Color Classifications of Roses

Roses are admired for their beauty and the wide variety of colors available to the home gardener is a large part of their appeal. Rose colors vary but each has a unique meaning or message to convey.

The American Rose Society has organized all the various rose flower colors into eighteen separate color classes. This attempt to define the colors helps clarify and lend consistency to rose gardening in theory, but in practice it isn’t always that easy.

There are 18 color classes, listed here with their abbreviations, used by the American Rose Society:

• w – white, near white or white blend
• ly – light yellow
• my – medium yellow
• dy – deep yellow
• yb – yellow blend
• ab – apricot and apricot blend
• ob – orange and orange blend
• or – orange red and orange red blend
• lp – light pink
• mp – medium pink
• dp – deep pink
• pb – pink blend
• mr – medium red
• dr – dark red
• rb – red blend
• m – mauve and mauve blend
• r – russet

The color categories become a problem in that there are categories that overlap and certain roses that don’t fit neatly into a particular color class. Some lavender/purple roses, for example, end up classified as ‚”mauve and mauve blend roses” even though the color is much closer to purple. ‘Green Ice’ is a miniature rose with green tints but is classified by the ARS (American Rose Society) as white. There is also the fact that bloom colors will fade or change slightly based on your zone, weather, and the amount of sunlight the rose bush receives. All of these issues make exact classification impossible but it does give us a place to start.

Rose colors have long been a part of our history and lore. In fact, special meanings have been assigned to roses of certain colors through long-standing traditions. When putting together a cut flower arrangement or theme garden it can be fun to consider some of the traditional meanings of the roses.

Some of these rose flower color meanings include:

• Red Roses – Romantic love and respect.
• Light Pink Roses – Sympathy and grace (graceful/gracious)
• Deep Pink Roses – Appreciation, admiration and gratitude
• Apricot and Orange Roses – Enthusiasm (energy), desire and passion
• Yellow Roses – Friendship, joy and well wishes
• White Roses – Reverence, innocence, purity and virtue
• Mauve Roses – Beauty, enchantment and love at first sight

The last thing to consider when discussing rose colors is that not all colors are available in every type of rose. For example, while hybrid tea roses come in all 18 color classifications; alba roses only have white or near white colored flowers. Hybrid gallica roses are usually very bright and often striped and multi-toned. Hybrid perpetual roses, on the other hand, tend to produce rose flowers in the red or pink color classes only.

Selecting the color of your rose certainly gives you a lot to consider, whether it’s official rose color classifications or the perceived meanings behind the colors of your rose. Either way, with so many hundreds of options available to you, finding the right rose for your garden is just a matter of putting it all together.

Join the discussion about roses and share your favorites or how you plan to use them in your garden!