Rose 'Midnight Blue' – The Mysterious Dark Beauty
A captivating floribunda rose that brings an air of mystery and elegance to any garden with its extraordinary deep purple, almost black blooms. This remarkable variety produces nearly black, velvet purple 2 ½" roses with 25+ petals and a spice clove fragrance, like no other rose on the market. With its compact, rounded growth habit and distinctive colouring that ranges from dark dusky purple that looks almost black to lighter purple hues, 'Midnight Blue' creates an unforgettable focal point whilst remaining perfectly suited to smaller gardens and container cultivation.
Headlines
- Plant Type: Hardy deciduous floribunda/shrub rose
- Eventual Height: 1.6m
- Eventual Spread: 80cm
- Flowering Period: Summer to autumn (repeat flowering)
- Flower Colour: Deep velvety purple to nearly black
- Hardiness: Hardy in the UK down to temperatures of -20 to -15 degrees Celcius (RHS hardiness rating H6)
- Growth Habit: Compact, bushy, rounded
- Foliage: Light green, semi-glossy leaves
- Fragrance: Intense clove fragrance
- Position: Full sun preferred
- Soil Requirements: Well-drained, fertile soil; tolerant of poorer soils
Overview
Rose 'Midnight Blue' stands as one of the most distinctive roses in modern gardens, offering something truly unique for gardeners seeking dramatic colour and exceptional fragrance. Bred by Carruth, this remarkable variety combines the unusual appeal of its near-black colouring with practical garden performance. The rose's compact size of only 2 to 3 feet makes it easy to fit into nearly any landscape, whilst its mysterious beauty ensures it becomes a conversation piece in any garden setting.
Extraordinary Flower Characteristics
The defining feature of 'Midnight Blue' is its mesmerising colour that appears to shift depending on light conditions and bloom maturity. The flower has anywhere between 17 and 25 petals and a diameter of 2.75″ per rose once fully bloomed, with the base of the rose being lighter than the top of the petals. This gradient effect creates remarkable depth and visual interest in each bloom.
At its very best, it is a dark dusky purple that looks almost black, though the colour can vary, sometimes displaying reddish light-purple tones that still maintain the rose's distinctive character. The velvety texture of the petals adds to the flower's luxurious appearance and tactile appeal.
The intense clove fragrance provides an additional sensory dimension, with a spice clove fragrance, like no other rose on the market. This distinctive scent complements the rose's mysterious appearance perfectly, creating a truly multi-sensory garden experience.
Garden Performance and Reliability
This robust variety offers excellent garden performance with tolerance of poorer soils, making it suitable for a wide range of growing conditions. Caring for Midnight Blue roses is simple, since they require minimal upkeep once established, making it perfect for busy gardeners or those new to rose growing.
The light green semi-glossy, medium foliage provides an attractive backdrop for the dramatic blooms whilst remaining healthy throughout the growing season. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately many years with proper care.
Flowering Performance
'Midnight Blue' produces double flowers in clusters that provide continuous colour throughout the growing season. The repeat-flowering nature ensures gardeners enjoy waves of blooms from summer through to autumn, with each cluster presenting flowers at various stages of colour development.
The substantial petals and strong flower structure mean the blooms hold their form well in various weather conditions, providing reliable garden display and excellent cut flower potential.
Growing Conditions and Planting
Rose 'Midnight Blue' needs full sun, ideally basking in 6-8 hours of sunlight daily to develop its best colour and fragrance. This rose variety flourishes in well-drained, fertile soil with a slightly acidic to neutral pH, ideally between 6.0 and 7.0.
Care and Maintenance
The low-maintenance nature of 'Midnight Blue' makes it accessible to gardeners of all experience levels. Enrich the soil with organic matter like compost or well-rotted manure for optimal growth, and provide regular watering during dry periods.
Standard rose care practices apply: annual feeding with balanced rose fertiliser, regular deadheading to encourage successive blooms, and light pruning in late winter to maintain shape and promote healthy growth. The compact size means pruning requirements are minimal.
Versatile Garden Applications
The unique colouring and compact size of 'Midnight Blue' make it suitable for numerous garden applications. Its dramatic appearance works beautifully as a focal point in mixed borders, whilst the manageable size makes it perfect for smaller gardens where space is at a premium.
Can be planted as a hedge as well as in container, offering flexibility for various garden designs. The intense fragrance makes it ideal for positions near seating areas, pathways, or windows where the distinctive clove scent can be appreciated.
Container Excellence
It is suitable for container gardening, making 'Midnight Blue' perfect for patios, terraces, balconies, and small urban gardens. The compact, rounded growth habit adapts well to container cultivation, whilst the dramatic colouring provides maximum visual impact in limited space.
Use large containers with excellent drainage and high-quality compost for best results. Container-grown plants will require more regular watering and feeding but reward with the same spectacular blooms and fragrance as garden-planted specimens.
Seasonal Interest and Wildlife Value
'Midnight Blue' provides substantial interest throughout the growing season, with healthy foliage emerging in spring followed by the dramatic blooms that continue through summer and autumn. The semi-double flower form allows reasonable access for pollinators, whilst the intense fragrance attracts beneficial insects to the garden.
The unique dark colouring provides striking contrast against lighter flowers and silver foliage, creating dynamic seasonal combinations that evolve throughout the year.
Companion Planting
The mysterious dark blooms of 'Midnight Blue' create stunning combinations with lighter-coloured plants. Pair with silver foliage plants like artemisia, lamb's ear, or dusty miller to enhance the dramatic colouring. White or cream flowers provide elegant contrast, whilst purple and blue perennials create harmonious colour schemes.
For cottage garden appeal, combine with pink roses or soft-coloured perennials that complement rather than compete with the rose's unique character. The clove fragrance pairs beautifully with other aromatic plants like lavender or catmint.
Why Choose Rose 'Midnight Blue'?
Rose 'Midnight Blue' offers gardeners something truly special: a rose unlike any other in cultivation. Its near-black colouring, intense clove fragrance, and compact growth habit combine to create a variety that's both distinctive and practical. The minimal maintenance requirements and excellent adaptability make it suitable for gardeners of all experience levels.
Whether you're seeking a dramatic focal point, a fragrant addition to containers, or a unique rose for cutting gardens, 'Midnight Blue' delivers exceptional beauty with reliable performance. Its mysterious appeal and practical virtues ensure it will remain a treasured addition to any garden for years to come, providing a touch of gothic romance that's impossible to replicate with any other rose variety.
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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