Roses we see in our gardens are products of cultivation and crossbreeding by gardeners over the 5000 years that these colorful plants have been used by man to decorate his home.

The Peace rose, Rosa spp. variety “Madame A. Meilland” is an example of the handiwork of a French rose-breeder during the years 1935 to 1939. Meilland hybridized individuals from two large groups of garden roses: the Hybrid Perpetuals, and the Tea roses.

Multiple species of roses were hybridized to form the Hybrid perpetual group which included Asian species with their tendency to bloom repeatedly and European hybrids that tended to bloom once a year. The Tea Rose group consists of a large collection of hybrids based on Rosa chinensis crossed with R. gigantea. Breeders have enlarged this group by further cross-breeding with other rose groups.

Meilland selected individuals from the hybrid perpetuals and the tea roses to produce the hybrid tea rose we call the Peace rose.  As a result, the peace rose is a hardy cultivar that is disease resistant and blooms repeatedly throughout the growing season. Meilland named the rose after his mother.

Hybrid tea roses are a diverse group of rose hybrids produced by rose breeders like Meilland and others. The Hybrid tea rose group is the most popular kind of roses grown by man worldwide.

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Roses are beautiful flowers for photography. They come in so many shapes and colors that you can find endless ways to put something new in your frame.

Roses are ephemeral, their blooms last a few days at most and they shed their petals to begin growing seeds in the part that some people call rose hips.

This is a yellow hybrid tea rose that is just starting to open. I like the various textures visible in the image. They add depth and dimension and serve to draw the eye to different portions of the image.

In this image, I enjoy the shapes and areas where light adds various shades of yellow to explore. The shapes of the petals are complex surfaces that invite inspection and delight the visual sense. Additionally, there are clues at the periphery and hidden between the petals to tell the viewer this is a rose and not some kind of abstract art.

The post Why I Like To Photograph Roses appeared first on GJM Nature Media.

I was at the Oklahoma City Zoo during the spring of 2017 when I encountered these beautiful floribunda roses. The floribunda varieties of roses have been produced by crossing Hybrid Tea roses with Polyantha roses.

By crossing Hybrid Tea roses with Polyantha roses breeders were able to combine the large number of beautiful colors and shapes of the Hybrid Tea flowers with the multiple flowering characteristic of the Polyantha roses.

Floribunda roses produce smaller, bushier, more sparsely branched plants than the Hybrid Tea roses. Additionally, they are more upright  and less sprawling than their Polyantha ancestors.

Whatever their parentage, these colorful, gorgeous flowers add their charm to private or public spaces where a compact shrub is needed to decorate walkways or courtyards.

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We picked up some new Rose plants last winter and planted them in the backyard to add some color. My wife and I love roses but we are not fanatics. Once established, feeding and watering and periodic pruning pretty much guarantees beautiful flowers from spring through first frost. The plant pictured here was chosen for the extraordinary color of its flowers.

We have seen this plant struggle, and for a while we thought it had been killed by some herbicide we used to rid ourselves of the cockle-burs growing in the lawn. However, this plant put one last shoot up before the cold weather and made this gorgeous flower.

Incidentally, I had bumped this shoot with a weed whacker and thought I had ruined any chance of this plant surviving. The little guy came through though and he will have the winter to grow roots instead of being dug up. Hopefully, this over-stressed fellow will blast off in the spring and make us many, many of these beautiful flowers.

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