Standards and Patios - Knight's Roses

What is a "Standard" Rose?

Why were standard roses invented? This is a good question and there is a very interesting answer!

Standard roses were developed in the late 18th century in Europe, most likely in Germany. It is believed in the early 19th century standard roses were introduced to allow ladies wearing fashionable crinoline dresses to move more easily around a formal rose garden, as they are on a long rose cane a few feet off the ground with the variety of the rose growing on the top of the cane as below.

It is recorded that there were several nurseries in Germany that specialised in providing the root stock to propogate standard roses. Standard roses were extensively grown in France and England, popular in the Victorian era, where they were featured in the gardens of stately homes.

In the modern day era, standard roses are useful as architectural or structural plants. Patio (2ft or 60cm) and Standard (3ft or 90cm) roses are an ideal height for adding a focal point into your garden or verandah. Perfect for formal gardens, standard roses allow for smaller plants with light surface roots (such as annuals) to be grown underneath.

Standard and Patio roses are built to retain their distinctive ‘lollipop’ shape, however the shape can vary depending on the specific variety that is grafted onto the tall stem. Hybrid tea roses tend to grow in a ‘V’ shape, where as floribundas often maintain the round shape. A climbing or rambling rose when grafted onto a standard creates a cascading form known as a weeping standard – these are generally 5-6ft tall.

When planting standard roses into your garden, staking the stem is essential, as when a standard is in flower, it can be top heavy and can bend, break and fall over. If planting your standard in a row, we recomment planting approximately 1m to 1.2m apart