Wonderful sprays of small double flowers cover these plants in season. These varieties are mostly vigorous growing, well foliated, prolific blooming all season long, disease-resistant, winter hardy and spreading. The only attribute they lack is fragrance, although there are a couple of varieties that are fragrant. One of the best, most useful roses ever created is a Polyantha called The Fairy, which is so good it belongs in every garden.

As we bud our roses, rather than grow them from cuttings our selection of miniatures grows larger than the introducer intended. They are lovely, compact little gems for the garden. In Europe they call these Patio roses and include them with varieties that were hybridized as such.

Patios are upright, bushy, compact plants that share many characteristics with floribundas. All continuous flowering, some fragrant, available in a similar range of colours as floribundas and of varying bloom shapes, they have proved to be reasonably winter hardy. These varieties are an excellent choice for mass or bed plantings and for borders.

Modern climbers differ from their old-fashioned rambler cousins in that they are usually repeat flowering and produce fewer and thicker, more sturdy canes. Most varieties produce double or very double blooms in clusters although some produce single petalled blooms. Fragrance, bloom shape and frequency, vigour, disease resistance and hardiness are unique to each variety.

Pillar roses are a type of climber that is limited in growth and vigour (short & dense) and suited to be grown on a post or small structure. Most climbing roses can be grown as a pillar.

David Austin hybridized all the roses listed as such. He describes them as," Combining the delicate charm and fragrance of an Old Rose with the wide colour range and summer-long flowering of a Modern Rose."

The flowers are usually very double and sometimes cupped, carried on bushy well-foliated plants. In our climate they are best protected for winter.

In North America, Shrub Roses are more a category than a classification. Roses whose growth habit is more robust than a classification allows are called shrub roses, or those which may exhibit characteristics of a classification in some sense but which defy that classification in others. In any case, the varieties we have listed within this category are generally winter hardy, disease-resistant and easy to grow. They are of varying heights and habits.

An exceptional group of varieties that is well suited to colder climates. Very winter hardy, disease resistant, and easy to grow. Reliable in every way, from surviving the coldest winters to providing fragrant blooms throughout the season to setting fat, red hips in fall Rugosas thrive on adverse conditions. The majority are bushy, well clothed in leathery lime green foliage and well armed with prickly canes. Fragrant flowers, single to double in shape open from long, pointed buds and recur reliably through the season. They also tolerate some shade. Being somewhat large bushes for the most part they require space to thrive but there are some smaller hybrids for more restricted spaces.

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