Types of Roses

There are Four basic groups, or types of roses:

1. Shrub roses

2. Hybrid Tea and Grandiflora

3. Climbing roses

4. Floribunda roses

Shrub roses are better as landscape shrubs or hedges and usually don’t require the typical rose care and pruning.  They are usually vigorous, cold hardy, disease resistant, are bushier plants, have showy blooms and are often fragrant.  They look much fuller in appearance than, say, Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses.  A shrub rose is something an amateur gardener could grow without much worry.  Rugosa roses are typical shrub roses and embody all of the above noted qualities. 

Hybrid Tea and Grandiflora roses are taller (4’ to 6’ tall) plants which bear large, single stemmed flowers and are best for cut flowers.  These are the roses you typically order from a florist shop.  Hybrid Teas and Grandiflora roses are prone to just about every rose ailment and require constant vigilance to keep disease and pests at bay, however the beauty and fragrance of these roses make their fussy ways quite forgivable.  Hybrid Tea/Grandiflora cultivars number in the thousands and if you would like to try your hand at these, it's advised to have a separate rose bed to more easily meet their special requirements.

Floribunda and Polyantha roses are smaller (2’ to 4’ tall) plants with the Polyanthas bearing smaller flowers in large, showy clusters and the Floribunda with slightly larger blooms that grow in small clusters of 2 to 3 blooms. They are not as good for cut flowers but make an excellent, long-blooming landscape shrubs.  Floribundas are vigorous growers, quite hardy and the Polyanthas are not quite as hardy.

Climbing roses roses, produce long canes which work well trained up along fences or trellises.  There are several different groups of climbing roses such as ramblers, climbers and trailing roses.  Ramblers are fast growers with clusters of smaller blooms, and will develop many canes.  Climbers are less vigorous growers, with large flowers and fewer blooms per cluster.  Trailing roses are actually climbers that have been adapted to trailing on the ground and are excellent for planting on banks and as ground cover.

Shrub / Hedge Roses

**Note** I've included links to merchants who carry a variety of each of these types of roses, so you can see what is readily available, however, your local garden centers will probably have a good variety of the different types of roses.

English / David Austin Roses

Austin roses are synonymous with old English roses.  They were bred by crossing old garden roses with more modern roses to achieve the fragrance, delicacy and charm of the old-style blooms combined with the repeat flowering characteristics and wide color range of modern roses.  Originally developed for England gardens and were not as hardy for North American gardens, however many newer cultivars are more cold and disease resistant, making them a good choice for colder zones, although most Austin roses are hardy to zone 5, there are a few that are cold hardy to zone 4.

Rose Ausgold

Rugosa Roses

Well known for being extremely disease resistant, (virtually immune to blackspot and mildew) fragrant, and very cold hardy.  Crimson-pink, single and semi-double roses are produced by the hundreds each June, and then continue to re-bloom intermittently until frost.  Almost all rugosas and hybrid rugosa varieties are extremely fragrant and are identified by their foliage, which is usually bright green and heavily textured with deep veining.  The flowers can sport single or double blooms and have a fairly informal shape. Most rugosas produce large, decorative hips that attract birds in the fall and winter. Rugosas are easy to grow, very drought tolerant. and do well in poor conditions and are hardy to zones 3 and 4.

Rosa David Thompson

Old Garden roses

Old garden roses comprise varieties from many genetic lines that were named before 1867.  Old Garden roses are the predecessors of today’s roses with some dating dating back to the Roman Empire.  Old garden roses may seem more delicate and are more fragrant than many of today's hybrid tea roses.  A diverse group which includes Albas, Bourbons, Damasks, Gallicas, Moss roses and Portlands, to name a few.  Old Garden Roses comprise a multifaceted group that in general are easy to grow, disease-resistant and winter-hardy with most providing fragrance for the garden and home.

Rosa Blanc Double de Coubert

Hybrid Tea and Grandiflora roses

Hybrid Tea roses

Hybrid Teas are the result of crossing two old-fashioned rose classes, the Hybrid Perpetual and the Tea rose from China which gives it the repeat blooming trait. General traits include buds which are pointed, long, and bear one bloom per stem. Hybrid Tea roses are the most common and popular type of rose sold today but are usually grown for cut flowers rather than as landscape plants and are what you'll find in a florist shop.  Hybrid Tea roses are noted for their large flowers, lack of fragrance and little or no disease resistance. 

Rosa x Audrey Hepburn

Grandiflora roses

 Grandiflora's are a cross between the Hybrid Tea and Floribunda roses.  The flowers usually follow the form of Hybrid Teas and grow on long stems with the blooms being midway between the flower sizes of both, and the blooms tend to form in clusters like the floribunda, but sometimes singly as the Hybrid Tea.  They also tend to bloom more abundantly than Hybrid Teas.  Grandiflora roses are often known as "Spray roses" in Flower shop lingo.  Many varieties are heat and cold resistant as well as disease resistant, although not all carry all of those traits.  Grandiflora roses are the tallest of all "bush" roses, often reaching heights of between 5 and 6 and require the same kind of winter hardiness care as Hybrid Tea roses even if noted as cold hardy.

Rosa Wild Blue Yonder

Floribunda and Polyantha roses

Floribunda Roses

Floribundas came about when a polyantha rose was crossed with a hybrid tea rose. This was done in an effort to produce roses that were compact and had superior hardiness and disease resistance, something that was found to be lacking with hybrid teas. The American rose firm Jackson and Perkins coined the name floribunda and introduced the class at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Many floribundas produce an excellent display of flowers and are often used as low hedges, in borders, and in containers with other landscape plants.

Outrageous™ Floribunda Rose

Polyantha Roses

This is a group of small flowered roses, developed by crossing dwarfs of Rosa multiflora with dwarf China roses. Extremely tough and continuously flowering, Polyanthas are ideal used as border plants or in containers. They are quite hardy, dependable and carefree to grow but most have little or no scent.  Polyanthas are characterized by a profusion of flowers in many colors and a tidy growth habit. It was Polyanthas that were combined with Hybrid Teas to create the Floribundas. They are useful for creating bright accents in the garden because they produce lots of color over they season.  'Mlle. Cécile Brünner', 'Perle d'Or' and 'Clotilde Soupert' are familiar Polyantha roses and have continued as a minor group up until the present, however they are somewhat overshadowed by their successors, the Floribundas.

Polyantha Mothers Day

 Rose Bushes at Wayside Gardens under $10.

Climbing roses

A climbing rose isn’t a specific species of rose but in fact, come from the cross-breeding of numerous rose species. “Climber” is a general label for a rose that produces long, vigorous canes that tend to bend under their weight. Climbing roses are categorized into three types: ramblers, trailing roses and true climbers (which include pillar roses).

Ramblers

Rambling roses are older and closer to wild roses and were developed between 1800 and 1921.  They are generally more vigorous and disease resistant than the more modern climbers, can grow up to 20 feet tall in one season and are mostly hardy to Zone 4.  The blooms of ramblers are smallish, less than two inches across and bloom in dense clusters, although some of the newer varieties have larger flowers.  Many ramblers are vulnerable to mildew.

Trailing Roses

Trailing roses adapt well to planting along walls or on banks and if not staked, will creep along the ground and take root. Blooms are typically about two to three inches (five to eight centimetres) across. Trailing roses are quite tough—they do well even in Zone 3. Look for cultivars of Rosa Wichurana.

True Climbing Roses

Climbing roses are noted for their large flowers—usually just a few per cluster. Some climbers bloom for a couple of weeks per season; others, often called pillar roses, bloom all season long. There are two main types of climbers: bush climbers, and climbing hybrid teas. Bush climbers are the hardier, and bloom continually throughout the season.

Rose Shrub - Red Grootendorst

Produces big double red blooms framed with deep green foliage. Fragrant, cold hardy and easy to grow. Just plant in a sunny area with well-drained soil and enjoy gorgeous roses and foliage all summer through fall. Grows 3-5' tall. Bare root.
Zone 3 to 10