Mother’s Day is coming up right around the corner. You may be celebrating a mother, grandmother, mother-in-law, or any other mother figure in your life. If your mother is anything like mine, there is a good chance that she loves flowers. Roses are the most popular flower to give on Mother’s Day. This year, rather than a bouquet of roses that have a finite vase life, why not give mom the gift of roses that keeps on giving?
I’m talking, of course, about gifting your mom an entire rose bush rather than a bouquet. Don’t get me wrong, as someone with an extensive cutting garden, I certainly do love a good bouquet. Chances are strong that your mom does as well. The thing about a rose bush is that she gets to enjoy the flowers every year. Whether she leaves them on the bush or decides to cut them for an indoor arrangement, a rose bush provides far more than a dozen blooms over its lifespan.
Roses can be a bit tricky to care for, but buying the right rose for your zone takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. Don’t worry if mom isn’t an avid gardener. Garden roses are actually known for being low-maintenance. Here are 19 stunning and easy-to-care-for garden roses that produce some of the most stunning blooms around.
Kiss Me Kate
Indulge her with ‘Kiss Me Kate,’ a fragrant, award-winning rose.
This spectacular climbing rose will make the special lady in your life want to spend more time in the garden. ‘Kiss Me Kate’ is a rather large plant with gorgeous, quartered, and cupped, medium pink flowers with a mass of petals. Bred by Kordes, this rose has a reputation for excellent disease resistance. Don’t worry about issues with mildew here; this is a sturdy rose.
‘Kiss Me Kate’ is a multi-award winning cultivar. Hybridized in 2016, this is a newer variety. The flowers are positively stunning and wonderfully fragrant. The scent is one of fresh, crisp green apple and lemon zest with a spicy finish. Flowers bloom in flushes from late spring until fall. They have long stems, making them great cut flowers.
Princess Aiko
A sought-after rose for weddings, with stunning blooms.
Bred for the daughter of the emperor and empress of Japan, ‘Princess Aiko’ is a very popular rose among florists. A dozen stems from this rose will run upwards to $75 on the wholesale market. A mature bush will cost a pretty penny, as well, but the bounty of large, beautiful booms is worth the investment. This garden rose is very popular as a wedding flower.
‘Princess Aiko’s’ blooms are medium to large in size with a dense petal count of 120. The inner petals are a buttery shade of peach, with a darker, coral-pink tint to the outer edges. The flowers, which are not fragrant, open out so widely that they are nearly spherical.
Armure Blanche
A Japanese rose, perfect for southern gardens, with stunning blooms.
‘Armure Blanche,’ is a garden rose that comes out of Japan. Bred in 2014, this newer variety will capture mom’s heart at a glance. This rose is heat tolerant, growing as far south as Zone 10. It is a smaller shrub topping out at three feet tall, but it is a prolific producer of large, beautiful flowers.
The blooms are fully double-petaled and have a striking yet soft combination of colors. The outer petals are white, with the lightest hint of green around the edges. Moving toward the center, the petals deepen to cotton candy pink with deeper pink edges at the very center. They have a light tea rose fragrance and long stems, making them excellent for the cutting garden.
Bliss
With its perfect pink blooms and compact size, ‘Bliss’ brightens borders effortlessly.
This compact but disease-resistant rose has the most perfect pink flowers. ‘Bliss’ blooms in flushes throughout the season, producing clusters of these densely petaled, pink confections. They have just a hint of peachy glow coming from the center, giving them depth and accentuating the density of petals.
The shrub is on the smaller side, making it a great border or low hedge. With dark green foliage to complement the sweet pink blooms, this is a standout in the garden. The flowers have a light, fruity fragrance, adding to their appeal for the cutting garden.
Eugenie
With its romantic cream petals and warm apricot blush, ‘Eugenie’ exudes timeless charm.
‘Eugenie’ is a hybrid by David Austin, named for Princess Eugenie of York. It’s an exceptionally popular rose among florists and is often used in bridal bouquets. This classic garden rose has a quiet elegance that is anything but ordinary. The shrub is on the smaller side, reaching about three feet tall at maturity.
The flowers are romantic and dreamy with tons of cream-colored petals. It takes about four days for the flowers to open, and as they do, the apricot blush of the interior gives these flowers a warm glow. When fully opened, the blooms are up to five inches wide and have a coveted, neutral meets blush tone. The fragrance is moderate and spicy with hints of anise and myrrh.
Alabaster
Radiating elegance with its creamy blooms and delicate lilac fragrance, ‘Alabaster’ is sure to captivate.
Speaking of roses that are popular wedding flowers, ‘Alabaster’ is a gorgeous cream-colored rose. This abundant bloomer produces a huge quantity of flowers that start out on the small side but open quite large. Ultimately, the blooms open to five inches across. The open flowers are flat, with outer petals that curve downward in points.
‘Alabaster’ roses have a long vase life. They smell lightly of lilac flowers, and in the center, they have the palest yellow glow. You can count on this shrub to bloom intensely, with nearly every flower opening fully. Mom will love this compact rose shrub because it fits into any space. At only two to three feet tall, this rose has a quiet beauty.
Sabrina
Overflowing with elegance and French charm, ‘Sabrina’ promises delight.
Mom will swoon over ‘Sabrina.’ This newer hybrid out of France has all the style and romance you would expect from a French rose. The flowers start out small and unassuming but open in grand style. Full and symmetrical, these blooms are pale, creamy pink toward the edges with a deeper pink center.
You can rely on this plant to deliver plenty of beautiful flowers over the summer. Speaking of flowers, each of ‘Sabrina’s’ flowers contains as many as 125 petals per flower. This rose debuted in 2018, making it one of the newest roses on the list. The blooms have a light, fresh citrus scent.
Yves Piaget
Renowned and reliable, ‘Yves Piaget’ offers unparalleled beauty.
‘Yves Piaget’ is one of the most famous and well-known garden roses in circulation. It gets its name from the watchmaker responsible for crafting the best rose trophy in the Geneva Rose competition. This continuous bloomer has a great reputation for both beauty and reliability.
A small to medium-sized shrub, ‘Yves Piaget’ produces large flowers. The old garden rose form blooms are the perfect shade of pinkish purple with ruffled edges in a deeper shade of magenta. The color and fragrance of these blooms are noteworthy. The scent is floral citrus and very strong. It has great disease resistance and a moderate growth rate. You can’t go wrong with this plant.
Catalina
Like sunshine in bloom, ‘Catalina’ radiates warmth and friendship.
If you could turn pure sunshine into a rose, ‘Catalina’ would be the result. This sunshine yellow garden rose is simply wonderful. The large, lemon-colored blooms have a pale green tint to the outer petals and open to reveal the cheeriest yellow inside. Yellow roses are a symbol of friendship. This is a perfect rose to gift to the most faithful of friends.
‘Catalina,’ has excellent heat tolerance, and grows to a manageable three feet tall. The globular flowers open to four inches across and have a mild, fruity fragrance. As the large, rounded buds open you will find the seemingly endless spirals of petals mesmerizing.
Princesse Charlene de Monaco
Fit for royalty, ‘Princesse Charlene de Monaco’ reigns in elegance.
This princess is a bestseller and can be difficult to get hold of. But this is your mom we are talking about, and she deserves the very best! ‘Princesse Charlene de Monaco,’ is a flower fit for royalty. She is highly disease-resistant and holds up excellently to rain and wind.
Despite how tough this rose is, its flowers are delicate and lovely. The large blooms are a mix of apricot and shell pink, with each bloom bearing about 100 petals. They make excellent cut flowers and have a strong, fruity fragrance. Mom won’t be able to leave these flowers on the shrub. They are just too pretty!
Sister Emmanuelle (Soeur Emmanuelle)
For an elegant Mother’s Day surprise, consider this garden rose.
‘Sister Emmanuelle,’ is just about the most perfect garden rose I’ve come across. It would make quite an impressive Mother’s Day gift! The compact plant will work well in any sized garden. For a small plant, it packs a ton of flowers into the extra-long season. This one will bloom from early spring through the fall, making it one of the longer bloomers you will find.
The flowers are large and shades of lavender pink. They look perfectly at home against deep green, shiny foliage. In 2017, ‘Sister Emmanuelle,’ won the Gifu Award for Most Fragrant Rose. Not only are the flowers gorgeous, but they also have an intoxicating fragrance, which is a mixture of vanilla, lavender, and spice. It’s quite an elegant and seductive scent profile.
Caramel Antike
This sought-after beauty boasts resilience and elegance, a true gem.
This stunner is a little hard to track down because it usually gets snapped up by florists. The impressive blooms and incredible hardiness of the plant make it very desirable. This shrub is heat and drought-tolerant and rain and disease-resistant. It has a lovely branching habit, making it wonderful as a landscape element. Long, sturdy stems are excellent for cutting.
The blooms have a sweet subtlety to them. They bloom for a long season in shades of gold, apricot, and beige. If you’re into neutrals, this is a stunner. The blooms are large and packed to the brim with up to 120 petals per flower. Their fragrance is soft and sweet.
Piano
This crimson beauty blooms in clusters of deeply-cupped flowers.
I feel it’s about time that we get to a true red rose. But not just any red rose. This rose is a winner of the Russian Gold Medal and the Proflora Quality Award. The award-winning rose I’m talking about goes by a simple, single-word name, ‘Piano.’ Such a simple name that implies incredible depth of character. Like a bold piano concerto, this rose won’t be ignored.
‘Piano,’ blooms in clusters of medium size, fully rounded flowers. As the scarlet flowers open, they form a deep cup shape, giving a peek at fully double, dense layers of petals. The shrub has deep green foliage, and the gorgeous blooms appear for most of the growing season, from spring through fall. It has long stems and a strong fragrance, making this an ideal cut flower.
Edith’s Darling
Radiating warmth and elegance, ‘Edith’s Darling’ is a golden treasure.
‘Edith’s Darling,’ is a golden wonder. This small shrub has deep green, shiny foliage, which is the perfect backdrop for its blooms. The flowers are small to medium-sized and bloom in clusters from late spring until fall. This is a rose with great temperature tolerance. It will grow all the way north to Zone 4, and south to Zone 10! Named for a Downton Abbey character, if you’re a fan, you will want to collect this entire series.
The three-inch blooms are pale, buttery yellow on the outer edges. The inside is a deeper, golden hue, and they open out nearly flat. Though they are small, the flowers are plentiful. A few snips from this rose bush and mom will have a beautiful bouquet. The fragrance is moderate and has a fresh, green apple quality.
Westminster Abbey
High in demand, this rose, named after a coronation church, captivates.
This rose has gained a ton of popularity in recent years among florists and wedding planners. It gets its name from Britain’s famous coronation church. The medium-sized shrub has deep green foliage that creates a stunning foundation for the pale flowers. This would make an incredible rose hedge if you can find enough plants to fill your space. Their popularity makes them somewhat scarce.
The reason this rose is so popular is clear at a glance. The flowers are positively breathtaking. Large (4-inch) blooms are something of a color anomaly. You’ll have to decide for yourself if this rose is gray, brown, or lavender. Perhaps you will see a bit of all three. The overall color when the flowers are fully open is a cool blush. It’s truly striking.
Darcey Bussell
Named for a ballerina, this rose is a treasure.
If mom has a cut flower garden, ‘Darcey Bussell’ is a rose she will treasure. This medium-sized shrub is a cluster bloomer and has nice, long stems. A couple of stems from this rose bush are all it takes to fill a vase. Named for a famous ballerina, the shrub is very heat tolerant, growing all the way south to Zone 11.
This repeat bloomer produces flowers in small clusters or singles. They are a bold shade that falls somewhere between crimson and magenta. Lots of ruffled petals swirl around pale yellow stamens, which are just visible when the flower is fully open. These blooms have a sweet, fruity fragrance.
Sweet Juliet
A rose like no other, truly priceless for Mom.
What is there to say about ‘Sweet Juliet’? Well, for starters, this is the most expensive flower in the world. It cost creator David Austin about $3mil to develop this rose, and took 15 years to perfect it. From the time of its 2006 debut at the Chelsea Flower Show, rose enthusiasts have been wild for this beautiful rose. The first plant sold for an incredible $5mil, making all that work worthwhile.
‘Sweet Juliet’ is an upright grower with long, slender stems and medium to large flowers. The blooms are a gentle, glowing apricot shade, with perhaps a touch of gold. They have a strong tea rose fragrance which matures to a gentle lemony scent. The most wonderful mom in the world definitely deserves the most expensive flower in the world! The price has decreased significantly over time, so don’t worry about that $5mil price tag.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
A captivating rose that stands out in any setting.
‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ is a bold rose that commands attention in the garden and in floral arrangements. This rose will grow as a shrub, topping out around four feet. If given a structure to climb, it can grow as tall as six to eight feet. ‘Tess,’ has all the charm of an old garden rose but the repeated blooming of the newer hybrids.
From June to September, this beauty produces some positively gorgeous flowers. This is a true red rose in brilliant scarlet. They are fully double-form and lightly scented. As the cup-shaped flowers open fully, a cluster of golden stamens is visible in the center.
Miyabi
A rare beauty that blooms abundantly throughout the seasons.
‘Miyabi’ and her sister plant ‘Miyabi Brown’ are among my personal favorites. They are also quite difficult to find. But for those looking to gift a rarer rose, this one is really beautiful. It’s an exceptionally vigorous rose that blooms through three seasons. You can depend on this shrub to provide mom with many lovely bouquets over the blooming seasons.
The blooms are large and multi-colored. Deep pink buds unfurl to show off varying shades of pink, apricot, and peach. The ruffled edges of the petals give the flowers an elegant, feminine flair. They have a light, floral scent and stand alone in a floral arrangement with their array of gentle hues.
Final Thoughts
Moms work hard all year, and they do so much to make us feel loved and cared for. On Mother’s Day, we have a great opportunity to shower those who mother us with love and affection. A gift of roses is thoughtful and beautiful. But, the gift of a rose bush is one that will bring many years of beautiful and fragrant flowers to the special lady in your life.
