Purple Roses

Very Short Purple Roses

Name	Class	Cold	Breeder	Rating
Merlot	Miniature	Zone 4	Bernardella
Purple Tiger	Cluster Flowered	Zone 5	Christensen

Moderately Short Purple Roses

Name	Class	Cold	Breeder	Rating
Louis XIV	China	Zone 6	Guillot
Prospero	English Rose	Zone 5	Austin	8.4
The Prince	English Rose	Zone 4	Austin	7.6
Tradescant	English Rose	Zone 4	Austin	7.8
Tuscany	Gallica	Zone 4
Granny Grimmets	Hybrid Perpetual	Zone 6
Roseraie de l’Hay	Hybrid Rugosa	Zone 4	Cochet	8.9
Purple Cloud	Large Flowered	Zone 5	Keisei
Nuits de Young	Moss	Zone 5	Laffay	7.3
Arthur de Sansal	Portland	Zone 4	Cochet	7.5
Rose du Roi	Portland	Zone 5	Ecoffay	7.7

Moderately Tall Purple Roses

Name	Class	Cold	Breeder	Rating
Cardinal de Richelieu	Gallica	Zone 4	Laffay, VanSian or Parmentier	7.8
Hansa	Hybrid Rugosa	Zone 3	Schaum & Van Tol	8.3
Rose a Parfum de l’Hay	Hybrid Rugosa	Zone 3	Gravereaux	7.9
Melody Parfumee	Large Flowered	Zone 5	Dorieux	7.7
Stephen’s Big Purple	Large Flowered	Zone 5	Stephens	7.4
Tania Verstak	Large Flowered	Zone 6	Armbrust
Blue Moon	Modern Shrub	Zone 5	Tantau
William Lobb	Moss	Zone 5	Laffay	8.1

Climbing Purple Roses

none

Rambling Purple Roses

Name	Class	Cold	Breeder	Rating
Highdownensis	Hybrid Moyesii	Zone 5	Stern

Comments

It is easy to forget that roses can produce purple flowers and do it well. Not all the roses on this list support both parts of the thesis. The very dark purple of Cardinal Richelieu's flowers are spectacular as a phenomenon, but try as I might, I cannot find them attractive. They always seem to be confused with the shadows - perhaps a subtle political jab on the part of the rose's namer. Granny Grimmetts and Tuscany both have very dark purple flowers, but the foliage of their respective bushes is bright enough that the blossoms are easily distinguished from the foliage.

Fragrance in many of these roses is exemplary, and it is not uncommon to find people buying dark purple roses especially for this quality.