Types (Classification)
the year the first hybrid tea was introduced. Even if the rose was hybridized or discovered after 1867, it is considered "old" if it belongs to one of these classes.
It is more than nostalgia or historical significance that makes old garden roses popular. They have virtues of their own-beauty, charm, fragrance, low maintenance, long life, and sometimes hardiness. Plants vary in size from dwarf to giant, with flowers of all colors that range in form from delicate singles to the fullest of very doubles.
The old-rose category is made up of a large number of subclasses. The most common of these are:
- Alba Roses
- Bourbon Roses
- Centifolia Roses
- China Roses
- Damask Roses
- Eglanteria Roses
- Gallica Roses
- Hybrid Alba Roses
- Hybrid Foetida Roses
- Hybrid Perpetual Roses
- Hybrid Spinosissima Roses
- Moss Roses
- Noisette Roses
- Portland Roses
- Species Rosies
- Tea Roses
There are also a number of relatively obscure classes:
- Ayrshire
- Boursault
- Hybrid Bracteata
- Hybrid Bourbon
- Hybrid Canina
- Hybrid China
- Hybrid Multiflora
- Hybrid Sempervirens
- Hybrid Setigera
Most of these are rare both in gardens and in commerce.
Modern Roses
Since the modern classification of roses began in 1867, hybridizers have created many new classes and varieties of modern roses, expanding the color palette to bright colors, blends, and bicolors, and introducing more and more continually blooming varieties. Although some old garden roses showed repeat bloom (such as 'Autumn Damask', which blooms twice a season), it was not until the China and tea roses were brought to Europe from the Orient that rose growers knew continual repeat bloom. This capacity for summer-long blooming has been passed on to modern roses. Modern roses include:Climber Roses
- Floribunda Roses
- Grandiflora Roses
- Hybrid tea Roses
- Miniature Roses
- Polyantha Roses
- Rambler Roses
- Shrubs Roses
- Tree Roses