roses and single roses, you’ll be happy for the new interest in shrub roses, because that’s where a lot of lovely but unconventional blooms found their raison d’être.

• Showy displays. Though the size of the blossoms on shrub roses varies, you’ll soon see that some make their biggest contribution in abundant displays of blossoms that individually may not be remarkable.

• Perfume. What’s the first thing every person—adult or child—does when confronted with a rose? Stick their nose into it! A justifiable grievance about modern hybrid teas is that they haven’t enough fragrance— often none at all. Look among the shrubs for roses with good perfume.

Here are a few places where you might look for roses with these qualities.

David Austin Roses. Some of the Austins have the qualities we want in a good garden shrub — though to be perfectly frank, some don’t. Perhaps because they’re developed for England’s climate, perhaps because marketing and reputation sometimes race ahead of experience in consumers’ gardens, some of the Austins simply aren’t as hardy or nicely-formed in American gardens as we might like. This does not take away a whit from the undeniable face that Divid Austin’s creative genius is responsible for making the world love old-fashioned roses again.

Griffith Buck roses. A mixed bag of pretty good roses, whose claim to fame is winter survivability in northern climes. Some also have decent disease resistance. Check them out in person at Ames, Iowa’s Reiman Gardens.

Rugosa roses and hybrids. Rugosas blood is found in some great shrub roses, because of the rugosa’s blackspot resistance, fragrance, and cold survivability. Gardeners in the northernmost areas will want to check out Canadian creations like the Parklands roses. A warning: not all rugosa hybrids have al the rugosa’s great qualities in full measure.

Old Garden roses. Technically, these are varieties from many genetic liens that were named before 1867. But who cares their age? Among them you’ll find some durable, good-looking roses.

Kordes roses. A cross between a rugosa and a wichurana gave Kordes an unexpected fertile offspring—and a breeding stock that is still hard to beat. Dortmund is the highest rated shrub rose in ARS trials, not to mention one of the highest rated roses ever—and it deserves it.

Hybrid teas and floribundas. Yes, some of these supposedly finicky roses function as great shrubs. Silver Jubilee is a hybrid tea, but it is nonetheless a tough bush with healthy foliage and gorgeous flowers. Some floribundas make nice additions to a landscape, too.

Romanticas. Unlike Austin, who used the modern shrub designation for his masterpieces, Meilland placed most of their Romantica series in the hybrid tea category. Don’t let that discourage you from trying these dazzling, strong, traditional-looking roses.

Polyanthas. Anyone who’s seen The Fairy or its relatives in glorious bloom can confirm the usefulness of this group.

Harkness roses. Harkness is a United Kingdom breeder, some of whose creations deserve as much attention in American gardens as the Austins have received.

There are many roses that will serve as great garden shrubs. The best advice is to trust the lists of shrub roses put together by nurserymen, who tend to group these roses not according to the official categories, but rather by how they see them best used by gardeners.

Finally, don’t suppose that because you’re planting shrub roses rather than more exacting varieties, you’re sacrificing beauty. Many of the fussier roses are overrated, while their tougher cousins, the shrubs, are undervalued. To the assumption that shrub roses are “hardy and low maintenance, yet of lesser enhancement than the popular hybrid teas,” Sam Kedem responds, “Nothing is further from reality.” Browse a garden of shrub roses, and you’ll agree.

Gone are the heavy Victorian furniture, beaded curtains and Tiffany lamps of the 18th Century. Along with them, the rose rage of the season, the hybrid perpetual, slipped almost unnoticed into obscurity and near extinction. Out of the nearly 3,000 varieties hybridized during this golden age, we have only about 100 left, and only about 50 varieties are commercially available today.

While they were in vogue, they were very popular as people rushed to include the newest variety in their garden. But by the beginning of the 1900′s, interest had already begun to wane.

Introduced in France in 1837, as ‘hybrid remontant’, they were later referred to as hybrid perpetuals. Perpetual was a real misnomer since their recurrent bloom was still only twice seasonally – still more flowers than produced by their illustrious genetic ancestors, the damasks, hybrid chinas and bourbons. Their most important contribution to the rose world was their winter hardiness, a great improvement over their winter tender parents, and a hardiness that still exceeds the modern hybrid tea roses that usurped their place in rose gardens.

The bushes are vigorous growers, having tall canes with an upright growth habit. Some varieties have extra long canes, and the overall appearance is improved by ‘pegging down’. The foliage for the most part is dull, wrinkled, although some varieties have blue-green leaves while others have shiny smooth leaves, and some are nearly thornless.

The many-petaled flowers are usually very fragrant and run the gamut of color from purest white, to pink, red and deepest maroon. Some varieties are edged or splashed with white or deep maroon. Interestingly enough, with the wide range of color shades, there were no yellows.

In 1867, the first hybrid tea, ‘La France‘, was introduced, and it signaled a definite death knell for these Victorian beauties. The hybrid tea supplied the abundant, recurrent bloom that had been awaited for so many years. But along the way we sacrificed the lovely, many-petaled form and unmatchable fragrance. The second part of the search for a more improved rose was fulfilled in that the blooms of the hybrid tea also supplied a broader color range.

Many of our modern roses trace their color and/or form to their illustrious hybrid perpetual ancestors. To its other many virtues, ‘General Jacqueminot’, was to add what to the rose breeder is the cardinal virtue – the ability to transmit its good characteristics both as a prolific pollinator and seed parent. So successful was it in this role that there were probably 520 recorded roses directly descended from it, and there are, in addition, hundreds of other unrecorded crosses. For nearly 60 years this rose was the standard of comparison among red roses.

‘Paul Neyron‘, with pink blooms upwards to seven inches, is the perfect embodiment of a cabbage rose–big, full of petals, rather flat (saucer-shaped) when open. ‘Prince Camille de Rohan‘ was another masterpiece with its bloom of over 100 velvety, dark red petals.

For many years the rage of the florist trade was ‘Mme Ferdinand Jamin‘ introduced in 1886 under the name ‘American Beauty‘. And finally, the superb, pure white ‘Frau Karl Druschki‘, although introduced in 1901, can still thrill gardeners with her flawless flowers perfectly showcased against blue-green foliage. On a historical note, ‘Frau Karl Druschki‘ is also known by the name of ‘Reine des Neiges‘, ‘Snow Queen‘ and ‘White American Beauty‘ – any one of which names would be regarded by most as more descriptively suitable than that of the wife of the then president of the German Rose Society. However, by quite undeservedly failing to win in 1900 a competition for the best unnamed seedling of German origin, this chaste white beauty escaped the compulsory condition of being named ‘Otto von Bismark‘.

While many of the varieties are rather tall plants, most varieties are in the three to five foot range and adapt well to modern gardens and landscapes. By placing them in the back, their height and coloration adds an interesting foil for the shorter plants, and their absence of continual bloom is not a glaring fault.

Limited space does not allow us to delve any more deeply into this fascinating area, but I would like to include a few names and descriptions of some noteworthy hybrid perpetuals that are still available.