100 Different Types of Roses: A Guide for Gardeners
With thousands of registered rose cultivars in existence, no single list could realistically cover every one, but nearly all of them fall into a manageable number of classes that share similar growth habits, bloom style, and care needs. The ten categories below walk through close to a hundred named varieties between them, giving a genuinely useful starting point for choosing roses by what they actually do in a garden, not just how they look in a photo.
Hybrid Tea Roses for Classic, Long-Stemmed Blooms
Hybrid tea roses for classic, long-stemmed blooms are what most people picture when they think of a rose, producing one large, high-centered flower per stem, ideal for cutting.
Popular Hybrid Tea Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular hybrid tea varieties worth knowing include Mister Lincoln, Peace, Double Delight, Chrysler Imperial, Fragrant Cloud, Elizabeth Taylor, Signature, Miss All-American Beauty, Pascali, and Tropicana.
Why Hybrid Teas Need More Attentive Care
Why hybrid teas need more attentive care comes down to their breeding history, since decades of selecting for flower form sometimes traded away some of the natural disease resistance found in older rose classes.
Floribunda Roses for Clustered, Continuous Color
Floribunda roses for clustered, continuous color produce flowers in generous clusters rather than one bloom per stem, giving a fuller, more continuous show of color throughout the season.
Popular Floribunda Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular floribunda varieties worth knowing include Iceberg, Julia Child, Sunsprite, Angel Face, Europeana, Betty Boop, Easy Does It, Playboy, Sexy Rexy, and Amber Queen.
Why Floribundas Suit Landscape Beds Better Than Cutting Gardens
Why floribundas suit landscape beds better than cutting gardens comes down to their cluster habit, which reads better as a mass of color in a border than as individual cut stems.
Grandiflora Roses for the Best of Both Worlds
Grandiflora roses for the best of both worlds combine hybrid tea-style blooms with floribunda-style clustering, typically on taller, more vigorous plants than either parent class.
Popular Grandiflora Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular grandiflora varieties worth knowing include Queen Elizabeth, Gold Medal, Love, Dick Clark, Cherry Parfait, Fame!, Tournament of Roses, and Crimson Bouquet.
Where Grandiflora Roses Work Best in a Garden
Where grandiflora roses work best in a garden tends to be toward the back of a border, given their height, or as a tall, informal hedge along a property line.
Climbing Roses for Vertical Garden Impact
Climbing roses for vertical garden impact produce long, flexible canes that can be trained up trellises, arbors, and fences, adding height and drama that bush-form roses can’t provide.
Popular Climbing Rose Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular climbing rose varieties worth knowing include New Dawn, Zephirine Drouhin, Don Juan, Climbing Iceberg, America, Fourth of July, Joseph’s Coat, Blaze, William Baffin, and Climbing Peace.
Why Climbing Roses Need Tying and Training
Why climbing roses need tying and training comes down to their growth habit, since unlike true vines, climbing roses don’t attach themselves and need to be manually secured to a support structure.
Shrub Roses for Low-Maintenance Garden Color
Shrub roses for low-maintenance garden color have become one of the most popular categories for home gardeners, bred specifically for disease resistance and repeat blooming with minimal spraying or deadheading.
Popular Shrub Rose Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular shrub rose varieties worth knowing include Knock Out, Bonica, Carefree Beauty, Sally Holmes, Golden Wings, Abraham Darby, Graham Thomas, Lady of Shalott, and Sea Foam.
Why Shrub Roses Dominate Modern Landscape Plantings
Why shrub roses dominate modern landscape plantings comes down to their genuinely lower care requirements, making them a common choice in commercial landscaping and beginner gardens alike.
Miniature Roses for Small Spaces and Containers
Miniature roses for small spaces and containers scale down every part of the plant, typically topping out under 2 feet tall with proportionally small flowers and foliage.
Popular Miniature Rose Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular miniature rose varieties worth knowing include Rise ‘n’ Shine, Starina, Sun Sprinkles, Jean Kenneally, Gourmet Popcorn, Baby Boomer, Cinderella, and Green Ice.
Why Miniature Roses Suit Container and Balcony Gardens
Why miniature roses suit container and balcony gardens comes down to their compact root systems, which handle life in a pot considerably better than a full-sized hybrid tea would.
Old Garden Roses for Historic, Heirloom Charm
Old garden roses for historic, heirloom charm cover any class that existed before 1867, generally offering strong fragrance and old-fashioned form even if many bloom only once per season.
Popular Old Garden Rose Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular old garden rose varieties worth knowing include Souvenir de la Malmaison, Louise Odier, Rosa Mundi, Autumn Damask, Celsiana, Charles de Mills, Madame Isaac Pereire, Cardinal de Richelieu, and Baronne Prevost.
Why Old Garden Roses Are Prized for Fragrance
Why old garden roses are prized for fragrance comes down to breeding history, since fragrance was often bred out of later hybrid classes in favor of flower form, color, and repeat blooming.
Rambling Roses for Sweeping, Informal Coverage
Rambling roses for sweeping, informal coverage grow even more vigorously than climbers, capable of covering large structures, dead trees, or fences with a single flush of abundant spring blooms.
Popular Rambling Rose Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular rambling rose varieties worth knowing include Rambling Rector, Paul’s Himalayan Musk, American Pillar, Albertine, Veilchenblau, Seagull, Bobbie James, and Wedding Day.
Why Ramblers Need Significantly More Space Than Climbers
Why ramblers need significantly more space than climbers comes down to their scale, since a mature rambler can easily spread 20 feet or more, well beyond what a typical garden trellis can support.
Polyantha Roses for Compact, Prolific Blooming
Polyantha roses for compact, prolific blooming produce small flowers in dense clusters on compact, bushy plants, making them one of the most reliably floriferous rose classes available.
Popular Polyantha Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular polyantha varieties worth knowing include The Fairy, China Doll, Cecile Brunner, Marie Pavie, Perle d’Or, and Katharina Zeimet.
Why Polyantha Roses Work Well as Low Hedging
Why polyantha roses work well as low hedging comes down to their naturally compact, mounding shape, which stays tidy with minimal pruning compared with larger rose classes.
Groundcover Roses for Spreading, Low-Growing Color
Groundcover roses for spreading, low-growing color stay low to the ground while spreading horizontally, making them a genuinely useful option for slopes, borders, and areas that need low-maintenance color.
Popular Groundcover Rose Varieties Worth Knowing
Popular groundcover rose varieties worth knowing include the Flower Carpet series, the Drift series such as Coral Drift and Popcorn Drift, Red Cascade, Magic Carpet, Snow Carpet, and Nozomi.
Why Groundcover Roses Suit Slopes and Erosion Control
Why groundcover roses suit slopes and erosion control comes down to their spreading root systems, which help stabilize soil on a bank in a way an upright shrub rose generally can’t.
The Bottom Line
Choosing among a hundred or more named rose varieties gets far more manageable once the decision starts with class rather than individual cultivar: hybrid tea and floribunda for classic cutting-garden style, shrub roses for low-maintenance color, climbers and ramblers for vertical coverage, and miniatures or groundcover types for small spaces and slopes.
For related ideas, see our articles on Simple Steps for Creating a More Eco-friendly Garden, How to Start a No-Till Raised Bed Garden, and Plants That Like Wet Soil. This pairs well with A Complete Guide to Dogwood Tree Care and These Easy Shade Tips Could Save A Ton of Summer Crops.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Easiest Type of Rose to Grow for Beginners?
Shrub roses, particularly disease-resistant varieties like Knock Out and Bonica, are generally the easiest type of rose for beginners, requiring far less spraying and deadheading than hybrid teas.
What’s the Difference Between a Climbing Rose and a Rambling Rose?
Climbing roses generally bloom repeatedly through the season on a more manageable size, while rambling roses grow much larger and typically produce one abundant flush of blooms in spring.
Which Rose Type Has the Strongest Fragrance?
Old garden roses, including damask and Bourbon varieties, are generally prized as having the strongest, most complex fragrance among rose classes.
Can Miniature Roses Be Grown Indoors?
Miniature roses can be grown indoors near a sunny window for a period, but they generally perform better long-term outdoors or in an unheated space during winter dormancy.
How Many Types of Roses Are There in Total?
There are thousands of registered rose cultivars across roughly a dozen recognized classes, though most home gardeners choose from the handful of major categories covered in this guide.