What makes a rose bloom (the flower), beautiful?

Moses, Pitt PA, cold W & hot-humid S, z6

last year

If the rose flower is beautiful just before the outer most petals have reached the horizontal stage of bloom development, beautiful both in profile and viewed straight down, you have the beginning of a beautiful rose flower.

As the bloom ages and just before stamens are seen, if the bloom still has beauty looking straight down upon it and has good height in profile your bloom is proceeding wonderfully.

As the stamens age and darken, just before petal drop, or the petals hold on and get wonky looking, as happens with roses which are reluctant to drop their petals and clean themselves, you have a beautiful rose from start to finish.

If your bloom only looks beautiful when looking down upon it but has a lousy profile: pancake flat (no height), drooping, sagging, outermost petals, severely crisping outermost petals, etc.....you have an ugly bloom.

A bloom that only looks beautiful when looking straight down upon it, is only partially beautiful. A rose bloom should look beautiful from all angles, and during all its stages of its bloom's progression, to the very end. Such roses are rarely encountered, but they have reached the pinnacle of a rose breeder's successful progeny.

Please don't revel over the rose bloom that only looks pretty looking straight down upon it, and has few redeeming qualities when viewed at any other angle. You really don't have an exceptional rose there.

Moses.

Featured Answer

judijunebugarizonazn8

last year

Well now, Moses… beauty is in the eye of the beholder, is it not? I am personally not very fond of the high centered roses such as Hybrid Tea roses and would prefer a flat “ pancake” shape to the high centered look. I have always felt this way since I was a child. In fact, I didn’t think I cared too much for roses until I was given a catalog with DA roses when I was about 7 years old. But I realize that for many, Hybrid teas are the standard of beauty. For instance, I think Ketchup and Mustard rose is positively hideous: my friend thinks it’s positively gorgeous. We laugh and appreciate each other’s perspective. My personal favorite for roses is a very deeply cupped, globular form; I also love a fully double, quartered shape or petal packed, frilly dome shape.

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Comments (9)

mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
last year
Then there is the ultimate in 'flat' - singles. It is hard to beat Dainty Bess with the stamen thing going on.

In my other garden, the rose that is commented on the most, by far, is Pomponella. That globular form is about as far from classic hybrid tea form as any double I can think of, but it draws people.
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Moses, Pitt PA, cold W & hot-humid S, z6
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
Judi, when you look straight down upon a beautiful rose you have a breath taking experience. What do you have to enjoy when you're looking sideways at a pancake flat rose? You see a mess of petal ends bunched atop one another is what you have to look at.

When looking at a discus fish or angel fish at its profile, you have an impressive beauty before you. Then when viewed face on, the above fish look like an exclamation point. However, the fish swim about their aquarium showing varying perspectives of their beautiful profile forms to compensate for their periodic head on viewings.

On a garden growing bush of pancake flat full open bloomed roses, some you get to see face towards you, that's great. The ones that present their profile to you, all you see is a mash of petal tips. Wouldn't it be better if that bush had high centered blooms so that all open blooms could be enjoyed at once, instead of you having to crook your head in convolutions to see the profile presenting ones' faces?

Moses.
Moses, Pitt PA, cold W & hot-humid S, z6
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
Mad, doesn't Pomponella have a strong, high profile, beautiful to see sideways, and another beautiful aspect as well, looking down upon it. What's your point?

Moses.
Moses, Pitt PA, cold W & hot-humid S, z6
Original Author
last year
Judi, did I stipulate hybrid tea form anywhere in my post?

Moses.
Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
last year
I love languid, nodding blooms. Tea roses really do it for me. I love antique roses most of all. I think each of us has our own favorites.

I bet you would love some other rose types, Moses, if you got to know them better.
judijunebugarizonazn8
last year
I guess I’m fine with a bloom not looking good from every angle, Moses. No, you didn’t mention Hybrid Teas in your original post. But I do know your preference from other posts of yours that I’ve read, which is why I mentioned it. Mad, I thought of the single roses as well… very flat, but very charming, IMHO. Nodding blooms are equally charming, Sheila, and I love the teas for that as well, but unfortunately, they don’t seem to love my climate. Some of my DA roses nod for me, so I get a bit of that going on in my garden. I think I love all the forms, actually… but some I like better than others! And I fully respect your opinion on which forms are most desirable to you, Moses! I love to hear what others think.
NollieSpainZ9
last year
Each to their own of course, but it seems a shame to stick to such a rigid definition of bloom beauty, Moses.

Ground cover roses or others that rarely exceed 2ft or so in height will usually only be viewed from the top, so how they look from other angles is largely irrelevant. Singles, semi-doubles and shallow cupped blooms may lack depth but can more than make up for it in charm, beauty and delicacy. A graceful nodder will always be welcome here, so long as the blooms don’t face plant in the soil.

Deeply cupped blooms are the ugly ones here, they fail to open, ball and moulder. High-centred HT bloom may look more ‘perfect‘ from different angles, but they are just not my idea of beauty. Just as well we are all different.

I do agree with you about pancaking, when the petals of higher petal count blooms all seem to be shrunken and stuck together in one dimension, but don’t find shallowness of bloom in and of itself at all ugly.

Re self-cleaning, I actually find that a real irritant because petals drop and stick to the foliage in my rainy, humid summers, blocking light and causing disease issues. I would much rather deadhead a whole spent bloom than laboriously pick off a heap of sodden petals dropped all over and around the shrub!
Diane Brakefield
last year
I love them all. Beauty is subjective whether it's art or roses. Diane