Two years ago, at a tour for Roses for Autism, I was told they tried the modern florist varieties, but they didn't do as well as the older varieties. I believe they are now choosing varieties with fragrance, as they have a huge market within driving distance.

http://rosesforautism.com/pages/our-history

As I have it understood, the primary difference is purpose. Florist varieties are bred for their big buds with a lack of any damage to the flower. Florist roses are sold based on their size and color, so this drives their production. A rose farmer looks for breeds that produce profusely, dependently, and for the market they choose. Because of this they tend to be leggy with less complex branching habits. Florist roses will, in general, always be more susceptible to disease and insect damage because those factors aren't present in their growth. When you attempt to grow your roses in your greenhouse, you will be in control of a variety of factors (temperature, amount of light) and you will always be able to limit contaminants. Garden roses are bred of stronger stock and, thus, tend to compromise in bloom size, form, and lack of petal damage. Garden roses have branching patterns that lend themselves to the onslaught of a greater amount of unpredictable conditions. Out in the garden you can't control how much water a rose gets, especially if its raining a lot. Furthermore, you can't control what insects or fungi/disease comes to visit via the wind. For this reason garden roses tend to be much more resistant environmental stress.

I have grown both with mixed results. Where I would assume that I would have to baby my Red/Pink Intuition more than my Moonstone, I've found that the reverse is sometimes more true. Then there are the varieties that require a large amount of control, like Black Bacara. Under my heat and UV light exposure in South Florida, I have to plant the bush in semi shade in order to get a decent sized bloom that resembles a rose flower. I would counter (theoretically, since I don't have nor have I ever grown plants in a greenhouse) that garden roses will grow perfectly fine in a greenhouse and might actually produce their best blooms under controlled conditions since the plant can thrive under uncompromising conditions. I will refute myself by acknowledging that Roseseek has brought up good points on the idea that the reverse is true and is him/herself probably more experienced than I am in using greenhouses.

So purpose is what I would say is the primary difference between the two.

Good luck and keep us posted either way!

Florist roses are bred with thicker petals because of the constant abuse they get. They are picked, shipped and flown, opened, placed in a cooler and then made into a floral design. Brides bouquets have to take a lot of handling so the flowers have to stand up to it. Thick petals are also the reason florist roses have little or no fragrance.

I have quite a number of florist roses in my garden here in NY and I must say that most of them do very well. One thing for certain is that in zone 5B, they must be sprayed or they will be a bald disaster by the middle of summer.

I'm curious about the greenhouse that you are planning on growing them in. Will you be growing them in pots inside the greenhouse? If so, I'm not sure that they will be able to achieve the large root system that will give you that "florist look".. I've always wondered exactly how rose farms do it because I don't believe they grow them in soil, but some type of substrate.

Like you, I have seen several online videos of rose farms (mostly in south America) and was intrigued by their operation. In some of them, they even have little hats that are placed over the rosebuds as they are opening to prevent any fading..

I plan to grow the roses in 10 or 15 gallon containers. I have in the past grown roses successfully outdoors in bushel baskets which are about 10 gallons capacity, and I have grown tomatoes in 15 gallon containers. 15 gallons is 2 cubic ft., so that's actually quite a lot of soil.

Streisand fan, which greenhouse roses have you tried that you found so disease prone? there seem to be so few sold to home gardeners, so perhaps you have some of the very ones I am considering: Bugatti, Hot Princess, Tickled Pink, Vino Rosso, Black Baccara (well that last one's an alternate)

I generally grow organically, although that includes using copper sprays if needed. it's a freestanding greenhouse, so I don't have to worry about affecting the air in my house. I expect to spray actinovate, (which is a beneficial microorganism), and/or a harpin plant protein product. however, if the roses need more drastic measures, I might just discard them. especially if the problems was with some specific plants, but not others.

spraying inside a greenhouse can really coat the glass and fans and lights along with the plants. a popular organic fungicide treatment I tried years ago inside a greenhouse, powdered milk solution, created an astounding mess. dirty glass is not only unattractive, it's also not transmitting light optimally. I just realized I'd better test spray the actinovate and the harpin on glass -- just because the spray mix used outdoors looks like it wouldn't leave a film on glass, doesn't mean I should take that for granted.

I had a greenhouse at my previous house, but it was in too much shade to try roses. so I do have greenhouse experience, and I have rose experience, just not the two together. I only grow in containers in the greenhouse, no in-ground beds. I move everything outside for the summer to get UV, rain and fresh air. I often have scale on my camellias, gardening, citrus, and bo trees (ficus religiosa) etc by the end of the winter. the scale goes away after a vigorous hosing down once moved outdoors. I introduce mite predators preventively each fall. in my experience, a greenhouse is more prone to pests and diseases than outdoors or indoors. I always start my seeds indoors under shop lights where it's nice and clean.

however, rose diseases thrive on wet foliage, so that may be a plus for roses under glass watered with drip irrigation.

thanks to everyone for the replies so far.

I saw one of those 'how it's made' videos about florist roses. These were in a huge greenhouse and the roses were about 10 feet tall!, they were fed constantly by drip. The workers went in there with hazmat suits and masks and sprayed them. They were then cut about 6 feet long and then processed for shipping.

Kublakan, what are some of the other florist roses that you have grown in South Florida. I would like to get Legends but I don't want it to be a stick with no leaves. Now that I have your spray program down I think (hope) I will be OK. It also took me awhile to realize that when you listed 3 ingredients on the same line that you were doing 1 2 and 3 not 1 or 2 or 3. That could have part of my problem from before. I was not catching all of the bugs and fungus.

I am hoping to get a black baccara too. but I want it on fortuniana roots.

which is your favorite florist rose you grow?

Are all of your florist roses on fortuniana root stock.

I couldn't tell you the specific names of the florist roses that I grow because I have no clue what they are. All of my florist roses were taken from cuttings from bouquets of cut roses that I happened to find beautiful.. I have found that I have about a 35 percent successs rate doing it that way, so it's important to do at least 8 cuttings to increase your chances.

In general, pretty much all of them developed a nasty case of blackspot when I tried to go without spraying them so I've acquiesced. I spray twice a month with bayer advanced disease control. If you do choose to use that, it does seem to be the most efficient and it shouldn't create any mess in a greenhouse.

I went for years without using any pesticide and never had a problem until I came down with a nasty case of rose midge. Now, I no longer have a choice in the matter.

As far as black baccara, that is the one rose that I actually did purchase and I've been pretty unhappy with it. I ordered it grafted and bare root, and it never did much of anything. Meanwhile, my own root florist roses have all thrived.. I do have another bush that came from a bouquet and it produces incredibly dark red (almost black) blooms and it's one of my favorites. This could be black bacarra, but I have no way of finding out...

Hot Princess is great grown in the garden. Tineke wasn't so hot, nor was Fire 'n' Ice.

About a decade ago, there was a vendor, Carlton Roses, that sold florist varieties for the home garden, Most rooted on Manetti rootstock. They have long gone out of business, but they had some very interesting varities, including Jade.

I had the opposite experience of Diane with Hot Princess and Tineke. Hot Princess never produced anything other then a fluffy mess of a bloom during its 3 years with me. No tight HT type blooms at all. Tineke was just about perfect for me. The blooms could have been a bit bigger, but other then that it was a favorite. RRV finally got it after 10 years. Another plus for Tineke was that the Thrips damage was not as bad as most other light colored roses. Thrips can make a misery out of most whites around these parts............Maryl

The big growers of florist roses are higher-elevation locations along the Equator. In the Western Hemisphere, that means Equador, southern Columbia, Peru; which serve the big market of the US; in the Eastern, Kenya, to serve the big market of Europe. In these equatorial locations, day length and night length are equal; daytime temperatures are mild, and nighttime temperatures are cool, because of the elevation. The sun is intense, so growth is rapid. In these conditions, specific cultivars of rose produce long, strong stems, rich color, and full petal count. Roses are grown in shade houses to keep them sheltered and provide the most intense color.

The breeding programs for florist roses aim for very specific characteristics that thrive in this very specific climate. In contrast, the smaller (yes, smaller) breeding programs for garden roses aim for reasonable good performance over the widest possible geographic area, because that is the economics of garden roses.

I've had Hot Princess produce an excellent exhibition bloom (if you didn't mind that all the leaves were mildewed terribly). I also remember a bloom of Hot Princess that I would have awarded Queen, if it didn't have BS--it did take King.

This is how they grow them in the Netherlands:

Video

cleangeek, thanks for the link to the video.
florist roses do have thorns. There tend to be less thorns right underneath the flower before you get to the first set of leaves . in the video that you linked to, there were actually red thorns lower down on the stem when they were picking the roses . Admittedly they're not super thorny varieties. But they're not actually thornless .
One of the handling techniques discussed in a California grown video was to pick the longest roses first, lay them on your arm, then pick ever shorter roses to put on top. that way the flowers on shorter stems don't get punctured by the thorns of taller stems surrounding them .
Florists and rose arrangers use a gadget called a stem stripper to remove thorns:
This stem stripper is stainless steel.
It will instantly remove the leaves and thorns from fresh roses.
This tool is very commonly used in the floral industry and is a necessity for anyone working with roses.
Length is approximately 4.5 inches.
the description was for a professional one being sold by a wholesale florist supply website, but you can buy plastic and metal stem strippers from Amazon.
I have used thorn strippers; I don't think they're worth the bother. That may be because I had to handle rose and I was the end-user as well . If someone else handled the rose to strip off the thorns for me, I might feel differently.

the video from Holland also mentioned part of what makes their roses a premium product is they allow the flowers to open a bit further on the plant . It reminds me of the premium tomatoes which are closer to ripe when they're packed . I remember people being astonished at seeing the cut garden roses my husband brought to work actually open up until you could see stamens . Apparently florist roses tend not to open to that extent before they wither.
as home rose gardeners, we're probably baffled at how much the price of roses is determined by the length of stems, all the way to superexpensive 5 foot stemmed roses.

I contacted. j schwanke (the producer and host of the video series the CA grown experience) through facebook. his YouTube videos of commercial cut flower rose propagation, production and harvesting are mesmerizing.
here is his answer to my question:
Thanks for the Email Nina and your kind comments...
Roses that are bred for commercial production are hybridized for Production... meaning they want to get many long stems... as quickly as possible... they are also bred to produce even better hydroponically and with using a commercial bending technique ... this process means that the roses are actually grafted to a mother stock... nettle briar... for the bending purpose...
So the long and short of the story... is that Commercial Roses are bred to produce many stems, quickly and also produce LONG straight stems.. and be partial to "bending"... if you watch the Eufloria Flowers Video on uBloom... (there are 3... Lily briefly explains this process)..

Commerical Roses wouldn't be very attractive in the garden... that is why there are different types for different purposes...

Hope that helps... Have a flower filled day!