Floribunda roses are well-loved for their beautiful flowers, delicious scent and repeat flowering habit, gracing your garden with blooms from early June until late autumn. They produce flowers in clusters in a wide range of colours and styles, ranging from bright to pastel colours, striped or spotted blooms. Developed by crossing hybrid teas with polyantha roses, they are strong-growing, stiff shrubs - smaller and bushier than hybrid tea roses but less dense and sprawling than the average polyantha.
They are easy to grow and manage – requiring a hard prune in winter, two feeds a year in spring and summer and dead-heading after flowers have faded to encourage the production of more fresh new blooms. Modern floribunda roses have strong disease resistance and new varieties are being created all the time – so we are constantly extending and revising our range!
What are floribunda roses?
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Brief history of floribunda roses
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Comparison of floribunda, hybrid tea and polyantha roses
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How to choose a floribunda rose
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Where to grow floribunda roses
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When to plant a floribunda rose
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How to plant a floribunda rose
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Growing floribunda roses in containers
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Pruning floribunda roses
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Caring for floribunda roses through the seasons
Floribundas are stiff, bushy, upright shrub roses characterised by clusters of flowers borne repeatedly throughout summer and autumn. The name “floribunda” is Latin for “many flowering”. Each flower is smaller than hybrid teas and they normally aren’t as fragrant but the large clusters of blooms gives an impressive floral display. Hardy and free flowering, their showy, fragrant blooms are grown for display, rather than used as cut flowers as the stems are shorter than hybrid tea roses. Floribunda roses are particularly well suited to providing permanent structure to bedding displays, growing in containers on the patio, or incorporating into the front of shrub or mixed borders.
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Floribundas were developed by cross breeding hybrid teas with polyantha roses, with the intention of creating roses which bloomed as profusely as polyanthas but with the beauty and range of colours of hybrid teas. Danish rose breeder Dines Poulsen introduced the first polyantha/hybrid tea cross in 1907, producing a rose called ‘Red Riding Hood’. Initially called a Hybrid Polyantha or Poulsen rose, it demonstrated characteristics of both its parents. Poulsen and other breeders introduced several other Hybrid Polyantha roses in the early 1900s, including ‘Else Poulsen’ in 1924. In 1930, Dr J.N. Nicolas, a rose hybridiser in the US coined the name “floribunda” which has been used ever since to refer to roses that are a cross between hybrid teas and polyanthas.
Floribunda roses are smaller than a typical hybrid tea but less compact and sprawling than your usual polyantha. Blooms have the classic hybrid tea shape and are available in the same impressive range of colours, making them a great addition to a rose bed, mixed border or even a container on the patio. Classifications between different types of roses can sometimes be confusing at best. In the table below we’ve tried to demystify the main differences between floribunda, hybrid tea and polyantha roses to help you to understand which might be most suitable for your site and situation.
There are a wide range of floribunda roses available in the same impressive range of colours as hybrid tea roses, so it’s worth considering which is best suited to your site and situation.
Whilst selection is partly a matter of personal taste, give some thought to these points when choosing a floribunda rose:
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Floribunda roses grow best in full sun in a moist yet free-draining soil. They will thrive on clay providing the ground does not lie wet…
Potted roses can be planted at any time of the year, although from the beginning of autumn to early spring is best as this is when they are dormant. Bare root roses are available to plant during the dormancy period between November and the end of March. Do not plant roses if the ground is frozen or waterlogged. If the conditions are not appropriate, keep containerised plants in an unheated outbuilding and 'heel in' bare root roses by digging a trench in ordinary garden soil and placing the roots inside and covering with loose soil. Provide additional fleece protection if conditions are particularly harsh.
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Double-dig the soil before planting to eliminate compaction and ensure it is well aerated. Dig your planting hole wide enough to comfortably accommodate the roots and deep enough so the graft will rest at soil level (to spot the graft point look for a bulge at the base of the shoots). Spread the roots across the planting hole and backfill using a mix of the dug soil plus plenty of well-rotted organic matter such as garden compost, recycled green waste or manure. We also recommend mixing in a generous helping of rose feed as roses are heavy feeders. Firm the soil down and water well.
Roses also grow well in containers, which is a good option if you have a heavy clay soil or just want to add a splash or colour to the patio. Choose a deep container to accommodate the rose plants deep tap root system (except for miniatures where you will get away with a smaller pot).
Choose a loam-based compost such as John Innes No 3, water well and top-dress with rose fertiliser each April. All other planting steps are the same as for growing roses in the ground (see above) but you'll need to pay special attention to feeding your rose using rose feed or another high potassium fertiliser regularly during the summer flowering period.
Correctly pruning your floribunda rose will ensure it grows vigorously and blooms well year after year. If repeatedly left unpruned, the branches of your rose bush will gradually tangle and start to look a mess.
Cold Protection
Floribunda roses are fully hardy, generally disease resistant and easy to care for. They are hardy to about minus 12 degree Celsius but we would suggest providing cold protection if the temperature stays below minus 6 degrees for an extended period of time. Horticultural fleece is best, but other permeable materials also work well.
Pests and Diseases
We only sell floribunda roses with an acceptable level of disease resistance; however, no roses are completely immune. We outline some of the main problems and how to overcome them below:
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