12 Best Shrub Roses For Every Garden – Enjoy Abundant Romantic Blooms All Summer Long

Finding the best shrub roses takes a bit of research. A cross between certain species of roses and modern bush varieties, shrub roses are hardier and larger than traditional bush roses. Most of them repeat bloom and can get quite large – up to 15 feet (4.5m) in height – which can make sourcing the best small shrub roses a bit challenging.

Shrub roses are generally fairly easy to care for and produce a sprawling form. They are known to be quite adaptable to many garden environments. Many of these are beautifully scented, so if this is a trait you desire, you will need to seek out the best fragrant shrub roses.

When we talk about shrub roses, we are referring to a wide group of plants with many colors that produce in masses rather than singly on the stem. These clusters of flowers are the source of the appeal of these plants, combined with their general stoicism and resistance to many common diseases. If you are new to the hobby, learn about how to grow roses and the many wonderful species available, including the shrub rose.

Shrub Roses Characteristics

There are various classes or types of roses. The main ones are hybrid tea, floribunda, grandiflora, climbing, miniature, old garden, and shrub – although there is some crossover. They are divided up according to their flower form, history, growth habit, and other characteristics.

Shrub roses in general are a bit rangy, quite cold hardy, and grow in all directions. Varieties include English roses, rugosa roses, and hybrid musk roses. They will often provide blooms throughout much of the growing season with single, semi-double, and fully double flowers. While not all varieties have a scent, many have outstanding fragrance. They are wonderful in a naturalized garden or as informal hedges.

Shrub roses do not require the careful pruning of other species like hybrid teas, although you should brush up on how to prune roses and trim them in late winter to remove any damaged or diseased wood. They are considered low-maintenance roses when compared to other classes and have resistance to many common rose diseases.

Because of their carefree form, shrub roses are best in informal settings. Use them at the edges of the garden or in groups as a natural hedge. These plants combine well with perennials and add dimension to such gardens. The smaller shrub roses can be grown in containers where they can be allowed to tumble over the edges of the pot. When planted en masse, they make a beautiful three-season color cover for open stretches of the landscape.

Best Rose Shrubs

Whether you are looking for the best large shrub roses or shade-loving roses, there are many options in almost any color imaginable. Choose from white, cream, yellow, pink, red, crimson, purple, peach, and orange flowers.

Here, we have rounded up some of the most beautiful and strongest-performing shrub roses to enhance your garden.

1. Rugosa

Rugosas are characterized by their wild growth habit and single-petal flowers. They are also known as beach roses due to their native coastal habitat. While much of the bloom is in spring, the plant will produce the occasional flower throughout the rest of the season, releasing a delicate, sweet scent to perfume the garden.

White rugosa has the purest white flowers on any rose with golden centers, while there are also stunning magenta-toned rugosas, available in the Shop.

2. Blanc Double deCoubert Rugosa

This white beauty features delicate double petals and is the most strongly scented of the rugosas. Once the petals fall, a rose hip brightens the bush with rounded scarlet fruits. Blanc Double de Coubert won the Award of Garden Merit and is an heirloom favorite.

3. White Knock Out Rose

White Out, available in the Shop, is bred by the award-winning creators of the Knock Out series. It is a vigorous grower, disease resistant, and filled with a profusion of single white blooms with golden centers. It is fairly compact for a shrub rose and will repeat bloom all season until the first frost. White Out is very cold hardy, and the flowers bear a citrusy scent.

4. For Your Eyes Only (Cheweyesup)

This is one of the best modern shrub roses available. The flowers of For Your Eyes Only are amazing, with peachy-pink single petals that boast a red blotch at the base. The shrub will bloom from spring until autumn in almost any type of soil, provided it is well-draining. This is one of the smaller shrub roses with a naturally dense form.

5. Peachy Knock Out

The Peachy Knock Out rose, available in the shop, features delicate peach petals verging on pastel pink with yellow centers. The color – reminiscent of the inside of a conch shell – is more vibrant in the cool seasons, but flowers are produced from spring to fall. This shrub rose is the winner of several awards and prized for disease resistance, showy blooms, and cold hardiness.

6. Marjorie Fair

This is a Polyantha rose, which is more compact than most other shrub roses and flowers late spring through summer. Marjorie Fair has huge clusters of small, deeply magenta flowers with yellow centers. It can grow in either full sun or partial shade and reaches a maximum of 3 feet (90cm) in height.

7. Westerland

Considered one of the best shrub roses for shade, Westerland has delightful peach-orange flowers. The bud is almost orange, and as the flower opens, the petals change into peach with pink tones. The overall effect on the plant as a whole is that it has three different colored blooms at all times. Westerland is a repeat bloomer that will provide color until the first frost.

8. Bloomfield Abundance

The name really does this shrub rose justice as it produces sprays of flowers copiously from summer through fall. The small flowers are pink with a lilac shading, surrounded by glossy green foliage. Bloomfield Abundance is another Polyantha rose that will grow in clay, loam, or sand. The flowers have a light fragrance, and the plant is a smaller form of shrub rose.

9. Sunny Knock Out

As the name would suggest, Sunny is a glowing yellow rose with all the attributes of the Knock Out series. The buttery yellow flowers are 3 inches (7.5cm) wide and appear in May until October or the first frost. This is a self-cleaning plant that will abort spent flowers, keeping the shrub looking neat and tidy without intervention.

10. Kew Gardens

The name is a nod to the famous Kew Gardens in London, and the flowers pay homage. They are single-petal, delicately fluted, white with an egg yolk center and make a show all summer with an abundance of blooms. Kew Gardens is thornless and quite hardy into USDA zone 5. Once the flowers are spent, they leave behind golden-orange hips.

11. Gertrude Jekyll

Gertrude Jekyll is an English rose that has perfectly and tightly swirled petals in hot pink. It is a repeat-flowering double rose with very fragrant blooms. It is hardy into USDA zone 4 and can achieve 5 feet (1.5m) at maturity. It is also available as a climbing rose. This is a lovely, delicately flowered plant suitable for the informal garden.

12. Lady of Shalott

Lady of Shallot has arching stems and vibrant foliage, with young leaves revealing a crimson tinge. Surrounding the leaves are intensely hued orange-apricot blooms. This rose is one of the earliest bloomers and one of the last to stop flowering. The flowers bear a light but pleasant scent. Lady of Shallot is a hardy shrub rose, resistant to many of the most common rose diseases.

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