Shrub roses

Most rose varieties

This group includes most rose varieties. There are enormous differences in height. Shrub roses can be large-flowered (one rose per stalk) or spray roses.

Large-flowered roses

The flowers of large-flowered roses are separate on a stalk. They are larger than spray roses and medium-full to double-flowered. Popular large-flowered roses are ‘Peace’, ‘Queen Elizabeth’, ‘Just Joey’. Most of them have a tall bushy habit and a delicious scent.

Spray roses are the most popular garden roses. They have a bushy habit and are also sold as standard roses. The flowers are clustered in sprays. They are single-flowered, medium-full or double-flowered and the flowering is very profuse. Spray roses come in a host of colours: white, pink, red and yellow. Examples include: ‘Seasons’, ‘Lavender Dream’, ‘Bonica’82’.

Miniature roses

These mini roses originate from China. In fact they are small shrub roses and they have only been cultivated in Europe for a century and a half. These are ideal roses for the mobile garden and therefore for use in pots and tubs. Most do not grow taller than thirty to forty centimetres. They need well-draining soil that is high in nutrients. Stagnant water is disastrous for the roots. The range is rapidly expanding.

There are now many dozen varieties. Very well-known varieties include the dark-red ‘Moorcap’ (Red Cascade), ‘Little Buckaroo’ (bright red), ‘Easter Morning’ (soft yellowish-white) and the yellow ‘Baby Gold Star’ (‘Estrellita de Oro’). Miniature roses are often not sold by name but by colour.

Ground-covering roses

In fact these are climbing roses with long, weak branches which crawl over the ground if they are not trained upwards. They do not really cover the ground. When they flower they can give a magnificent effect. The most commonly used variety as groundcover is ‘The Fairy’ with clear pink flowers in sprays. A good second is ‘Tapis Volent’ with flowers which are white on the inside and pink on the outside, but there are many others.