There is no single system of classification for garden roses. In general, however, roses are placed in one of three main groups: Wild, Old Garden, and Modern Garden roses. The latter two groups are usually subdivided further according to hybrid lineage, although due to the complex ancestry of most rose hybrids, such distinctions can be imprecise. Growth habit and floral form are also used as means of classification. This is the most common method to classify roses as it reflects their growth habits.
Wild roses Wild roses, also denominated "species roses", include the natural species and some of their immediate hybrid descendants. The wild roses commonly grown in gardens include
Rosa moschata ("musk rose"),
Rosa banksiae ("Lady Banks' rose"),
Rosa pimpinellifolia ("Scots rose" or "burnet rose"),
Rosa rubiginosa ("sweetbriar" or "eglantine"), and
Rosa foetida in varieties 'Austrian Copper', 'Persian Double', and '
Harison's Yellow'. For most of these, the plants found in cultivation are often selected clones that are propagated vegetatively. Wild roses are low-maintenance shrubs in comparison to other garden roses, and they usually tolerate poor soil and some shade. They generally have only one flush of blooms per year, described as being "non-remontant", unlike remontant, modern roses. Some species have colorful hips in autumn, e. g.
Rosa moyesii, or have colourful autumnal foliage, e. g.
Rosa virginiana.
Old garden roses An old garden rose is defined as any rose belonging to a class which existed before the introduction of the first modern rose,
La France, in 1867. Alternative terms for this group include
heritage and
historic roses. In general, Old Garden roses of European or
Mediterranean origin are once-blooming woody shrubs, with notably fragrant, double-flowered blooms primarily in shades of white, pink and crimson-red. The shrubs' foliage tends to be highly disease-resistant, and they generally bloom only from canes (stems) which formed in previous years. The introduction of
China and Tea roses (
see below) from East Asia around 1800 led to new classes of Old Garden Roses which bloom on new growth, often repeatedly from spring to fall. Most Old Garden Roses are classified into one of the following groups.
Alba Rosa , an Alba rose (before 1400) Literally "white roses", derived from
R. arvensis and the closely allied
R. × alba. The latter species is a hybrid of
R. gallica and
R. canina.
Gallica The
Gallica,
Gallica Hybrid, or
Rose of Provins group is a very old class developed from
Rosa gallica, which is a native of central and southern
Europe and western
Asia. Robert de Brie is given credit for bringing damask roses from the
Middle East to Europe sometime between 1254 and 1276, although there is evidence from ancient Roman frescoes that at least one damask rose existed in Europe for hundreds of years before this. Summer damasks bloom once in summer. Autumn or Four Seasons damasks bloom again later, albeit less exuberantly, and these were the first
remontant (repeat-flowering) Old European roses. Damask roses tend to have rangy to sprawling growth habits and strongly scented blooms. Examples:
'Ispahan', 'Madame Hardy'.
Centifolia or Provence Centifolia roses are also known as
Cabbage roses, or as
Provence roses. They are derived from
Rosa × centifolia, a hybrid that appeared in the 17th century in the
Netherlands, This group of roses was named after the
Duchess of Portland who received (from
Italy about 1775) a rose then known as
R. paestana or 'Scarlet Four Seasons' Rose' (now known simply as 'The Portland Rose'). The whole class of Portland roses was developed from that one rose. The first repeat-flowering class of rose with fancy European-style blossoms, the plants tend to be fairly short and shrubby, with a suckering habit, with proportionately short flower stalks. The main flowering is in the summer, but intermittent flowers continue into the autumn. Examples: 'James Veitch', 'Rose de Rescht', 'Comte de Chambord'.
China ,' one of the "stud Chinas" The
China roses, based on
Rosa chinensis, have been cultivated in East Asia for centuries. They have been cultivated in Western Europe since the late 18th century. They contribute much to the parentage of today's hybrid roses, and they brought a change to the form of the flowers then cultivated in Europe. Compared with the older rose classes known in Europe, the Chinese roses had less fragrant, smaller blooms carried over twiggier, more cold-sensitive shrubs. However they could bloom repeatedly throughout the summer and into late autumn, unlike their European counterparts. The flowers of China roses were also notable for their tendency to "suntan," or darken over time unlike other blooms which tended to fade after opening. This brought about the creation of the first classes of repeat-flowering Old Garden Roses, and later the Modern Garden Roses. Examples: '
Old Blush China', 'Mutabilis' (Butterfly Rose), 'Cramoisi Superieur'.
Tea The original
Tea-scented Chinas (
Rosa × odorata) were Oriental cultivars thought to represent hybrids of
R. chinensis with
R. gigantea, a large Asian climbing rose with pale-yellow blossoms. The Tea roses are repeat-flowering roses, named for their fragrance being reminiscent of Chinese black tea (although this is not always the case). The colour range includes pastel shades of white, pink and (a novelty at the time) yellow to apricot. The individual flowers of many cultivars are semi-pendent and nodding, due to weak flower stalks. In a "typical" Tea, pointed buds produce high-centred blooms which unfurl in a spiral fashion, and the petals tend to roll back at the edges, producing a petal with a pointed tip; the Teas are thus the originators of today's "classic" florists' rose form. According to rose historian Brent Dickerson, the Tea classification owes as much to marketing as to botany; 19th-century nurserymen would label their Asian-based cultivars as "Teas" if they possessed the desirable Tea flower form, and "Chinas" if they did not. Like the Chinas, the Teas are not hardy in colder climates. Examples: 'Lady Hillingdon', 'Maman Cochet', 'Duchesse de Brabant', 'Mrs. Foley Hobbs'.
Bourbons (Béluze 1843)
Bourbon roses originated on the Île Bourbon (now called
Réunion) off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. They are believed to be the result of a cross between the Autumn Damask and the 'Old Blush' China rose, both of which were frequently used as hedging materials on the island. They became the most popular garden and florist roses of northern Europe at the time, as the tender tea roses would not thrive in cold climates, and the hybrid perpetuals' very large blooms were well suited to the new phenomenon of competitive exhibitions. The "perpetual" in the name suggests their remontancy, but many varieties of this class only poorly exhibited the property; the tendency was for a massive vernal bloom followed by either scattered summer flowering, a smaller autumnal burst, or sometimes no re-flowering in that year. Due to a limited colour palette of white, pink, and red, and a lack of reliable remontancy, the hybrid perpetuals were finally overshadowed by their descendants, the hybrid teas. Examples include
'Général Jacqueminot', 'Ferdinand Pichard', 'Paul Neyron', and 'Reine des Violettes'.
Hybrid musk Although they arose too late to qualify technically as old garden roses, the hybrid musks are often informally classed with them, since their growth habits and care are much more like the old garden roses than modern roses. The hybrid musk group was mainly developed by Rev.
Joseph Pemberton, a British rosarian, in the first decades of the 20th century, based upon 'Aglaia', an 1896 cross by Peter Lambert. A seedling of this rose, 'Trier', is considered to the foundation of the class. The stems tend to be lax and arching, with limited thorns. This hybrid had some characteristics of both of its parental classes, and was denominated a "Hybrid Polyantha" or "Poulsen" rose. Grandiflora roses are shrubs that are typically larger than both hybrid teas and floribundas and produce flowers that resemble those of hybrid teas and are borne in small clusters of three to five, similar to floribundas. Grandifloras were somewhat popular from circa 1954 into the 1980s, but today they are much less popular than both hybrid teas and floribundas. Examples include:
'Rock & Roll',
'Tournament of Roses',
'Pink Flamingo', and
'Queen Elizabeth'.
Miniature flowerpot Dwarf mutations of some Old Garden Roses—gallicas and centifolias—were known in Europe in the 17th century, although these were once-flowering just as their larger forms were. Miniature forms of repeat-flowering China roses were also grown and bred in China, and are depicted in 18th-century Chinese art. Modern miniature roses largely derive from such miniature China roses, especially the cultivar 'Roulettii', a chance discovery found in a pot in Switzerland. Miniature roses are generally twiggy, repeat-flowering shrubs ranging from 6" to 36" in height, with most falling in the 12"–24" height range. Blooms come in all the hybrid tea colors; many varieties also emulate the classic high-centered hybrid tea flower shape. Owing to their small stature, they make excellent plants for containers, hanging baskets and window boxes. Miniature roses are often marketed and sold by the floral industry as houseplants, but they grow poorly in the dry air and reduced light of average home and office conditions, and are best reserved for outdoor gardening. (Examples: 'Petite de Hollande' (Miniature Centifolia, once-blooming), 'Cupcake' (Modern Miniature, repeat-blooming). Additional examples: Scentsational, Tropical Twist.
Climbing and rambling . It is a thornless climbing rose. All aforementioned classes of roses, both Old and Modern, have "climbing/arching" forms, It encompasses some old single and repeat flowering cultivars, as well as modern roses that don't fit neatly into other categories. Many cultivars placed in other categories are simultaneously placed in this one. Roses classed as shrubs tend to be robust and of informal habit, making them recommended for use in a mixed
shrub border or as hedging.
English / David Austin (1985) Although not officially recognized as a separate class of roses by any established rose authority, English (aka David Austin) roses are often set aside as such by consumers and retailers alike. Development started in the 1960s by
David Austin of
Shropshire, England, who wanted to rekindle interest in Old Garden Roses by hybridizing them with modern hybrid teas and floribundas. Two main lines of roses were developed for the extreme weather conditions of Canadian winters by Agriculture Canada at the Morden Research Station in Morden, Manitoba and the Experimental Farm in Ottawa (and later at L'Assomption, Québec). They are called the Explorer series and the Parkland series. Derived mostly from crosses of
Rosa rugosa or the native Canadian species
Rosa arkansana with other species, these plants are extremely tolerant of cold weather, some down to −35C. Roses in the Parkland series include 'Morden Centennial', 'Morden Sunrise, 'Winnipeg Parks' and 'Cuthbert Grant'. called Minifloras in North America.
D. G. Hessayon says the description "patio roses" emerged after 1996. Some rose catalogues include older polyanthas that have stood the test of time (e.g., 'Nathalie Nypels', 'Baby Faurax') within their patio selection. Rose breeders, notably Chris Warner in the UK and the Danish firm of Poulson (under the name of Courtyard Climbers) have also created patio climbers, small rambler style plants that flower top-to-toe and are suitable for confined areas. It is suggested patio style roses are protected during winter months due to the exposure environment. ==Cultivation==