The best roses for enchanting and fragrant cut flower arrangements

How to cut roses to make a cut flower arrangement?

For a cut flower arrangement that lasts longer, pick both some flowers that are slightly open and others that are still slightly closed. Cut with a well-sharpened pruning shear, bevelled, cleanly, without crushing the stem. Ideally do this in the morning and avoid very hot days.

Large-flowered rose 'Ingrid Bergman®' for a classic cut flower arrangement

There is nothing quite like a red rose, a sure-fire choice for creating a cut flower arrangement in honour of the very essence of the rose.

The ‘Ingrid Bergman®’ rose shrub charms with its large velvety, blood-red flowers, ideal for florist-quality cut flower arrangements.

These roses, with their enchanting fragrance, stand out for their intense colour and theatrical appearance, blooming from June until the first frosts.

The robust shrub, adorned with dark, glossy foliage, offers excellent disease resistance, making this rose a top choice for both florist-quality cut flower arrangements and bold borders where it commands attention.

This large-flowered rose shrub ranks among the most prized varieties of its genus. Crowned with a Royal Horticultural Society medal and a gold medal in Belfast in 1985, it is characterised by a compact, slightly upright habit. It grows to about 80 cm high by 60 cm wide. Its flowers, 10–12 cm across, open on long, sturdy stems, delivering a deep, uniform red colour throughout the season. The intense floral fragrance, the gloss of its dark-green foliage, and its disease resistance make it an exceptional choice for any garden.

Its blooms are perfect for exceptional bouquets that evoke classical elegance, paired with bluish-grey foliage such as that of Eucalyptus and a few stems of white gypsophila for a touch of freshness.

Rose Parfuma 'Constance Mozart / La Belle Ferronnière', for a romantic cut flower arrangement

For a romantic bouquet, choose a double-flowered bloom in soft tones.

The ‘Constance Mozart / La Belle Ferronnière‘ rose bush from the Parfuma collection combines the robustness and floribundity of modern Kordes roses with the elegance of old roses. This shrub boasts dark, glossy foliage, highlighting bouquets of cream-pink roses, generously scented. This compact rose is perfect for borders and container cultivation, offering lasting beauty with minimal effort.

Introduced by Kordes in Germany in 2012, this leader of the ‘Parfuma’ series has been honoured with several international awards, including a Silver Medal in Rome. The shrub, upright and bushy, reaches about 80 cm tall and 50 cm wide, with glossy leaves finely cut into dentate leaflets, showing strong disease resistance. The flowering period runs from June to October, with rose-pink buds opening into cup-shaped blooms around a central bud, scented with notes of verbena, ripe fruit, vanilla and heliotrope.

The fragrance of the roses peaks on sunny afternoons and in the evenings, adding a remarkable olfactory dimension to the garden and then to the interior of the home. Craft a romantic bouquet by pairing different colours of roses and peonies in shades of pink, white and mauve or pale yellow, softly enlivened by the chartreuse-green hue of Alchemilla or by a few small blue forget-me-nots, alongside spikes of white astilbes.

Rose Elle ® 'Meibderos' for a rustic cut flower arrangement

In a cottage garden, you would gladly plant botanical roses or eglantine-flowered roses. But they are not ideal roses for bouquets. A rose with many petals lasts longer in a vase. Choose instead a simple or double rose, well-formed, in a soft, natural colour.

The Elle® rose bush ‘Meibderos’, bred by Meilland in 1999, is notable for its vigour and compact habit. This modern shrub rose is derived from hybrid tea roses and has been recognised in the United States, Japan and France for its exceptional beauty and robustness. It reaches a height of 75 cm and a spread of 50 cm, offering rapid growth and a bushy habit. Its sturdy shoots support dense, dark green, glossy foliage, which showcases its perfect blooms composed of 50 to 55 petals and measuring 13 cm in diameter. The flowers, in an elegant blend of pink, apricot and cream, appear throughout the summer if faded blooms are regularly removed.

Adapted to cultivation in borders, as a standalone specimen or in small hedges, this rose bush is also suitable for pot culture. It integrates harmoniously into arrangements with other summer- or autumn-flowering shrubs and pairs well with perennials and annuals.

The Elle® rose is notable for its large double blooms with a fruity fragrance featuring banana notes, which bloom from May until frosts. It makes an excellent cut flower, adding a touch of charm and delicacy to any bouquet. Mix it into a cottage garden bouquet with euphorbias, delphiniums, daisies, flat umbels of yarrow, the foliage of ornamental grasses, small cream, pink or apricot roses, amaranths in brown tones and Astrantia.

David Austin rose 'Summer Song®' for a vitamin-packed cut flower arrangement

Large-flowered rose 'Mamy Blue®' for a subtly elegant cut flower arrangement

Some roses offer wonderfully ambiguous hues, between two tones, with slightly grey undertones. This allows cut flower arrangements to achieve subtler, more subdued tones.

The large-flowered rose ‘Mamy Blue’®, a modern hybrid tea from the Delbard collection, is famous for its flowers in hues closest to blue. This bushy and repeat-flowering is distinguished by its large turbinate flowers in a rare mauve-blue colour that brighten any border or cut flower arrangement. The fragrance of these roses is intense and almost addictive, while the shrub’s glossy green foliage adds to its elegance. In a vase, the flowers of ‘Mamy Blue’ stay fresh and attractive for 10 to 15 days.

Created by Delbard in 1991, ‘Mamy Blue®’ Delblue is a large-flowered, cluster-flowering rose that has earned a place of choice among award-winning varieties. With a bushy, upright habit, it reaches approximately 90 cm in height by 60 cm in width. In summer, by removing spent blooms, the rose continually produces large dark-red buds that open into perfect 10 cm diameter flowers, with 35 to 40 mauve-blue petals.

‘Mamy Blue’ can be paired in a cut flower arrangement with golden grasses, eucalyptus leaves, cream-coloured, pink-grey, chamois or brown roses, highlighted by a few spikes of bright pink flowers or blue flowers such as nigellas.