You probably either love them or you really hate them – there seems to be very little in between when it comes to roses.  Easily the most common flower you will see at weddings and for good reason – they are reasonably priced, smell wonderful, come in every color imaginable (with a couple of exceptions) and last all day with no water!

Season: Roses are available all year long with some seasonality based on variety and country of origin.

Cost: Expect to pay upwards of $1.50 per stem for a basic rose from a florist – prices go up from there.  The most rare colors and varieties could run as high as $10-$15 per stem.

Varieties: The most common varieties of roses used in weddings are:

-The hybrid tea rose.  This is the classic rose that you see in all the pictures above.  Quite uniform from rose to rose.  The are simple, classic, clean and lovely – the most reasonable and available of the varieties.

-The spray rose.  Spray roses are actually clusters of small roses on one stem.  They are wonderful for filling in a bouquet and adding interest, texture and depth to an all rose bouquet.

-The English garden rose.  The English garden rose is a large, lush bloom with almost ruffly edges.  No two roses will be the same as they are allowed to grow more freely than the tea rose.  They have always reminded me a bit of peonies.

Colors: Hundreds and hundreds.  Roses literally come in every color in the rainbow except blue and black.  There is a very dark maroon that is sometimes called black but there is no true black rose and blue roses only exist among fake flowers.

Hardiness: Extremely hearty.  These flowers can be out of water for some time without worrying about wilting and aren’t affected by heat and cold which makes them perfect for boutonnieres, corsages, bouquets and for petal tosses.

Pairings: Roses can be paired with just about any other flower and look lovely.  They can be used as the main flower in a bouquet or easily blend in the background and serve as a type of canvas to feature other flowers.

Good Things to Know: Roses are always going to be more expensive around Valentine’s Day – if you are getting married in February, be prepared for sticker shock or you might want to skip the roses altogether.

Next up on Flowers 101: Lilies.

Picture credits
top row: Rob Rife, Grogan Studios, Rob Rife, Jamie Jansen,
bottom row: Davis Photography, Melanie Mauer, Mike Steinberg, Grogan Studios

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Flowers 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.