The Most Beautiful Types of Roses You’ll Ever See

Fresh roses have a kind of beauty that has stood the test of time.  

There are over 150 species of roses and perhaps more than a thousand hybrids and cultivars. Each stem is unique and undeniably beautiful.

To better understand and appreciate this type of flower, let us bunch roses together into three main groups -- wild roses or species roses, old garden roses, and modern garden roses -- and let us breakdown the details as we go along.

Wild Roses or Species Roses

Rosa Canina

The wild rose varieties are technically called species roses, which can also go by the names pasture rose, prairie rose, eglantine, sweetbriar, and scotch briar. This group refers to naturally occurring types of roses in the wild without hybridizing or crossbreeding intervention. They are mostly native to different parts of Europe, Asia, and North America.  True wild roses are single blooms composed of five petals that come in various shades of pink and a few white, yellow, and red. This is a good way to find out whether a rose is wild or a hybrid.

Excellent examples of common species roses include Rosa California (which hails from the Sierra Nevada mountains) and Rosa Nutkana (frequently called Nootka rose seen in Alaska, California, all the way down the Pacific Coast.)

Old Garden Roses

Rosa Chinensis

Old garden roses consist of all traditional types of roses that were bred before 1867, the creation of hybrid tea roses.  These classic roses are also called heritage roses or historic roses. They are best known for their signature flower shape, high petal count, fragrance, and impressive ability to fight diseases and endure extremely cold seasons. Old garden roses typically flower once a year during the summertime.

Here are popular examples of old garden roses:

• Alba roses (Maiden’s Blush, Pompon Blanc Parfait, Madame Plantier)
• Bourbon roses  (Louise Odier, Madame Pier Oger, La Reine Victoria)
• China roses (Louis Phillippe, Hume’s Blush, Parson’s Pink China)
• Damask roses (Hebe’s Lip, Madame Hardy, Leda)
• Noisette roses (Milkmaid, Blush, Celine Forestier)
• Tea roses (Safrano, Maman Cochet, Catherine Mermet)

Modern Garden Roses

Peace Tea Roses

All known rose varieties bred after 1867 are classified as modern garden roses. Now, this is where it gets a little complicated and confusing because there are some entangled with Old Garden Roses in their flower lineage. However, it is important to note that roses are categorized according to their specific growth and flowering characteristics.

A winning quality of most modern garden roses is that they broom prolifically and continuously. They also boast of large flower heads that last a long time as cut flower arrangements. A downside would be that most modern garden rose variety have no fragrance and can be vulnerable to common plant diseases.

Check out these examples of Modern Garden roses.

Climbing roses (Sunset Memory, Breath of Life, Blaze)

English roses or David Austin roses (Queen of Sweden, Renaissance, Charles Austin)

Hybrid Tea roses (La France, Peace, Moon Shadow)

Floribunda (Heidi Klum, Anne Harkness)

Grandiflora (Montezuma, Queen Elizabeth)

Miniature roses (Lemon Delight, Venus)

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