16 Beautiful Types of Roses for Any Kind of Garden
There are hundreds of varieties of roses. These are some of our favorites!
A rose by any other name, as Shakespeare said, would smell as sweet. Though it depends on the variety of rose.
There are dozens and dozens of rose varieties. Some are filled with fragrance while others have hardly any scent at all. Some are super easy to care for, and others are likely to drive you up a wall unless you're ready to give some expert-level care.
So how do you know which rose is for you? Well, most specialists divide roses into three main categories.
Categories of Roses
The most common roses are Modern Roses. These are varieties bred after 1867. Unlike Old Garden Roses, Modern Roses bloom throughout the the season. They generally have a larger bloom size, but some say they lack the hardiness, disease resistance, and fragrance of Old Garden roses.
Old Garden Roses have been in existence since before 1867 and are sometimes referred to as "heritage" or "historic" roses. They have a notably strong fragrance, double-flowered blooms, and tend to be highly disease-resistant. They typically only bloom once per season. Learn more at the The Heritage Rose Foundation and the American Rose Society.
Wild Roses, or "Species Roses," are the wildflower of the rose world. These are roses that haven’t been hybridized (cross-bred with other plants). They usually have single-bloom, 5-petal flowers, and are almost always pink. Finding a white or red wild rose is an anomaly. A yellow one is even rarer.
How Many Varieties of Roses Are There?
There are thousands of varieties of roses, but significantly fewer different species. Because a single species may have many different varieties, there's actually a lot of disagreement about exactly how many species of rose exist. Most sources will tell you there are about 350 species of rose. Because some experts divide different varieties into their own species, and others lump many, many varieties into a single species, you can find botanists and other experts listing the number of species of rose as few as 30 and as many as over 4,000.
What Is the Rarest Rose?
For generations, rose breeders have tried to develop a naturally blue rose. Though other blue flowers exist, it has so far not been possible to breed a truly blue rose. Botanists have tried both hybrid and genetically engineered methods, and so far the closest anyone has come is a mild purple.
Because so many people have tried for so long to breed a naturally blue rose, it's become a symbol of extreme rarity. It's easy, however, to buy cut roses that have been dyed blue.
Each color of rose has a unique meaning — from romantic red to friendly yellow. You can find more about the meaning of rose colors right here.
Caring for Roses
If you're planning an English garden design—or really any kind of garden design—roses are a must.
Depending on what variety you choose, roses can be quite easy to care for, or they can demand plenty of attention and patience—and will reward you with stunning and unique blooms. If you're just starting out, or don't want to spend a lot of time on care, consider knockout roses. If you're ready for a challenge, consider the varieties of heirloom roses that can grow in your zone.
Read more about roses right here:
Climbing Roses
Despite what the name may imply, climbing roses aren’t vines. They have stiff canes that can be trained along a trellis, fence, or downspout.
These types of roses produce more flowers when grown horizontally and tend to have large flowers that almost always re-bloom.
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: 'Zephirine Drouhin'
Hardiness Zones: 5 to 11
English Roses
If you’re looking for a hardy, disease-resistant rose with a delightful rose scent, an English rose may be the rose for you.
Available in a range of colors, these varieties have been carefully cultivated for reliability, most notably by David Austin in England. Most are shrubby, which makes them ideal for practically any garden situation—containers, hedges, and more formal settings.
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: Graham Thomas
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 11
Floribunda Roses
A cross between Hybrid Tea and Polyantha roses, these are ideal for mixed borders and large bed plantings. They don’t typically have much of a scent, although you can find newer breeds that are fragrant. The blooms present in large clusters to give color over a long season.
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: Sexy Rexy
Hardiness Zone: 6 to 10
Groundcover Roses
These shrubby roses, also known as “landscape” roses, are low-growing, sprawling specimen that are one of the newer trends in roses. They bloom from spring to frost with little effort and can be found in single and double bloom forms. Typically, they reach up to 3 feet tall and spread far beyond.
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: Avon
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 10
Grandiflora Roses
These are a mix of reblooming Floribunda paired with the clustered blooms of Hybrid Tea roses, albeit on slightly shorter, yet still long stems.
Shades range from soft pastels to deep purples and typically have a hint of sweet floral perfume.
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: Montezuma?
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 10
Polyantha Roses
This compact plant typically grows up to 3 feet high and flowers in large clusters of small, 1-inch blooms making them wonderful additions to containers and small gardens. They’re known to be covered in flowers from spring to fall and are hardy, low-maintenance, plants.
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: Fairy Rose
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 9
Read more: 55 Favorite Container Plants and Ideas for Your Potted Garden Oasis
Hybrid Tea Roses
These garden roses have large, high-centered buds with 30 to 50 petals each that are supported by long, straight, upright stems. They make for popular cut flowers and are inclined to rebloom. They grow up to 8 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Hybrid teas aren’t known for being disease resistant, so many home gardeners shy away from the variety, but they are the standard rose of the floral industry.
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: Soleil d'Or
Hardiness Zone: 6 to 11
Rambling Roses
Rambling roses are often confused with climbers, but they are far more vigorous and often only bloom once during the summer season.
They can be trained to climb with supports but will reach across anything in their path if not coaxed to grow up. (Think of the roses Maleficent sent crawling over Aurora’s kingdom.)
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: Kiftsgate
Hardiness Zone: 6 to 9
Bourbon Roses
Named for the Île Bourbon (now called Réunion) of the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, these gorgeous full bloomers often have a lovely, heady scent. They typically have few to no thorns and can be trained to climb.
Type: Old Garden Rose
Shown: Louise Odier
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 11
Miniature Roses
This extremely hardy variety is bred to stay small in size but comes in a range of types and colors. They only reach up to about 10 inches in height, making them perfect for small gardens, containers, or planted as a border into the front of a rose garden.
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: Venus
Hardiness Zone: 6 to 9
China Roses
Cultivated in East Asia for centuries, these typically add less fragrance and smaller blooms than other old garden roses. They’re known for their tendency to “suntan” or darken over time rather than fading in color like other roses’ blooms.
Type: Old Garden Rose
Shown: Old Blush
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 11
Damask Roses
Named for Damascus, these roses were brought from the Middle East to Europe between 1254 and 1276. These roses tend to sprawl and have strongly scented blooms. Summer damasks bloom once, while Autumn of Four Season damasks bloom once in summer and once later in the season.
Type: Old Garden Rose
Shown: Autumn Damask
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 11
Shrub Roses
These are generally hardy and easy to care for roses. They're easy to identify by the way the roses bloom on the bush. Rather than one bloom per stem, shrub roses sprout blooms in clusters, and they can grow up to 6 feet tall and 15 feet wide.
Type: Modern Rose
Shown: Swany
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 11
Noisette Roses
This rose was first born in South Carolina by combining a China rose and a musk rose. They are winter-hardy vigorous climbers with huge clusters of blooms. They were especially important in introducing orange and yellow hues into Old Garden Roses.
Type: Old Garden Rose
Shown: Blush Noisette
Hardiness Zone: 5 to 11
Tea Roses
Originating in China, these roses are the O.G. of today’s classic florist rose form. They’re not hardy in colder climates. They have pointed buds that open in a spiral and often roll back at the edges giving the bloom a pointed tip. Original teas were yellow, but the repeat-bloomers were bred to include shades of white, pink, and yellow to apricot.
Type: Old Garden Rose
Shown: Catherine Mermet
Hardiness Zone: 7 to 9
Wild Prairie Roses
The name of this rose comes from Colorado's Arkansas River where the species is found. This particular variety is native to North America and is found between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains all the way south to New Mexico and Texas.
Type: Wild Rose
Shown: Rosa Arkansana
Hardiness Zone: 4 to 7
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