Top 10 Roses

There are over 150 rose species and thousands of hybrids, so compiling a Top Ten is something of a challenge. Here we have chosen some of our favourites, which we feel are essential for any good rose garden.

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‘Flower Carpet’

With over 25 international awards, ‘Flower Carpet’ roses are ones to look out for. As the name suggests, these are groundcover roses that ramble over the ground, potentially producing an amazing 2000 flowers from spring to autumn. Back in the 1980’s, Australian nurseryman Anthony Tesselaar launched ‘Flower Carpet’ roses to the world, and our own Keith Kirsten made them famous in South Africa.

Once established, the roses are drought-resistant and low maintenance, requiring just garden shears to prune them back if necessary. They are disease resistant as well.

Just like making fine wine, developing a new hybrid takes an in-depth knowledge of roses in order to choose the right parents and artificially pollinate a variety with pollen from a different variety. These beauties have stood the test of time and become good specimens with great stories behind them.

‘South Africa’

A disease-resistant rose that grows well and flowers prolifically, bearing up to 25 large golden-yellow double blooms. This is a floribunda-type rose (‘floribunda’ is derived from the Latin ‘flowering in abundance’) so you know it’s a good performer all over South Africa. It doesn’t need much grooming to keep it neat and forms a dense hedge to around shoulder height. This rose was introduced by Ludwig’s Roses for their 30th anniversary in 2001.