Roses

Garden roses are the most popular and widely planted flowering plants especially in mild and temperate climates like Southern California.

It is believed that roses have been cultivated since 5,000 years ago. Records exist of roses being grown in ancient Chinese and Greek gardens, including gardens in ancient Babylon. Paintings of roses have also been discovered in Egyptian pyramids.

The modern rose as we know it today was bred from wild roses hybridized with cultivars of the China rose. Hybridizing started in Europe with Empress Josephine of France patronizing the development of rose breeding in her Malmaison garden.

There are three main group classifications of roses namely wild rose, old garden and modern garden. Wild roses also known as species roses are low maintenance and have one flush of bloom per year. Old garden roses are roses that existed before the introduction of modern roses; they are also known as heritage roses. Modern roses are hybrids of wild and old garden roses.

Modern roses are further classified into hybrid tea, grandiflora, floribunda, polyantha, miniature, climbers, pillars, English, shrub and rugosas.

Hybrid Teas are the most popular class with their characteristic high centered blooms. Most Hybrid Teas produce large high centered blooms on long stems. Many are fragrant and are disease resistant. Although most Hybrid Teas sold at nurseries are no longer fragrant. They need hard pruning every spring in order to produce large and healthy blooms. In Southern California, hard pruning can be done almost any time of the year. 

Another popular modern rose are the Floribunda roses. They produce clusters of blooms that are smaller than Hybrid Tea blooms. In Southern California they tend to bloom continuously. They are shorter and are great when planted in groups. The Iceberg rose is a  Floribunda.

English rose is a hybrid of Hybrid Tea and Old Rose. English roses are very fragrant and hundreds of petals. This type of rose is hybridized by David Austen.