Garden Rose Testing
- CFC Team
- Jun 23
- 2 min read
There's nothing quite like the beauty and fragrance of garden roses! While they have many admirers, there is a hesitation to use them in bouquets or outdoor arrangements as their hardiness can be questionable. This piqued our curiosity... especially since we've been seeing so many beautiful roses this year. How long can you expect garden roses to last in arrangements, bouquets, or even installations?
Testing
We wanted to gauge how long garden roses will hold up indoors, outdoors, in water, and out of water. We selected Koko Loko and White/Ivory as we see high demand for these two colors. The day of this test, it was around 80-85 degrees outside, and these roses had been in the cooler for a week. The roses were mostly shaded next to a warm brick wall.
Results
Before
Left: No Water
Right: Water
After 1.5 Hours
Observations:
Koko Loko still looking good out of water & opening a bit.
White roses look great!
After 2.5 Hours
Observations:
Koko Loko out of water are starting to droop.
The white rose out of water is still looking strong.
Roses in the water, in the outside heat (80-85 degrees), still look good and are opening up nicely.
After 5 Hours
Observations:
Koko Loko out of water are not faring well, to be expected.
The white roses are holding strong.
Roses in water are fully open, feeling softer, but still looking beautiful.
We pushed the test another two hours, and were impressed by the strength of the white roses both in and out of water. Koko Loko was more affected by the heat.
Meanwhile, indoors, we conducted the same in water/out of water test.
Not surprisingly, in the air conditioning, the roses fared much better.
In water, the roses did great!
Out of water, both the Koko Loko and the white roses held up pretty well even after 5 hours.
Lovely test subjects below, vase on the left without water and vase on the right with water in each image.
10:00am 3:00pm
Conclusions
We were impressed with the roses tested outdoors, especially the white/ivory variety. This test gave us confidence about using local garden roses in designs, even outdoors. In sufficient water, the roses held up and opened nicely. If your designs don't allow water or shade, garden roses might only hold up for an hour.
Some variables will affect hardiness: Certain varieties definitely seem stronger than others. The stage at which the roses are cut, how long they've been stored in the cooler, and ultimately, how the roses are used in a design will all affect how long you can expect them to last. However, the results of this test gave only gave us more confidence about locally grown garden roses!
Feel free to share how you've used your garden roses and what observations you've noticed. We'd love to hear!
