10 Roses we know you'll love | SA Garden and Home

Fragrant and full-petalled these roses are a feast for the senses

1. Princess Charlene de Monaco

This very disease-resistant shrub rose has a modern vigour making it an excellent garden rose. The old-fashioned pickable blooms last well in the vase.

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Good to know: Lightly fragrant pale-pink blooms are overlaid with a pink-ochre tint. The individual blooms are full petalled and deeply cupped.

Make the most of it: This medium tall rose (growing up to 1,8m high) can be planted in groups or mixed in normal rose beds.

2. Happy Home

This compact floribunda flowers non-stop, and when planted next to a driveway or in beds near the house entrance, will welcome you home every day.
Good to know: This new Eco Chic rose requires little care. The stiff-petalled full blooms have an interesting colour blend: a deep apricot that takes on a pink shimmer as the unfolding petals are exposed to sunlight.

Make the most of it: It’s ideal for border or foreground plantings in mixed beds.

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3. McHardy

Chest-high and compact, this Antico Moderno shrub rose produces huge, full-petalled blooms with a blend of orange and deep apricot. It’s also a superb cut rose.
Good to know: At every stage, the bloom is beautiful: from the urn-shaped bud, to half open when it looks like a classical hybrid tea, and then, as all 45 petals unfold, a stunning huge bloom.

Make the most of it: Plant with hybrid tea or floribunda roses in mixed beds. It’s also suitable for containers.

4. Thank You

A real showstopper, this Fairy Tale shrub rose produces colossal candelabras of up to 30 fairly big, full blooms. Each of them is in the shape of the popular old-fashioned English rose.Good to know: The long-lasting blooms have firm stiff petals which can withstand heat and rain for a prolonged period. The colour is a pleasing blend of light and deep pink.

Make the most of it: Excellent for filling large beds and substantial borders, or for growing in large pots.

5. Munstead Wood

This broad bushy shrub from David Austin has distinctive cup-shaped flowers that are light crimson in the bud. As the centre gradually reveals itself, they become a deep velvety crimson while the outer petals remain lighter.

Good to know: As the flower ages, the stigma and stamens are seen among the petals. There’s a strong Old Rose fragrance with fruity notes of blackberry, blueberry and damson.

Make the most of it: A good specimen rose for mixed borders and large containers.

Did you know? Munstead Wood was Gertrude Jekyll’s own garden in Surrey, England, where she worked on her many gardening books.

6. Lioness Grandi Rosa

This is the first variety in a brand new range of extremely strong-growing, disease-resistant spire roses. Its breeding line includes two of South Africa’s most popular roses: ‘Esther Geldenhuys’ and ‘South Africa’.
Good to know: This neat upright Spire rose grows to a formidable height of 3m. Strong stems sprout continuously from all levels of this stately plant to produce massive clusters of big, fragrant blooms with the tawny colouring of a lioness.

Make the most of it: Use it to hide walls and fences or as a single, statement-making specimen. This very tough rose needs to be planted in a large, wide hole, as big as that required by a tree.

7. Forgive Me

The compact, dense growth habit of this floribunda, with hardly a shoot out of place, ensures a well-rounded bush that flowers non-stop deep into winter.
Good to know: The smallish (3cm) open blooms are a pleasing blend of light salmon on the reverse of each petal and a strong coral on the inside.

Make the most of it: With its tough, disease-resistant glossy foliage, it’s an ideal bedding and border rose and performs well in pots and on standard stems.

8. Palace Roses (Poulsen)

These bushy, compact roses with large double flowers are ideal for containers. The colours include semi-double yellow Atlantis ‘Poulsiana’ (pictured), dark-red Grand ‘Poulgrad’, bright-orange Olympic var. ‘Poulymp’ and deep-pink Topkapi ‘Poulthe’.

Good to know: The long-lasting double blooms have a distinctive scent and make good picking roses.

Make the most of it: They can be grown in pots indoors and out.

9. Blooming Easy

The roses in this selection are rambling with double or semi-double, old-fashioned, lightly scented blooms. The range includes bright red ‘Balbo’, ‘Cheek to Cheek’ (pink undertones) and soft pink ‘Mamma Mia’ (pictured).

Good to know: Unlike traditional climbers that bloom at the end of their stems, these roses bloom from the bottom to the top, creating the effect of flowering columns.

Make the most of it: Train up trellises, over arches, along fences and up pillars.

10. Flower Power Panarosa

Like ‘Iceberg’, this large shrub rose persistently resprouts short flowering stems from the old wood. The mature size of this remarkable Panarosa is 2–3m high and wide.
Good to know: Its full-petalled pink blooms are enhanced by an overlay of deep salmon and a yellow base to each of the 80 petals. The heavy blooms cause the stems to arch gracefully, adding to its appeal.