Floribunda Rose
Rosa hybrids (ROSACEAE)
Planting and Growing Floribunda Rose
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow floribunda roses in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, hips, and seeds of floribunda roses
- Growing conditions for floribunda roses
- When and where to plant floribunda roses
- How to plant floribunda roses
- How to shape, prune and control growth of floribunda roses
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of floribunda roses
- Landscape uses of floribunda roses
- Pest and disease control for floribunda roses
Growing Floribunda Roses
Many hybrid cultivars of upright, bushy, deciduous shrubs and standards, 36–42 in. (90–107 cm) tall and 3–4 ft. (90–120 cm) wide, with alternate, shiny, bronze or light green becoming deep green leaves, divided into 3–5-leaflet groups, 1-1/2–2-1/2-in. (38–63-mm) long.
Rosa ‘Brass Band’, an All American Rose Selection (1995), is featured above, at left.
Floribunda Rose Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Fruit
Many showy, often fragrant, cream, lavender, orange, pink, purple, red, white, yellow and bicolored, blended, striped flowers, to 5 in. (13 cm) wide, in upright, mounding clusters, to 16 in. (40 cm) wide, in spring–autumn, form round, crabapple-like hips containing seed in autumn, persisting into winter. Repeat blooming.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 5–10. Hardy. Cold tolerant if protected, to Zone 3.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist to damp, well-drained soil. Fertility: Rich. 6.5–7.5 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Full sun. Space 24–30 in. (60–75 cm) or more apart. Space to provide air circulation.
Proper Care
Moderate. Keep damp; allow soil surface to dry between waterings. Drought tolerant when established. Fertilize monthly. Pinch to control growth, promote larger blooms. Prune in late winter. Protect from hard freezes. Vegetative propagation may be restricted. Plants grown from seed hybridize freely.
About This Species
Good choice for beds, borders, containers, fencelines in cottage, formal, meadow, small-space gardens. Good for cutting. Aphid, midge, spider mite, thrips and mildew, rust, black spot susceptible.
Rose Classifications
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- Climbing, rambler, and pillar roses
- Floribunda roses
- Grandiflora roses
- Hybrid-tea roses
- Miniature roses
- Mini-flora roses
- Polyantha roses
- Modern Shrub roses
Old Garden and Heritage Roses:
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- Bourbon roses
- China roses
- Moss roses
- Noisette roses
- Portland roses
Selected Species Roses
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- Rosa alba, cottage rose
- Rosa banksiae, Banks rose
- Rosa centifolia, cabbage rose
- Rosa chinensis, China rose
- Rosa gallica, French rose
- Rosa hugonis, Father Hugo rose
- Rosa multiflora, Japanese rose
- Rosa odorata, tea rose
- Rosa primula, primrose
- Rosa rugosa, rugosa rose
- Rosa spinosissima, Scots rose
About Roses
More than 150 species and horticultural varieties of erect, climbing, or rambling shrubs and vines make up the Rosa genus.
Roses rightly have been called the queens of the garden. Known for their showy flowers, they fill many different purposes in the landscape, are sturdy plants able to withstand both cold and heat, and are rewarding to grow.
With care limited to inspecting them for insect pests and disease symptoms, annual and in-season prunings to ensure health and bloom, and regular fertilizing, they will prosper in most landscapes.
Roses include many thousands of hybrid cultivars that the American Rose Society has classified into distinctive groups common to many landscapes and gardens.
Though roses are found on every continent except Antarctica, they mostly are native to temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. All are hardy to U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zone 5.
Rose cultivars have been hybridized from original native species, creating plants with flowers ranging from small to large, and from simple, single blossoms to frilly, very double flowers of every hue except blue.
Some roses have delicious fragrances, while others lack scent. You’ll find genetic dwarf and miniature cultivars. Grafted standards—so-called “tree roses”—are an option for planting near paths or in fragrance gardens.
Select roses for your garden that satisfy your specific site and needs. Choose from low, spreading ground covers to bushes, shrubs, and climbing vines, including those in the categories and species listed above.
Planting and Caring for Roses
Plant roses in moist to damp, well-drained soil with a neutral acid-alkaline balance.
Water roses regularly, but deeply and allow the soil surface to dry before a repeat watering.
Provide feedings of fertilizer monthly during spring and summer, then limit fertilizer application beginning in early autumn as their growth begins to slow.
Allow the final flush of blooms to remain on the plants as the air turns chilly and they begin to lose their leaves. Roses store most of their nutrients in their canes. When they develop rose hips on spent blossoms, the plants are preparing themselves for winter.
In the coldest climates, plant Rosa rugosa species roses or one of the many cold-tolerant hybrids. Mulch them heavily or prepare them for winter by wrapping and burying the plants. When spring comes and the last frost passes, unwrap your roses and trim off any dead or damaged canes.