Terms from A to Z
- Bare-root
- A dormant rose sold without soil around its roots. Planted in late winter or early spring, it usually settles in quickly.
- Basal break
- A strong new cane that grows from the base of the plant. Basal breaks become the framework of future years.
- Bud eye
- A small dormant bud where a leaf joins the cane. Pruning cuts are made just above one.
- Bud union
- The knobbly joint on a grafted rose where the named variety meets the rootstock.
- Cane
- A main stem of a rose plant.
- Climber
- A rose with long, fairly stiff canes that is tied to a support. Many repeat.
- Deadheading
- Removing spent flowers to tidy the plant and encourage more blooms on repeat bloomers.
- Dormant
- The resting state of a rose in winter, with no active leafy growth.
- Floribunda
- A modern bush rose that carries its flowers in clusters and repeats through the season.
- Graft
- Joining a piece of one plant onto the roots of another so they grow as one.
- Hip
- The fruit of a rose that forms after a flower is pollinated. Often red or orange in fall.
- Hybrid tea
- A modern rose with large, usually single flowers on long stems, the classic cut-flower shape.
- Lateral
- A side shoot growing from a main cane. On climbers, laterals carry most of the flowers.
- Leaflet
- One of the small leaf blades that make up a rose leaf. Most rose leaves have five or seven.
- Old garden rose
- A rose from a class that existed before 1867, also called heirloom or antique.
- Once-flowering
- Blooming in one main flush a year, usually late spring or early summer.
- Own-root
- A rose grown from a cutting on its own roots, with no graft.
- Prickle
- What most people call a thorn. Botanically, rose prickles grow from the outer skin of the stem.
- Rambler
- A vigorous rose with long, flexible canes and clusters of small flowers. Most flower once.
- Remontant
- Repeat flowering. A remontant rose blooms more than once in a season.
- Rootstock
- The rose that supplies the roots for a grafted plant.
- Sport
- A natural mutation, such as a branch with a different flower color or a climbing form of a bush rose.
- Sucker
- A shoot growing from the rootstock below the bud union. Remove it at the source.
- Shrub rose
- A broad group of bushy roses, many bred for toughness and repeat flowering.
Where these words come up
You will meet most of these terms in the guides on rose types, planting and pruning. If a plant tag or catalog uses a word that is not here, a local rose society or your extension service can usually explain it.