Heritage Rose Types

A simple approach to the different kinds of Heritage Roses


Alba Roses
The Alba roses form large shrubs with bluish grey leaves and usually white or pale pink, wonderfully scented flowers. They flower only in late spring or early summer, but have a long season and when well grown, the whole bush is covered with flowers.

Ancient Gallicas
Gallica Roses are usually short, with rather floppy branches and rich red flowers. Their superb scent and intense colour made them one of the most popular flowers in medieval gardens.

Damask Roses
The Damask roses were probably grown in the Greek colonies in Asia Minor for their beauty and for their essential oil which was used to make Attar of Roses. They are thought to be hybrids between Rosa gallica and the wild Musk rose of southern Turkey, -Rosa Phoenicia.

Centifolia Roses
Centifolias make rather floppy shrubs and flower only in late spring or early summer, but their flowers are beautiful and the scent is excellent.

Centifolia Moss Roses
Moss roses first appeared as sports or mutants of Rosa x centifolia. The twigs and the sepals are covered with dense masses of sticky glands which are strongly scented.

Damask Moss Roses
Many different varieties of Damask roses were raised. Some of them had China roses in their ancestry, so that reliable repeat-flowering Mosses were produced.

Portland Roses
The original Portland rose is a good red and valued for its late flowering. Other similar crosses came to be grouped with the Portlands and extended the colour range of this small group.

Bourbon Roses
Usually highly scented, they repeat flower from spring through to autumn, if given sufficient water.

Old China Roses
The introduction of the perpetual-flowering China rose into rose breeding brought repeat flowering into European cultivated roses, and led to the development of the Teas and Hybrid Teas.

Old Tea Roses
Among the roses introduced from China was 'Hume's Blush Tea-scented China ', with large delicate, pale pink flowers This was the first of the dwarf repeat-flowering Tea roses in Europe . It was crossed with a second Chinese rose, ‘Parks' Yellow Tea-scented China' and from them came the Teas, which flower throughout the year in mild climates.

Noisettes
There are two types of Noisettes, those that have large trusses of small flowers eg 'Blush Noisette' or 'Aimee Vibert' and others that have large flowers like 'Lamarque'.

Hybrid Perpetuals
Hybrid Perpetuals combine repeat flowering with large flowers, excellent scent and strong colours. They are hardier than Teas, but do seem to suffer badly from powdery mildew.

Hybrid Musks
Hybrid Musk roses are well scented with masses of medium-sized flowers in white, cream, pink, buff and red.

Hybrid Teas
The Tea roses were delicate in other features as well as colour, needing a warm climate with rain in summer and little frost in winter. Breeders crossed them with the Hybrid Perpetuals, to form the Hybrid Teas. The Hybrid Teas have proved adaptable to most climates and are available in many colours.

Climbing Hybrid Teas
Some Hybrid Tea roses mutated and produced climbing forms.

Species Roses
There are about 150 species of wild rose, but less than a dozen have gone into the creation of all the thousands of cultivated roses. Most have small single flowers and flower only once, in spring or early summer.

(Based on Traditional Old Roses by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix)