Tips to getting a successful ID

Correctly identifying roses can be a daunting task. There are literally tens-of-thousands to choose from These tips should help improve your chances of success:

Always state your location. It should be in your profile but you should state it anyway. The reason is that the way a rose looks can be greatly affected by the climate in which it is growing. Hot dry conditions for example can greatly affect the quality of reds whilst some roses, like 'Peace' will colour up differently in warm climates compared to cooler climates.

State the habit of the rose. Roses come in many forms such as climbers, miniatures, and ground covers. Stating the habit will help to limit the number of possibilities.

Take good photographs of the whole plant. Flowers can be notoriously unreliable when it comes to identifying roses. Often other features, such as thorn colour, are far less variable and useful in establishing a positive ID. You can use a series of photographs showing a flower, the whole plant, a bud, the leaves, the thorns, new growth, stipules, etc All of these will help to narrow the list of possibiliteis down drastically.

Use [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] to try and find your rose. Their advanced search function is being refined all the time and is extremely extensive but keep in mind that you are looking for roses in Australia and they may look different to a lot of the photos from other places around the world.

Include information about when it flowers. Is it repeat flowering (remontant)? Does it only flower in spring? Does it readily develop hips? Is it disease resistant or is it susceptible to black spot or mildew ETC? How tall is it? Are the canes stiff or are they lax? Does it have a scent? Are there other distinguishing features (such as moss)? Is it evergreen?

There are many other things you can include and the more you can include the better your chances will be. The features described above, however, will give the members here the best chance of identifying your rose possible. AND... if we can't ID it we can recommend someone who might be able to

Don't expect a positive identification straight away. Identifying roses is a time consuming process based on research and really, the best we can offer here is a lead to follow.