Types of Roses

Hybrid teas produce large, well formed flowers in a wide range of colours on upright stems. They make a good garden display and are beautiful cut flowers.

Floribunda roses produce an abundance of flowers in a wide variety of colours. Borne in clusters or trusses, the flowers are less suitable for picking than those of the hybrid teas but they provide a greater display of long lasting garden colour.

Shrub rose is a general term used to describe hybrids between wild species, hybrid tea roses and floribundas. They are extremely varied in habit, leaf shape and flower form.

Miniature roses look like tiny floribundas, but have miniature leaves and flowers in perfect proportion. They normally grow between 20–50 cm high and are almost thornless. They can be used for edging, growing in containers, rockeries, window boxes or indoors as temporary houseplants.

Climbers make strong stems from any part of the plant and their height potential is far greater than that of ramblers.

• Pierre de Ronsard starts with creamy white, cabbage-like flowers that become pinker as they mature. It has won international popularity awards.
• Gold Bunny has masses of golden yellow flowers over a long period.
• Golden Showers has ruffled petals that start off a rich yellow and fade to a soft buttery lemon.
• Climbing Iceberg is as free flowering as the shrub Iceberg. Iceberg is often listed as the world’s favourite rose.
• Constance Spry was the first rose bred by David Austin, the renowned English rose breeder.
• Dainty Bess has single flowers in a soft rose pink with central, eyelash-like stamens.

Rambling Roses have pliable stems, smaller blooms and bear large trusses of flowers. They produce several strong stems from their base each year. Most rambling Roses flower just once a year, but what a glorious flowering it is. The stems and leaves become almost invisible beneath the froth of blossom. One of the best known ramblers is Dorothy Perkins, which is so vigorous it makes a smothering ground cover. Stems take root where they touch the ground and long shoots scramble over trees and garden beds.

Heritage and wild climbing roses such as creamy-white Lamarque, yellow banksia (Rosa banksiae lutea) and white Rosa laevigata which is also known as the Cherokee Rose.

Species roses are those which are grown in their original wild form. They produce single, fine-petalled flowers, mainly in spring, followed by a display of decorative berry-like hips in autumn. They are particularly resistant to pests and diseases and require little pruning apart from the removal of soft tips and straggly growth.

Old roses encompass a broad group including Species, Old European, Tea and China roses. In recent years there has been a great upsurge in interest in them, due to their good garden qualities. They are particularly fragrant and hardy, and have a delightful, informal character. Also called heritage roses, they are growing in popularity and there are specialist growers in most states.

If you’re after a tough and low maintenance flower to cover a sunny bare spot in the garden, then a rose from the award-winning Flower Carpet® series from Anthony Tesselaar (www.tesselaar.com) is a fantastic choice.

And with Flower Carpet roses being sold in pots (rather than bare-rooted), it means that you can plant them year-round. Mid-autumn is a great time to get them into the ground as they can start to establish before the cool weather sets in.

Flower Carpet roses are super hardy. When you see great looking displays of Flower Carpet roses growing in parks, council gardens and along road sides, you know they’re one resilient plant!

They’re compact roses, growing to around 80 cm tall and wide and will flower profusely from spring to late autumn. They look fantastic when grown as a border or massed planting but are equally suited to a container. They’re drought hardy once established and easy to maintain. Just cut them back by around a third in late winter or early spring to help keep them looking tidy and compact.

Flower Carpet roses come in a range of gorgeous colours, including rich red, buttery yellow, crisp white, peach and pastel and bright pink.