Looking through my old flower books and found a surprising number on rose varieties

I was cleaning out my storage shed and pulled out a stack of catalogs and guides from the early 2000s. One book from 2003 listed about 150 different rose types available for florists. I checked a current wholesaler's site this morning and they list over 400. It really hit me how much more choice we have now, but also how much harder it is to keep up. Do you all have a good system for tracking new flower types each season?

3 comments

3 Comments

lucasjackson3d ago

More choice just means more noise to sort through. Those old books had the proven winners that actually lasted in a vase. Half of these new 400 varieties are probably just slight color tweaks with fancy names to charge more. Keeping up is a waste of time when customers still just ask for red or pink roses anyway.

harper6933d ago

Ever feel like you need a botany degree just to pick out a rose these days? I can barely keep my own garden alive, let remember all these new names.

grantp282d ago

My local library still has the 2005 American Rose Society annual on the shelf, and it's wild to compare. @lucasjackson has a point about some new ones being just color tweaks, but the disease resistance in newer varieties is a total game changer. I barely have to spray my 'Knock Out' roses at all, which saves so much time.