Rose 'Blue For You' - Standard Rose Tree Floribunda Rose
A captivating award-winning floribunda rose that produces abundant clusters of extraordinary semi-double blooms in striking mauve-lilac that age to unique slate blue, combining exceptional colour transformation with outstanding garden performance and delicate fragrance throughout the growing season.
Headlines
- Plant Type: Hardy deciduous floribunda rose
- Eventual Height: 1.6m (90-120cm stem)
- Eventual Spread: 80cm diameter head
- Flowering Period: June to October
- Flower Colour: Mauve-lilac ageing to slate blue
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -20 to -15 degrees Celcius (RHS hardiness rating H6)
- Growth Habit: Compact, bushy, upright with rounded shape
- Flower Type: Semi-double to double, cupped blooms in large clusters
Overview
Rose 'Blue For You' is a truly remarkable floribunda rose that stands out for its extraordinary colour transformation and exceptional garden performance. This distinctive variety produces abundant clusters of semi-double flowers that begin as rich mauve-lilac and gradually age to an unusual slate blue, creating a dynamic and ever-changing display throughout the growing season. The most striking feature is its unique colour evolution that progresses from deep purple-mauve through lilac to pale slate blue, complemented by a pleasant light fragrance. With excellent disease resistance, compact growth habit, and prolific flowering performance, this rose represents one of the most unusual and captivating additions to contemporary gardens.
Key Features
The outstanding appeal of 'Blue For You' lies in its abundant clusters of semi-double, lightly fragrant blooms that showcase a remarkable colour transformation from rich mauve-lilac to distinctive slate blue. The flowers display a charming cupped form with 13-26 petals averaging 3.25 inches in diameter, creating substantial visual impact with each bloom. Each flower releases a pleasant, light fragrance that adds a delightful sensory dimension to the garden experience. The unusual and striking colour progression creates mesmerising displays that are both elegant and conversation-worthy. The combination of continuous flowering, excellent disease resistance, and compact growth habit makes this rose suitable for a wide range of garden applications.
Growth Characteristics
This floribunda rose displays a naturally compact, bushy growth habit that makes it exceptionally versatile for garden use. Typically reaching 1.6m in height including the lollipop stem with head diameter of 80cm, the plant develops into a neat, rounded shrub with excellent branching structure and upright growth. The medium-growing nature ensures robust performance whilst maintaining an attractive, well-proportioned shape. The compact growth habit makes it ideal for smaller gardens, mixed borders, or positioning where its unique flowering can be fully appreciated. The uniform habit ensures consistent performance whether planted individually or in groups, making it an excellent choice for contemporary garden schemes or mixed border plantings.
Flowering Performance
From June through to October, 'Blue For You' delivers an exceptional flowering display that continues consistently throughout the growing season. The plant produces masses of semi-double flowers in sizeable clusters, creating substantial visual impact with each flush of blooms. The flowers showcase charming cupped forms with the distinctive colour transformation from mauve-lilac to slate blue creating ongoing visual interest and depth. The repeat-flowering nature ensures continuous colour throughout the growing season, with the abundant clusters providing a fascinating display of colour evolution that captures attention throughout the months.
Growing Conditions
'Blue For You' thrives in full sun positions with well-drained, fertile soil, requiring at least 6 hours of direct sunlight daily for optimal flowering performance and colour development. The rose adapts well to various soil types providing adequate drainage is maintained, and shows good tolerance of typical garden conditions. For best results, plant in fertile, well-drained soil that has been improved with organic matter, ensuring consistent moisture throughout the growing season. The rose benefits from good air circulation around the foliage, which helps maintain the excellent disease resistance that characterises this variety.
Hardiness and Disease Resistance
This rose demonstrates excellent hardiness suitable for growing throughout the UK, being fully hardy to temperatures of -15°C and showing good tolerance of typical British weather conditions. One of the most notable features of 'Blue For You' is its excellent disease resistance, which significantly reduces maintenance requirements and ensures healthy growth throughout the season. The medium-sized, semi-glossy dark green foliage remains attractive and healthy, with natural resistance to common rose diseases including black spot and powdery mildew. This disease resistance makes it an excellent choice for organic gardening approaches and reduces the need for chemical interventions.
Care and Maintenance
'Blue For You' requires standard floribunda rose care to maintain optimal health and flowering performance. Apply a balanced fertiliser and mulch in late winter or early spring, followed by another application of balanced fertiliser in early summer to support continuous flowering. Regular watering during dry periods, particularly in the first year after planting, helps establish strong root systems. The excellent disease resistance means this variety requires minimal intervention, making it an easy-care option for busy gardeners. Deadheading regularly throughout the summer encourages continued flowering, whilst light pruning in late winter maintains the compact shape and promotes vigorous new growth.
Garden Applications
'Blue For You' excels in mixed borders where its compact habit and continuous flowering create sustained interest throughout the growing season. The rounded growth habit makes it ideal for formal bedding schemes, whilst the unusual flower colours suit both contemporary and traditional garden settings perfectly. The medium size makes it excellent for positioning in mid-border locations where the light fragrance can be appreciated. The rose works beautifully as a specimen plant or in groups, creating impressive displays that combine visual impact with unique colour transformation. The abundant clusters of blooms make it suitable for cutting, providing unusual flowers for indoor arrangements.
Container Growing
The compact growth habit and excellent disease resistance make 'Blue For You' exceptionally well-suited to container cultivation. The rose thrives in large containers on patios, balconies, and areas where soil conditions are challenging, making it perfect for urban gardening situations. Choose a container at least 50cm wide and deep with adequate drainage holes, and use high-quality multipurpose compost enriched with slow-release fertiliser. Container-grown specimens require more frequent watering and feeding than those planted in the ground, but the compact habit means they remain manageable whilst delivering exceptional flowering performance throughout the season.
Seasonal Interest
Throughout the growing season, 'Blue For You' provides continuous interest that evolves beautifully with the months. Spring brings the emergence of fresh, semi-glossy dark green foliage and the first flower buds, building anticipation for the main flowering display. The extended flowering season from June to October ensures months of colour and fragrance, with the mauve-lilac to slate blue blooms creating fascinating displays that showcase the remarkable colour transformation. The healthy foliage remains attractive throughout the season, providing an excellent backdrop for the unusual flower clusters. Even in winter, the neat branching structure provides some architectural interest whilst promising another year of spectacular flowering.
Cutting and Floral Arrangements
The clusters of semi-double, lightly fragrant blooms make 'Blue For You' exceptional for cutting and indoor arrangements. The unusual mauve-lilac to slate blue colour transformation works beautifully with a wide range of other flowers and foliage, whilst the light fragrance adds a subtle dimension to indoor displays. The cupped appearance of the blooms adds texture and interest to arrangements. The sturdy stems support the flower clusters well, making them suitable for both small posies and larger arrangements. The unique colour progression and semi-double form add distinctive appeal to arrangements, whilst the light fragrance provides a pleasant sensory experience.
Fragrance Profile
The pleasant, light fragrance of 'Blue For You' provides a delightful sensory experience in the garden. This subtle scent emanates from the clusters of blooms, creating a gentle fragrance that complements the visual beauty of the flowers. The light fragrance carries well in the garden without being overpowering, making it suitable for positions near seating areas where the subtle aroma can be appreciated. The delicate scent profile makes this rose particularly suitable for intimate garden settings or areas where a gentle fragrance is preferred.
Wildlife Value
The semi-double flowers with their accessible form provide valuable nectar sources for bees and other pollinators throughout the extended flowering season. The continuous blooming habit from June to October makes this rose an excellent choice for wildlife-friendly gardens, supporting local pollinator populations throughout the growing season. The light fragrance serves as a natural attractant for beneficial insects, contributing to a healthy garden ecosystem. The repeat-flowering nature ensures that wildlife benefits extend throughout the growing season, making this rose a valuable addition to pollinator-friendly garden schemes.
Companion Planting
The unique mauve-lilac to slate blue colours of 'Blue For You' provide excellent opportunities for companion planting with a wide range of garden plants. The unusual colour combination works beautifully with white and cream flowers, creating sophisticated contrasting displays. The rose pairs exceptionally well with silver-foliaged plants such as artemisia and lavender, creating elegant harmonious combinations. Yellow and orange flowers provide striking complementary contrasts to the blue tones. The compact habit makes it suitable for planting with herbaceous perennials, creating dynamic mixed borders that provide interest throughout the growing season.
Unique Colour Appeal
The most distinctive feature of 'Blue For You' is its remarkable colour transformation that sets it apart from conventional rose varieties. The flowers begin as rich mauve-lilac and gradually age to an unusual slate blue, creating a constantly evolving display that provides ongoing interest throughout the flowering season. This unique colour progression means that individual plants display multiple tones simultaneously, creating depth and complexity in garden displays. The unusual blue tones are particularly rare in roses, making this variety a conversation piece and a must-have for collectors of unusual garden plants.
Award Recognition
'Blue For You' has received recognition for its exceptional garden performance and outstanding qualities. Bred by Peter James and introduced in 2007, this variety has proven its worth in gardens across various climatic conditions. The recognition provides confidence in the rose's performance and indicates that it has been thoroughly tested and proven in garden conditions, making it a reliable choice for gardeners seeking proven excellence combined with unique characteristics.
Why Choose 'Blue For You'?
Rose 'Blue For You' represents the perfect combination of unique beauty, pleasant fragrance, and outstanding garden performance. The abundant clusters of semi-double blooms with their distinctive colour transformation from mauve-lilac to slate blue provide continuous colour and visual fascination from June through to October, whilst the excellent disease resistance ensures healthy growth with minimal maintenance. The compact, rounded growth habit makes it suitable for gardens of all sizes, from small urban spaces to large country gardens. Whether grown for its unusual blooms, light fragrance, or simply as a unique addition to the garden, this exceptional floribunda rose offers outstanding value and enduring beauty that will provide years of gardening pleasure and conversation.
Reasons to Buy Roses from Jacksons Nurseries
(1) ‘Excellent’ on Trustpilot
Buy with confidence from the only online rose grower rated ‘Excellent’ 4.9* on Trustpilot. We have been a trusted supplier of roses for 3 generations. We take pride in growing our own roses in the field before potting them up, allowing for meticulous quality control to sale.
(2) Best Prices Guaranteed – Direct from the Grower
Save £££s by buying direct from a grower you can trust. We’ve already price checked all of our roses against competitors so you don’t have to. We are so confident we offer the best value, if you find a rose of the same type and grade elsewhere, we’ll beat it by 10%.
(3) 12 Month Plants Guarantee
We offer a 12 month guarantee on every plant that you buy from us that we have classified as Fully Hardy. If a plant you've bought from us fails in the first year, we will either replace it or refund you. See our satisfaction guarantee page for more details and conditions.
(4) Third generation family-owned nursery specialising in roses
Jackson’s Nurseries is a 3rd generation family owned business which has been growing roses for over 60 years. Roses have always been our specialty, as you can see from the colourful array of blooms in the background to the old family photo below. Today, we offer over 200 different varieties of floribundas, hybrid teas, patio, shrub and David Austin roses. Our roses are initially grown in the field before being potted up for website dispatch.
(5) Grown at altitude to produce strong, healthy plants
Our North Staffordshire nursery is situated at 250 metres above sea level, producing strong, hardy plants that will thrive in your garden. Our nursery sits on clay, so you can be sure our roses can handle heavy soil too.
(6) Help & Advice and Aftercare
We are help to help you with any help and advice you need in choosing, planting and growing your roses before, during and after your purchase from us. The help and advice section of our website has extensive information, see below some examples of articles you may find useful:
- Different types of roses and what they each mean
- Guide to climbing roses
- Guide to floribunda roses
- Guide to hybrid tea roses
- How to plant a climbing rose
- How to grow hybrid tea roses
How our roses are supplied through the seasons
All our roses are cultivated in an open field and are carefully dug up when the weather is optimal, typically in October or November. While other nurseries supply roses bare root, once our field-grown roses have been potted up we supply them freshly potted. This better protects the roots and helps keep them moist in transit, ensuring your roses arrive as healthy as when they left our nursery. So don’t be alarmed if the compost comes away from the roots when you remove them from the pot.
The roses can remain in their pots over the winter, as long as they are properly watered and fed, but it's best to plant them out as soon as possible. If you do plant them straight away make sure the planting mix is prepared first, hold the root close to the top of the hole as you tip the pot upside down and try to keep as much compost as possible from falling away. They will already be pruned, so no additional pruning is needed except for trimming any dead tips. Regular pruning can start in late winter, the year after planting.
Rose Types
Hybrid Tea Roses (HT)
Hybrid Tea roses are probably the most popular group of roses, available in both bush and standard form they have long flower stems and shapely blooms. Blooms are typically medium to large in size, with many petals which form a distinct central cone.
Floribunda Roses (FL)
Floribunda roses bears its flowers in clusters or trusses, with several blooms open at time in each truss. A popular choice the Floribunda rose group is unrivalled for colour, reliability and longevity as a bedding display however the flower form in generally inferior to the Hybrid Tea.
Patio Roses (PATIO)
Patio roses were introduced in the 1980’s and the group now contains several popular varieties. Generally low-growing roses that were once grouped with the Floribuna group but have now been put in their own group of compact versions. Usually growing about 50cm high they make excellent plants for patio containers or at the front of borders.
Climbing Roses (CLM)
Climbing roses as the name suggests are the perfect choice for covering a wall or screen. Often grouped together with Ramblers, Climbers tend to have stiffer stems, larger flowers but smaller trusses than Ramblers.
Rambling Roses (RAM)
Rambling roses are often grouped with Climbing Roses but the ramblers tend to have a more pliable stems that can be used to run along the soil to use as groundcover or can be used to make weeping standards.
Miniature Roses (MINI)
Miniature roses have increased in popularity in recent years due to their versatility, even grown indoors as temporary pot plants that grow to a maximum height of 40cm. An ideal choice for planting in tubs, edging beds and rockeries.
English Roses (ENG)
Often referred to as Austin or David Austin Roses, English roses are hybrids of old English roses and more modern varieties bread by David Austin to provide the best of both, mixing old rose shapes and scents with more modern colour range, compact habits and repeat flowering.
Planting Advice
Roses like a generous root space, so dig a deep hole approximately twice as wide as the current root system, preferably adding composted organic matter to the soil. Never plant into frozen soil – in winter, await a frost-free period. Carefully remove the pot and gently tease the roots apart to spread them around the hole. Position the plant so that the ‘bud point’ (the place where the shoots emerge from, where the cultivated rose was grafted onto the rootstock) is at soil level. Replace the soil, firming it down gently, then water copiously. Ideally, a general purpose fertiliser should be applied to the surrounding soil as a top dressing. We also highly recommend the use of Rose Rootgrow, which provides a friendly fungus that prevents ‘rose replant syndrome’.
Buying our Roses
Pot Size
Most of our roses are supplied in a 4 litre pot although this may vary slightly depending on rose variety. If the size of pot differes significatly from 4 litres then we will make this clear somewhere on the product page.
Seasonality
Our roses are grown outdoors and as such are subject to seasonal changes. As we sell potted stock throughout the year your rose may not arrive and look like you expect it to. If you are uncertain how your rose will arrive (especially if buying for a gift) then we suggest you contact us prior to making a purchase.
Freshly Potted
Each year a new batch of roses is potted up ready for the following season. Once potted (usually November/December time) they go on sale as 'Freshly Potted'. If you purchase a freshly potted rose and plant it soon after you will find that when removing the rose from the pot there will be a lot of loose soil as the roots will not have had time to grow and bind the compost.
Pruned/Cut Back
In autumn the majority of our roses have finished flowering and begin to look untidy, at this point we prune them quite hard in preparation for the following season. We continue to sell roses throughout the year, when a rose has been pruned in such a way we will identify it has being so. If you are not sure what to expect then please ask prior to making a purchase. Some garden centres/supermarkets sell stock that has been grown abroad or in poly-tunnels so they look 'picture perfect' out of season, while this is ideal for a gift they are short lived once planted.
Aftercare
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