Standard roses

Roses on a rootstock

These are shrub roses (spray or double-flowered) or climbing roses on a rootstock. If a climbing rose has been grafted onto it, it creates a weeping rose with drooping branches. The stem height is usually a metre for large-flowered roses, eight centimetres for spray roses, but may be as much as 120 centimetres. There are also half-standards of sixty centimetres high. Miniature roses are also grown as standards.

Well-known standard roses include:

‘Dame de Coeur’, double-flowered, bright red.
‘Landora’, double-flowered, yellow
‘Mullard Jubilee’, double-flowered, dark pink.
‘Pernille Poulsen’, spray rose, dark pink.
‘Lilli Marlene’, spray rose, velvet red.
‘Dorothy Perkins’, weeping spray rose, bright pink.

Standard roses are prone to frost at the graft points. One of those is at the point where the branches are attached. That is why the crown needs to be protected in winter. That can be done by placing straw or pine branches around the graft point or by pulling a black plastic bag over the crown.