Blue roses hold a unique and almost mythical status in the world of flowers, since no rose in existence, with one very recent and heavily engineered exception, actually produces true blue pigment. Roses lack the natural genetic pathway to synthesize delphinidin, the blue pigment found in flowers like delphiniums and pansies, which means that every … Read more

Green roses represent one of the rarest and most genuinely unusual colors in the entire genus, since roses lack the natural pigment pathways needed to produce true green petals, and every rose gardeners and florists call “green” is really achieving the effect through one of a few different biological tricks. The most historically important of … Read more

Orange roses are a relatively recent arrival in the long history of rose breeding, since the original wild roses that gave rise to modern cultivars existed only in shades of white, pink, and red, with yellow not appearing until the early 20th century and true orange following only after breeders learned to blend yellow and … Read more

Purple roses occupy one of the most elusive and hard-won corners of rose breeding, since no rose in cultivation carries a truly blue or violet pigment, and everything gardeners call “purple,” “lavender,” or “mauve” is technically a diluted, cooler-toned expression of the same red and pink pigments found throughout the rest of the genus. Because … Read more

Red roses stand at the very heart of rose symbolism, representing passion, love, and desire more powerfully than any other color in the genus, and they have been bred across nearly every classification recognized by the American Rose Society. A mature hybrid tea or grandiflora red rose typically reaches 3 to 6 feet tall with … Read more

Pink roses hold the distinction of being one of the oldest rose colors in cultivation, since many of the earliest known garden roses bred in Europe and the Middle East centuries ago were naturally pink or rose-toned long before yellow, orange, or true red hybrids became widely available. Today pink roses are produced across nearly … Read more

August is the high season for the latest-flowering divisions of the lily world, since the earlier Asiatic types have typically finished their show by early July, leaving Oriental, Trumpet, and interdivisional hybrids to carry the garden through the final weeks of summer. Most August-blooming lilies belong to the Oriental, Trumpet and Aurelian, or Orienpet divisions, … Read more

The word “lily” is one of the most misleading plant names in the entire pet safety world, since it gets applied to dozens of unrelated plant families that have nothing in common except a passing resemblance to a true lily bloom. True lilies, from the genus Lilium, along with daylilies from the genus Hemerocallis, are … Read more

Most true lilies are sun worshippers, but a meaningful number of species and hybrids have adapted to life beneath a woodland canopy or along the north side of a building, making shade gardening with lilies more achievable than many gardeners realize. Generally speaking, a lily described as shade tolerant still needs 3 to 4 hours … Read more