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Old Garden Roses

The appreciation of roses dates back many centuries. Dried roses have been found in Egyptian tombs and rose fragrance was extracted for use in rose oil and oil of attar in ancient Persia. Many ancient varieties were carried west to Europe during the Crusades and harboured in monastery gardens during the Dark Ages. Since then roses have been collected and hybridized all over the world, but it was in Europe that gardens were established to hold massive collections of what we now refer to as Old Garden Roses (OGRs).

The oldest — the Gallicas, Damasks, Albas, Centifolias, and the Mosses that sported from them — we refer to as the first group of Old Garden Roses. With few exceptions, these roses flower only in summer, providing a great show with masses of flowers, perfuming the garden and showering it with pink or white petals. This group is generally very cold hardy and extremely disease resistant. Pruning is not absolutely necessary but trimming them back by a third in early spring will encourage shapelier bushes and larger flowers. Once established, OGR's are very drought tolerant and easy to grow.

The Alba Roses	The Bourbon Roses	The Centifolia Roses
The China Roses	The Damask Roses	The Gallica Roses
The Hybrid Perpetual Roses	The Moss Roses	The Noisettes
	The Portland Roses

Updated March 2011