What are old roses, English roses, and antique roses?
A poet once wrote, "And no one knows through what wild centuries roves back the rose." The roses we see in our nurseries today are, for the most part, Hybrid Tea roses, a misnomer because they have almost no tea rose in them. They are hybrids of the Hybrid Perpetuals beloved by our grandparents, which unlike the old, rare and unusual roses of the past had more than one anual flowering.
But the old roses, the Albas, Gallicas, Damasks, Moss and other varieties are still unsurpased in their beauty. For many, they make the Hybrid Teas which have supplanted them seem more like the creations of L’Oreal than the creations of nature. They are hard to find, being carried only by a few specialized nurseries in this couintry. But the experience of seeing, for example, a moss rose, in full bloom is a thing unmatched. The Empress Jospehine had a famous garden of these roses at Malmaison, outside Paris. Joesph Redoute’s paintings of these roses give us a sense of their rare beauty.
Arent they all the same? The answer is no; they are all different and have different growth and bloom styles. The first rose to consider is the hybrid tea rose. This is the style of rose that you often find in bouquets and at the florist. The style is a single blossom held at the end of a straight stem. Because the hybrid tea has been so well marketed by the florist industry it has become the most recognizable and popular style of rose grown by most gardeners. There are literally hundreds of hybrid tea rose cultivars available and more are being developed each year. The grandiflora rose and the floribunda roses are somewhat similar in bloom and growth habit. The major difference is the size of the actual blossom. The grandiflora usually has a larger size blossom. These roses are a wonderful addition to any rose garden. They are sometimes called spray roses in the florist industry and are gaining popularity. This type of rose offers an interesting choice to the home gardener. The way th
