Types

You may have heard the term old garden rose, but what exactly does that mean?  The category of Old Roses (OGR) can be confusing. The working definition of OGRs are classes of roses that were known before 1867. The category of Old Garden Roses was created in 1867 when the first hybrid tea rose ‘La […]

Rose of the World; th’ embroidered Tuscany;The scented Cabbage, and the Damacene;Sweet Briar, lovelier name the eglantine;But above all the MuskWith classic names, Thisbe, Penelope,Whose nectarous load grows heavier with the duskAnd like a grape too sweetly muscadine.V Sackville-West, The Garden, 1946 I couldn’t agree more with the noted gardener Vita Sackville-West. Let me introduce

Just what are species roses?  They are wild roses that have developed on their own without help from us humans, and within the genus Rosa. There are an estimated 150 – 200 types of wild roses in the world, some supposedly having been around for more than 30 million years. All are native to the

Roses have been around a very long time – there are fossils of roses dated 35-40 million years ago that are thought to originate in Asia. The oldest identified rose is Rosa gallica, commonly called the French Rose, that can be dated back as early as the 12th century B.C. From early times, many varieties and

There is nothing quite as lovely as a rose bud unfurling, framed by lush, healthy, deep green foliage. Rosarians strive to attain and maintain their roses for this often-illusive picture. With the advent of modern roses (developed after 1867), more and more roses have been hybridized, and the results have been variable. Some plants looked

What in the world are single roses? Roses that grow individually on a stem or plant? Roses that like to grow alone? Well, neither – when we refer to “single roses” we are referring to the form of the flower, in particular the number and arrangement of the petals. Petals are the most visible portion

One of the least common colors to see in most rose gardens is purple – in any of its forms, from very pale lavender to dark, grapey purple. It is a shame, since there are many wonderful roses that cross this color range. A number of the popular roses that fall into this color category

What do George Burns, Picasso, and Playboy have in common? Well, I don’t know whether the two famous individuals fell into the playboy category, but the connection for rose lovers is that they are all beautiful, multi-colored roses. What do I mean by multi-colored? In this context, these are roses that have two or more