12 Best Types of Roses to Plant in Your Garden
These easy-to-grow roses will make any yard look (and smell) amazing!
Is there any flower more classic, and more beloved, than a rose? Ree Drummond started growing her own roses after marrying Ladd, and for her, they symbolize both wildness and refinement—which is why she has included the flower in so many of her Pioneer Woman dish patterns. “I love how they can grow in neat bushes and behave themselves, or they can crawl up a trellis and take off in different directions. And they’re tough!” she says.
Because roses have been cultivated for so long (the first rose gardens appeared in China about 5,000 years ago), there are now hundreds of types of roses. In general, you’ll find three groups: old garden roses (aka heirloom or antique roses), which have a strong fragrance and bloom once per season; wild roses, which are almost always pink; and modern hybrid roses, which are sturdy and bloom continuously but often have a lighter fragrance.
No matter what type of roses you choose to plant in your garden, there are some basic things you should know to get your garden growing. First, find the right spot. Roses like lots of sun—at least six hours a day—and well-drained fertile soil. Go easy with watering (daily for new plants and weekly watering after that), and use a bloom-boosting fertilizer just once a month. Many roses suffer from fungal infections like black spot and powdery mildew, so it's worth it to apply a fungicidal spray in the spring to prevent problems all summer. And insects love roses almost as much as people do, so check your roses often: Hose off any aphids with a strong stream of water, and handpick beetles off the plants.
Now, you're ready! Gather up your gardening tools, slip on some gardening gloves, and get to planting these gorgeous, popular rose varieties.
Oklahoma Rose
This intensely fragrant hybrid tea rose was bred in the 1960s by an Oklahoma State University grad and is the state’s official flower. It blooms in summer and does best in warm temperatures.
Rosa Blanda
Also known as Smooth Wild Rose, this no-nonsense North American native produces lots of pink flowers throughout the summer months. Its fragrant blossoms are followed by red fruits that attract birds.
Lark Ascending Rose
Ree loves an apricot-colored rose. This lightly scented option has double blooms that open upward on four-to five-foot shrubs. It’ll start flowering in spring and repeat until fall.
New Dawn Rose
The World Convention of Rose Societies once voted this fresh-smelling modern rose the most popular rose in the world! A vigorous climber, it can reach 15 feet and looks great trained up a wall, fence, or arbor.
Charles Darwin Rose
The yellow blooms on this plant are some of the largest you can find on an English rose. It grows as a bushy four-foot shrub, so plant it in the front of a border for maximum impact. It’ll do well even in part sun.
Moondance Rose
Glossy green leaves and tall clusters of striking creamy white blooms give this modern hybrid rose its elegant look. Even better, it grows on trouble-free shrubs—and it smells like raspberries!
Ispahan Rose
This is a type of damask rose (an old garden rose famous for being used in perfume). It features fragrant, ruffly pink blooms that appear mostly in the summer, with a slight repeat in fall.
Blanc Double de Coubert Rose
This fragrant shrub rose is a perfect choice if you don’t want to worry about pruning. Let it grow big; once the flowers fade, red rose hips provide an extra season of color.
Blush Noisette Rose
This soft pink, mildly fragrant rose blooms on a thornless shrub, so it’s great if you have kids—or if you’re accident prone! It does best in climates with mild winters and hot summers.
Altissimo Rose
Altissimo means very high, an apt name for this vigorous climbing rose, which can quickly scale a 12-foot wall or blanket a large arbor. The deep red flowers will repeat throughout the season.
Mother of Pearl Rose
Peachy-pink with a light perfume, this flower is a grandiflora rose, a type of modern hybrid known for its showy blooms. It’s winter-hardy and resistant to black spot, so it’s super low-maintenance.
Flower Carpet Rose
If you’re looking for a low-growing rose that covers a lot of ground, try this option. Flower Carpets are famous for being fuss-free, they come in nearly every color, and they bloom repeatedly until frost.
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