Roses with Fall Color

If you were to list fall-blooming plants, you might include classics like Autumn Joy sedum, the aster, or celosia. Perhaps you’d find a variety of hydrangea, chrysanthemums, or pansies whose blue, orange, or purple flowers continue into the autumn. Though roses might not make it onto your list, roses with fall color are an excellent option for fall flowers.

Perhaps you associate roses’ lush blooms and sweet fragrance with the summer, but they have different blooming cycles.

Numerous older rose cultivars do produce only one gorgeous display in the summer. Many more recent types, however, are repeat bloomers, flowering several times throughout the growing season, including the fall.

Roses that Bloom in the Fall

Often, trees for fall color are the most popular plants but there are other types that offer bright spots during the season. Once you pick one of the rose cultivars listed below, you’ll want to know where and how to plant it to make your fall garden pop. Follow these simple steps for rose planting and care.

Where to Plant Roses

Although some roses grow in partial shade beneath trees with fall color or large canopies, they tend to thrive in full sun. Choose a site with fertile, slightly acidic, or neutral, well-draining loam.

While roses need deep watering, their roots rot in wet soil. Make sure that your rose plant enjoys good air circulation and protection from the wind.

Add some perennials and fall color annuals nearby for variety and a beautiful autumn garden display.

How to Plant Roses with Fall Color

Dig a hole that’s slightly wider than the rose’s root ball but just as deep. Add bone meal or superphosphate to the soil that you removed, and compost if the soil is of poor quality.

Remove a rose in a container from its pot, separating its roots gently. For a bare-root rose, soak the roots for 12 hours. Shovel a little of the removed soil into the bottom of the hole and insert the plant so its graft union is just below the soil line.

Fill the hole nearly all the way then add water. Finish by filling in the hole completely and applying more water and mulch.

Keep an eye out for pests and diseases like black spot. Use neem spray for roses with aphids and most other bugs. It takes care of them quickly.

Don’t forget about fertilizer. Roses appreciate some extra nutrients. The way to use eggshells for roses is by crushing them and sprinkling them at the base of your plants or you can make tea with eggshells to boost calcium.

Hybrid Tea Rose (Rosa x hybrids)

This popular rose bears fragrant blossoms in almost every color except blue. With one flower per stem, it makes an elegant component for centerpieces.

The hybrid tea rose can bloom four times, such as in early, mid-, and late summer and again in the fall. Plant it in acidic, fertile, well-draining loam and, ideally, full sun. Early spring and early fall are optimal planting times.

Give this rose’s roots one to two inches of water per week. The plant benefits from mulch in the spring and balanced or rose fertilizer every other week from early spring to six weeks before the first expected frost.

Arthur Bell Rose (Rosa ‘Arthur Bell’)

This upright floribunda rose’s golden-yellow double blooms gradually fade to a soft creamy yellow. It flowers in clusters from July to September. Arthur Bell makes an elegant addition to a bed or border.

Plant this fragrant rose in early spring or early fall in a sunny spot sheltered from strong winds. Arthur Bell thrives in well-drained soil.

Water your rose deeply one or two times per week at its base. Apply compost and mulch, leaving space around the plant. Give it liquid or pellet rose fertilizer in the spring once new growth appears.

Queen Elizabeth Rose (Rosa ‘Queen Elizabeth’) – A Gorgeous Fall-Blooming Rose

This tall, hardy, nearly thornless grandiflora rose bears solitary or clustered large, silver-pink flowers with a light tea fragrance. Queen Elizabeth flowers on and off from spring to fall.

Its full blooms look stunning at the back of a border or in a flowering hedge and make lovely cut flowers. Propagate Queen Elizabeth rose with hardwood cuttings in the fall or chip budding—a form of grafting—in the summer.

Choose a site with full sun and fertile, slightly acidic, moist, well-drained soil. Water your plant deeply and regularly, preferably in the morning.

Sally Holmes Rose (Rosa ‘Sally Holmes’)

This nearly thornless climbing rose boasts large, fragrant flowers with prominent golden stamens and four to eight creamy petals. It repeat blooms between early summer and fall.

Grow it as a specimen plant or in a border, and use its cut flowers in flower arrangements. It benefits from full sun and fertile, moist, well-drained earth. Sally Holmes requires one deep watering per week.

Apply compost when you’re first planting the rose and all-purpose granular fertilizer in the spring when it starts to bud. Give it two more batches of fertilizer throughout the growing season.

Crystal Fairy Rose (Rosa ‘Crystal Fairy’)

This low-growing polyantha shrub bears many small, white, or pink-tinted double blooms with either a mild scent or none at all. They make lovely wedding flowers. Crystal Fairy blooms in the spring and again in the summer and fall.

Grow this rose from cuttings or grafts in full sun and slightly acidic, humus-rich, moist, well-drained soil. Water thoroughly when planting and apply a layer of mulch. Crystal Fairy does not need to be pruned but does benefit from deadheading.

Heritage Rose (Rosa ‘Heritage’) – A Two-Toned Fall-Blooming Rose

This nearly thornless climbing rose boasts fragrant double flowers. The outer pale pink petals fade to white, while the inner petals remain blush pink. The blooms occur on and off from late spring to the first fall frost.

The Heritage rose works well in beds and borders, in addition to draped over walls, arbors, and fences. Grow it in full sun, preferably, and definitely in fertile, moist, well-drained soil.

Give your Heritage rose one deep watering per week and a dose of granular fertilizer in the spring. Follow up with two more feedings during the growing season.

New Dawn Rose (Rosa ‘New Dawn’)

This climbing rose produces large, pink, semi-double flowers with a sweet scent. New Dawn repeat blooms between June and September.

It bears many red hips in the fall that match well with fall foliage. This climbing cultivar is an excellent choice for walls, arbors, and fences.

Plant it in late winter or early spring in full or partial sun and average-quality, moist, well-drained soil. Give your New Dawn rose compost and mulch while planting and water during dry spells.

With many rose cultivars now blooming repeatedly, you have a variety of options for adding color and fragrance to your fall garden in addition to your trees with fall colors and bright autumn shrubs.

Some of them are even pest and disease resistant roses. Combined with traditional fall bloomers, roses liven up a yard during this sometimes dreary season.

Choose roses with fall color to complement autumn leaves and existing plants. Take advantage of these roses’ long blooming time to collect beautiful cut flowers without visiting a florist.

If you found this list of fall-blooming roses helpful, please share these fall garden tips with your friends on Pinterest and Facebook.