if you could have a rose garden, would you choose old style roses or modern?

Answer 1

If I was only allowed to choose one or the other, I would go with a careful selection of modern roses. The reason for this would be the relative hardiness from disease and the repeat blooming nature of the modern roses, as opposed to the usual single but intense flush of flowers in the old roses. Among the modern roses are ones with many different colors, forms, and fragrances, and many of them have the charms of the old-fashioned ones.
In reality, I grow a couple of old varieties of roses along with my modern hybrids. And you could have the best of both worlds by planting the David Austin roses, which combine the beautiful and varied forms and fragrances of the old style roses with the repeat blooms of the newer varieties.

Answer 2

amymarie,
You would do good to figure out what kind of roses appeal to you. If I were to plan a rose garden, I would choose some for fragrance, some for long stem cuttings, and some for color.

Next I would look to some of my favorites to see if they were the ones that could do the job I would have to do.

Fragrance:
Double Delight ( Red and white two-tone)
Yves Piaget ( Lavender- Purple)
Belaroma (Yellow w/ pink edges)

Long Stem Cutting:
Opening Night (Red)
Mr. Lincoln (dark Red)
Oranges & Lemons ( a floribunda!)
Bewitched (pink)

Color:
Purple Tiger (Purple & white picotee)
George Burns ( floribunda yellow and pink blend picotee)
Trumpeter ( Red/Orange floribunda)
Queen Elizabeth ( nice Pink)
St. Patrick (yellow to yellow green)

Climbers:
Eden ( Pink and probablty the best of all roses, light fragrance)
Joseph Coat (orange red and pink and orange continuous blooming a challenge)

Have fun with what you are doing. Do not crowd them. Use pots, they do fine in pots about 16" or better, to avoid crowing in the beds.

Answer 3

I have the tradional rose in my garden, fromtalking to others I found that they are usually a harder plant and the blooms last longer .I do find some of the new breeds of roses quite pretty.

Answer 4

Variety! Some of both but heavy on the Old fashion heirloom roses---they are not as high maintenance & are less prone to disease. Would research which ones do best with soil & growing zone for my area of the world.

Answer 5

I think to create a nice mix of color I'd use both styles. It would also afford me the ability to grow those types of roses that bloom nicely and provide a wonderful fragrance. You'd get the best of both worlds.

Answer 6

Both. Roses are very pretty. Have you ever read Gerald Durrell? When he lived in Corfu he had a very wondrous experience with his tutor's old mother. It's beautiful. But in my garden I would have a mosaic of flowers for the different painted butterflies, bees and birds. I would love to attract hummingbirds to my garden. The occasional one does flit by but I would like it to stay.

Answer 7

We have many roses in our gardens. Not sure what you mean by old style roses??

We have rose bushes, climbing roses, crawling roses. Roses are just beautifl. It is so great when my husband cuts some and brings them in to me so we can enjoy them inside too!

Answer 8

Modern style for me. They are hardy and don't need as much babying as the old style. The blooms are bigger and last longer. If you have the time and patience the old style has more character.

Answer 9

Old fashioned roses. Many of the newer ones don't even smell prettty even though they look nice.I love the old fashioned bush type roses.

Answer 10

Go with what you like, old roses smell good and are vigorous, the newer varities have nice colors. try several areas dedicated to the differernt types and in thirty years you can decide what you like...