Pink Hybrid Tea Rose
fragrant plum rose
(Image credit: Stan V. Griep)

In this article we will take a look at two classifications of roses: the Hybrid Tea rose and the Grandiflora rose. These are among the two most popular varieties of rose bushes grown.

What is a Hybrid Tea Rose?

The hybrid tea rose's blooms are usually what come to mind when most anyone thinks of roses. These high-centered, classic blooms are what many give or receive from friends or loved ones. These beautiful blooms can help express Love, Joy, Peace, and Sympathy better than most words could possibly say. The hybrid tea rose bush produces blooms that are typically one to a stem atop tall canes with long stems perfect for cutting. At times she will bloom in clusters, but most of the time any side buds she produces are disbudded (removed) before they gain much of any size. Those who show roses at rose shows and those who grow roses for florists or flower shops want the big single high centered blooms for their uses. Nearly all hybrid tea roses bloom repeatedly throughout the summer. They love their sunshine and will need a minimum of five hours of sunshine to perform well, the more sunshine the better usually. The morning sunshine is the best with partial shading from the hottest afternoon sun being welcome. The hybrid tea rose is considered a Modern Rose and came about from a cross of the hybrid perpetual rose and the tea rose. The hybrid tea roses' hardiness exceeds that of her parents and, thus, has become a very popular rose bush indeed. Most of the hybrid teas have a wonderful fragrance, that fragrance being mild to powerful. Some of my favorite hybrid tea roses are:

  • Veterans' Honor Rose
  • Chicago Peace Rose
  • Gemini Rose
  • Liebeszauber Rose
  • Mister Lincoln Rose

What is a Grandiflora Rose?

The grandiflora rose appears to have begun with a rose bush named Queen Elizabeth, a medium pink colored fragrant bloomer introduced around 1954. She is a true elegant blooming beauty, a cross between a hybrid tea rose and a floribunda rose. She has truly picked up the best parts of both of her parents, with her high-centered, hybrid, tea-like, beautiful blooms on long stems, excellent for cutting for bouquets and such. She also gained the hardiness; good repeat blooming and cluster bloom production of the floribunda rose. The grandiflora rose bush likes to grow tall and will usually exceed all other roses in height other than the climbers, of course. As with the hybrid tea and other classifications of roses, she loves the sunshine and also loves to be fed well and watered well, not to the point of being overfed or kept so wet as to have a soggy root zone, just moist enough for good uptake of the water needed to carry the nutrients up through her root zone to the palace of blooms above. Some of my favorite grandiflora rose bushes are:

  • Fragrant Plum Rose
  • Gold Medal Rose
  • Lagerfeld Rose
  • Ch-Ching! Rose
  • Strike It Rich Rose
  • Tournament of Roses Rose

Both of these rose bushes love to grow tall and usually need 30 inches (76 cm.) to have a bit more room around them for good air circulation. Both the hybrid tea and grandiflora rose bushes have blooms that come in many colors depending on the rose bushes selected. One color or blend of colors to each bush, though, and other than the colors blue or black, as those colors have eluded hybridizers trying to achieve them for many years.

Stan V. Griep
Writer

Stan V. Griep contributed to Gardening Know How for many years. An American Rose Society Consulting Master Rosarian in the Rocky Mountain District, he served as Gardening Know How's in-house expert on all things roses.