Rose Classification

The rose is perhaps the most well-known flower in the world.  People grow them in the yard, create spectacular rose gardens and of course they’re given as bouquets for all kinds of events and holidays. Enjoy all kinds of roses.

The most popular type, available in both bush and standard form. Hybrid tea is an informal horticultural classification for a group of garden roses. They were created by cross-breeding two types of roses, initially by hybridising hybrid perpetuals with tea roses.  The flower stems are long and the blooms are shapely. The typical Hybrid Tea bears blooms which are medium-sized or large, with many petals forming a distinct central cone. The blooms are borne singly or with several side buds. Height is usually 1.5m to 2.0m, and up to 1.5m width. 

Floribunda Roses

A continuously blooming type of rose, the flower is hardy and consists of clusters of flowers that are full and bushy. They are unrivalled for providing a colourful, reliable and long-lasting bedding display of small to medium size blooms. Height is usually 1m to 2m, and up to 1m width. Although deadheading encourages more growth, the flower is able to continuously produce full, thick clusters almost all the time. 

Miniflora or Minature Roses

Miniature roses are the smallest of the roses with flowers that are usually less than 5cm across. Generally the bushes grow to no more than 50 cm in height. They are suitable for edges and as pot plants. Miniflora roses generally have blooms and foliage larger than Miniature roses and smaller than Floribunda roses. Mini roses can be grown in containers or used for edging and you can plant them in groups in flower beds or in smaller landscape areas as groundcovers.

Shrub Roses

Large bushes, often tall and spreading with many branching canes of a lax arching habit. The modern shrub roses are ideal to fill areas of the garden with colourful and healthy roses that bloom freely all season. Because of their versatility, shrub roses can be used in balconies of condos or apartments and even in patios if you place them in containers first. With flowers that come in clusters, these roses are bushy and are a repeat-flowering type of rose.

Standard Roses and Weeping Standards

Hybrid Tea, Floribundas, Shrubs or Miniatures are budded onto a single stem of a standard height, that is, 75cm to 90cm tall. The rose grows to its usual height as a bush on top of the stem. Gives height to a garden and allows under-planting.  Many varieties of roses can be grown as garden roses, shrub roses or as standard.  It just depends on the method of budding or grafting.

Climbing, Rambling and Pillar Roses

These roses produce long climbing canes which are supported on a frame as a screening plant, on a single post as a pillar, or over an arch. They are great for garden structures such as arbors, fences, trellises, etc. and adapt easily to what they’re climbing on. They have arching stiff canes and their foliage is glossy. They are truly spectacular and the more they grow, the more they can climb your structures so they are the perfect roses to show off whenever you wish to do so. They are of various sizes to suit wide uses in a garden. Ramblers with long pliable stems, bearing large trusses of small flowers are usually only spring or summer flowering. Most climbers repeat their flowers from spring to late autumn.

Ground Covers

A rather variable group of roses that are, to a greater or lesser degree, wider than they are tall. Ground cover roses are characterised by smaller flowers and being particularly free-flowering, most repeating very well. Low spreading plants to 50cm in height with small flowers in profusion.

Old Garden, Species and Heritage Roses

These roses existed before the year 1867 as this is the year the first hybrid tea rose, called the “La France,” was developed. Rosarian love to debate the definition of these older roses.  Heritage Rose in Australia promotes the love of these old roses as a separate rose society. .  Typically roses before Peace (1945) are termed Old Garden Roses or Heritage roses or Historic roses.  These roses are genrally for viewing in the garden rather than on the Show bench. These roses include a wide collection of historic and very old rose types, usually only spring flowering but very beautiful. Species are the original old roses, which often have decorative seedpods known as hips.

Varieties or Types:  Blush, Antique Climbing roses, Gallicas, Damask, Centifolia, Moss, Alba, China, Lyon Tea, Bourbon, Perpetural Hybrid, Sweet Briar, Ayrshire, Sempervirens , Polyanther