Rose 'Midnight Blue' (Floribunda)
The Mysterious Deep Purple Beauty with Intense Clove Fragrance
Rose 'Midnight Blue' stands as one of the most distinctive and captivating floribunda roses available, delivering unparalleled drama through its extraordinary deep velvety purple blooms that appear almost black in certain lighting conditions. This exceptional variety produces abundant clusters of double flowers in rich purple tones with contrasting white eyes and golden stamens, creating a mysterious and sophisticated garden display. With its intense spicy clove fragrance, compact bushy growth, near-thornless stems, and remarkable colour that deepens in cooler temperatures, 'Midnight Blue' represents the perfect choice for gardeners seeking both extraordinary beauty and distinctive character.
Headlines
- Type: Floribunda bush rose
- Eventual Height: 75cm
- Eventual Spread: 60cm
- Flowering: June to November
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -20 to -15 degrees Celsius (RHS hardiness rating H6)
- Growth Habit: Compact, bushy, rounded
- Colour: Deep velvety purple with white eyes, aging to dusky purple
- Form: Double blooms in large clusters up to 10 flowers
- Size: Medium-sized flowers (2.5 inches across)
- Petals: Double form with 25+ petals
- Fragrance: Intense spicy clove fragrance
Spectacular Flowers
The defining beauty of 'Midnight Blue' lies in its extraordinary deep velvety purple blooms that create an almost mystical garden presence unlike any other rose. These magnificent double flowers showcase rich black-purple tones with distinctive white eyes and prominent golden yellow stamens, creating a striking contrast that draws attention from across the garden.
The medium-sized blooms are produced in impressive large clusters of up to 10 flowers, with individual stems capable of producing up to 40 flowers, creating substantial colour impact throughout the season. The deep purple hues transition beautifully from rich purple to enchanting violet-magenta in varied lighting conditions, whilst developing deeper colour and bigger blooms in cooler temperatures.
Exquisite Fragrance
'Midnight Blue' offers gardeners the exceptional pleasure of an intense spicy clove fragrance that is truly unique in the rose world. This powerful, distinctive scent adds another dimension of charm to the garden experience, making it perfect for planting near seating areas, pathways, or windows where the remarkable fragrance can be fully appreciated and enjoyed.
Outstanding Garden Performance
This superb rose demonstrates exceptional garden performance through its compact, rounded growth habit and excellent health characteristics. The variety exhibits vigorous, bushy growth with bright green, semi-glossy foliage that provides attractive contrast to the mysteriously coloured flowers whilst maintaining excellent garden structure throughout the season.
'Midnight Blue' boasts near-thornless stems and tolerance of poorer soils, making it suitable for gardeners of all skill levels who want distinctive beauty with practical growing advantages. The compact constitution and healthy growth ensure dependable results year after year, whilst the manageable size makes it perfect for smaller gardens and container cultivation.
Continuous Flowering Performance
As a continual blooming floribunda, 'Midnight Blue' delivers spectacular displays from early summer through to the first frosts, ensuring months of mysterious purple colour and intense fragrance. In mild-winter climates, the variety can bloom nearly year-round, with reliable repeat flowering that maintains consistent garden impact for the maximum possible time.
This extended flowering performance means gardeners can enjoy the remarkable deep purple blooms and spicy clove fragrance virtually throughout the entire growing season, making it exceptional value for garden space and providing reliable seasonal colour that captivates continuously.
Growing Requirements
- Position: Full sun for best colour development and flowering
- Soil: Well-drained soil - tolerant of poorer soils
- Spacing: Allow adequate space for mature spread of 90cm
- Care: Easy care requirements with minimal intervention needed
- Winter Care: Hardy variety requiring minimal winter protection
The compact size and tolerance of poorer soils make this variety particularly versatile for various garden positions, making it perfect for smaller spaces, containers, or challenging soil conditions whilst still delivering exceptional performance.
Garden Uses
'Midnight Blue' offers exceptional versatility for various garden applications:
- Mixed Borders: Provides dramatic colour and reliable structure in perennial plantings
- Container Gardens: Perfect for pots and patio displays due to compact size
- Rose Gardens: Outstanding for collections requiring distinctive varieties
- Cut Flower Gardens: Exceptional for creating unique arrangements
- Hedging: Suitable for informal hedging applications
- Small Gardens: Ideal where space is limited but dramatic impact is desired
- Cottage Gardens: Perfect for adding mystery and sophistication
- Wildlife Gardens: Attracts pollinators with visible golden stamens
Breeding Heritage
Bred by the renowned Carruth in the United States in 2004, 'Midnight Blue' represents exceptional rose breeding achievement focused on creating distinctive colour and fragrance combinations. The Carruth breeding programme has earned recognition for producing roses with unique characteristics that stand out in the garden landscape.
This distinguished breeding background ensures both quality and reliability, making it a trusted choice for gardeners who appreciate roses with proven heritage and exceptional distinctive characteristics that cannot be found in traditional rose varieties.
Perfect for Cutting
The strong, near-thornless stems and extraordinary blooms make 'Midnight Blue' outstanding for cut flower arrangements. The deep purple blooms with white eyes create spectacular arrangements that provide unique colour and intense clove fragrance, perfect for indoor enjoyment and special occasions. The double form and contrasting colours add dramatic impact to arrangements.
Wildlife-Friendly Choice
'Midnight Blue' is highly beneficial for wildlife, with its prominent golden yellow stamens providing easy access to pollen and nectar for bees and other important pollinating insects. The open flower centres make it an excellent choice for gardeners seeking to support local wildlife whilst enjoying spectacular and fragrant blooms.
Companion Planting
The deep purple blooms with white eyes work beautifully with complementary colours such as silver foliage, cream, white, or soft yellow companions that enhance the dramatic colouring, whilst pink or red plantings create striking contrasts. The bright green foliage provides excellent structure and seasonal interest as a backdrop to other plants.
Care and Maintenance
'Midnight Blue' exemplifies easy-care gardening with its tolerance of poorer soils and compact, manageable size. The near-thornless stems make pruning and maintenance more comfortable, whilst the healthy constitution ensures reliable performance with minimal intervention required.
Regular deadheading encourages continued flowering throughout the season, whilst the compact growth habit means pruning requirements are minimal. The hardy nature and soil tolerance make it suitable for both novice and experienced gardeners.
Why Choose 'Midnight Blue'?
Rose 'Midnight Blue' represents the perfect choice for gardeners seeking a truly unique rose that combines extraordinary deep purple beauty with intense fragrance and practical growing characteristics. Its distinctive colouring, spicy clove fragrance, compact growth habit, near-thornless stems, and tolerance of poorer soils make it both a stunning garden feature and practical growing choice.
Whether you're creating dramatic colour schemes in borders, seeking distinctive roses for containers, wanting varieties with unique characteristics, looking for roses suitable for smaller spaces, or desiring roses that support wildlife whilst providing intense fragrance, 'Midnight Blue' delivers outstanding results. Its exceptional breeding credentials, proven garden reliability, and mysterious deep purple blooms make it an essential choice for gardeners who appreciate roses that combine horticultural excellence with distinctive beauty and remarkable fragrance that provides reliable colour and charm throughout the growing season.
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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