17 Collector-Favorite Roses to Order In February
From modern hybrids to old garden roses, award-winning favorites with high performance are an asset to any collection. Garden expert Katherine Rowe explores rosarian-favorite roses to add to our own gardens, perfect for ordering this month.

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February is the prime time to order roses. You can reserve your top selections now for shipping when you’re ready to plant (usually about six weeks before the final frost). Roses ship bare root or in containers and can go in the ground as your climate suits. Choose favorites from online specialty growers or your local nursery.
Among the world’s oldest known flowers, roses bring their history and legacy to the garden in flower, form, and fragrance. Old garden roses, also known as antique and heirloom roses, are vigorous, fragrant, disease-resistant, and adaptable for a long lifespan. Old roses existed before 1867 when hybrid tea roses (modern roses) came into cultivation with the perfect florist-pointed bloom.
Here, we’ll explore collector-worthy roses to order in February, from Hall of Fame and All America Selections award winners to beloved antique and modern favorites. Dive in this month for decadent favorites to add to your landscape, from vigorous climbers to well-behaved shrubs.
‘America™’

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botanical name Rosa ‘JACclam’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 10-14’ |
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hardiness zones 4-9 |
‘America™’ is a 1976 All-America Rose Selections winner and a favorite for its rapid growth, healthy, deep green foliage, colorful flowers, and fragrance. This climbing rose grows vigorously – even on bare walls – with excellent disease resistance. Large, double blooms brighten in vivid corals and pinks. Slightly lighter petal undersides (reverses) create a multi-tonal effect as they open.
Flowers usually appear singly on a stem but sometimes in clusters, from early spring to fall. The four to five-inch blooms hold up to 40 petals and have an intense perfume of spicy clove and sweet fruit.
‘America™’ is a long-lived climbing rose that blooms on old and new growth. This is a good winter hardy selection and tolerates hot summers in warmer climates. Order this rose in February to ensure availability and proper planting time.
‘Golden Showers’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Golden Showers’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 5-6’ |
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hardiness zones 5-9 |
‘Golden Showers’ rains huge, clear yellow flowers that mature to creamy white. The semi-double blooms measure over five inches across, contrasting dark green foliage beautifully. Flowers repeat from spring through frost.
An All America Rose Selections winner, ‘Golden Showers’ trains as a vigorous climber or specimen shrub. Reliable and hardy, this cultivar tolerates a variety of conditions, including some shade. It’s disease-resistant, nearly thornless, and fills vertical garden spaces like arbors, trellises, or containers.
The golden flowers produce showy orange-red rose hips in fall. The accessible bloom centers draw pollinators, and birds appreciate the hips. The multiseason appeal makes this yellow climber a long-lasting delight.
‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 4-5’ |
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hardiness zones 5-9 |
Another perfect collector’s rose to order in February, ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ is an 1843 Bourbon variety with large, cupped blooms and high fragrance. Soft, ballet pink flowers hold more than 70 petals each and open flat and quartered. Blooms recur from spring through fall.
‘Souvenir’ remains a favorite old garden rose, an award winner prized by rosarians as perhaps the best of the Bourbons. Large, leathery foliage makes a handsome backdrop, and showy rose hips emerge post-bloom. Look for the climbing variety to make a pretty vertical element.
‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ is a vigorous, nearly thornless, hardy, and disease-resistant rose. Once established, it tolerates heat and periods of drought. ‘Souvenir’s’ only price to bear is that with such large blooms, heavy rain may disturb the flowers, causing them to droop or fall.
‘Lamarque’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Lamarque’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 12-20’ |
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hardiness zones 7-10 |
Noisette climber ‘Lamarque’ features old rose qualities of fully double and fragrant blooms in creamy white with lemon yellow centers. Dark green foliage and graceful arching canes provide the backdrop to the heavenly blooms. Ideal for cutting, flowers emerge in spring and summer on long stems and have a lemon tea scent.
Noisettes were borne in the early 1800s in Charleston, South Carolina, by crossing a China rose and a European musk rose. An heirloom in southern climates, noisette roses are carefree performers well-adapted to heat and humidity (but not colder conditions). Heirloom cuttings of various cultivars became pass-alongs that dot the southeast.
Hardy stock leads to excellent disease resistance and the ability to thrive in a no-spray landscape. ‘Lamarque’ is a robust climber in optimal conditions. Order this rose in February, plant shortly after, and ensure at least six hours of sun for best growth.
‘Zephirine Drouhin’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 15-20’ |
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hardiness zones 5-10 |
The heirloom ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ is a time-tested climber. Deep pinkish-red blooms perfume the garden with raspberry notes in spring and fall. ‘Zephirine’ blooms all summer but is most prolific in cool temperatures.
‘Zephirine Drouhin’ is an old French Bourbon rose, hybridized in 1868 on Bourbon Island (now Reunion) in the Indian Ocean. Damask and China roses are parents to Bourbons, accounting for their rich fragrance and continual flowering.
‘Zephirine Drouhin’ is adaptable, tolerating partial shade and poor soils. While susceptible to black spot and mildew diseases, she’ll continue to grow and bloom through frost despite its presence. As with other roses, avoid overhead watering (or water early in the day), provide good air circulation, and situate in full sunlight for best disease resistance.
‘Scentimental™’

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botanical name Rosa ‘WEKpaplet’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 3-4’ |
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hardiness zones 4-11 |
‘Scentimental™’ bears ruffly petals that stand out in a swirl of burgundy, white, red, and cream. Old-fashioned, fully double florals meet contemporary coloration in this bold hybrid.
‘Scentimental™’ is a collector-favorite rose to order in February for its strong, spicy perfume. The All-America Selections winner brings color and fragrance all season.
This cultivar is disease-resistant and cold-hardy. Foliage is attractive as new growth emerges red and transitions to dark green with quilted leaves. Showy hips emerge post-flowering for lasting interest and wildlife forage.
‘Reine des Violettes’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Reine des Violettes’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 4-8’ |
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hardiness zones 4-9 |
‘Reine des Violettes’ is a hybrid perpetual old garden selection with lilac, fully double blooms. The large cups hold over 60 petals and open flat as quartered rosettes. The violet blooms contrast with handsome gray-green foliage.
‘Reine des Violettes’ is unique in its purple tones that fade to deep violet, as near blue as roses get. Flower size at four to five inches and supreme scent are outstanding attributes on the stem and in the vase.
‘Reine des Violettes’ boasts characteristic hybrid perpetual adaptability as an 1860s heirloom befitting the contemporary garden. As a bonus, its thick stems are nearly thornless.
‘Mundi’

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botanical name Rosa gallica ‘Versicolor’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 4’ |
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hardiness zones 4-9 |
‘Mundi’ is an old rose hybrid with fuschia and white-striped petals. Its masses of showy blooms and compact, shrubby habit charm the display in late spring and early summer. This antique is one of the oldest and most famed striped roses in cultivation, originating in Asia and Europe.
‘Mundi’s’ profusion of blooms and striking, ruffly combination is worth the spectacular once-a-season flowering, where the semi-double blooms reach three to six inches across. They carry a spicy old rose fragrance and stand out amongst pale green leaves. Abundant oval-shaped red rosehips emerge in fall.
‘Mundi’ tolerates some shade and poor soils and is a hardy, disease-resistant variety. It has few thorns, making it easy to place and prune. ‘Mundi’ is a staple in historic rose gardens like Jefferson’s Monticello.
‘Queen Elizabeth’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Queen Elizabeth’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 4-7’ |
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hardiness zones 5-10 |
Once voted “World’s Favorite Rose,” Hall of Famer ‘Queen Elizabeth’ reigns as a grandiflora with double, silver-pink blooms from May through frost. Flowers reach four inches across and emerge singly or in clusters on long stems. The ‘Queen’ is one of the most popular and an All America Rose Selections award winner, among other prestigious accolades.
In addition to beautiful blooms, ‘Queen Elizabeth’ has nearly thornless canes, a gentle fragrance, and deep, glossy leaves. A cross between the floribunda R. ‘Floradora’ and hybrid tea R. ‘Charlotte Armstrong,’ ‘Queen Elizabeth’ is hardy and disease-resistant, leading to her longevity among grandifloras.
A wonderful rose to add to your February order, this variety is also available as a climber—a sport of the parent shrub that reaches up to 20 feet. Grow it along walls and trellises in full sun with plenty of air circulation for a longlived vertical specimen.
‘Madame Ernest Calvat’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Madame Ernest Calvat’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 5-7’ |
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hardiness zones 5-10 |
‘Madame Ernest Calvat’ features fully double blooms, cupped and quartered, with fifty or more pink petals per flower. The slightly nodding blooms boast a strong raspberry scent. As a Bourbon rose, ‘Madame Ernest Calvat’ flushes heavily in spring, with repeat flowering throughout the season until frost. Fall may see another bloom flush.
‘Madame Ernest Calvat’ is a sport of one of the world’s most fragrant roses, ‘Madame Isaac Pereire.’ Its old-fashioned raspberry-purple blooms match its intensely fruity, old-rose fragrance. ‘Mme. Isaac Pereire’ is deep pink-violet with a tall, arching habit, while ‘Mme. Ernest Calvat’ is lighter pink with a slightly bushier form.
‘Mme. Ernest Calvat’ is beautiful as a specimen shrub or climber on posts, arbors, trellises, and walls. When the flat flowers are fully open, bright yellow stamens attract pollinators. As blooms fade, rose hips emerge that persist in the cool season.
‘Peace’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Peace’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 3-7’ |
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hardiness zones 5-9 |
The ‘Peace’ rose is a much-loved hybrid tea to order in February. It’s known for its huge, double blooms in shades that range from light yellow and white to rose pink on ruffled edges. The mildly fragrant six-inch flowers appear in spring and repeat through autumn.
‘Peace’ is vigorous with a bushy habit. It holds its place in history, surviving World War II through cuttings circulated to rose growers in different countries for preservation. On April 29, 1945, Victory in Europe Day marking the war’s end, the ‘Peace’ rose officially entered commercial cultivation.
It became an All-America Rose Selections winner in 1946 and is celebrated for its flower, vigor, and meaning. ‘Peace’ also has World Federation of Roses Hall of Fame status.
‘Sally Holmes’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Sally Holmes’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 5-12’ |
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hardiness zones 5-10 |
‘Sally Holmes’ is a celebrated variety with clusters of creamy white flowers with pink tinges and yellow centers. Petals fade to pure white. Free-flowering throughout the summer and into fall. It grows as a sizeable free-standing specimen or a climber with staking and training.
The American Rose Society award winner boasts continual flowering, disease resistance, and good vigor. Pollinators enjoy the open flowers and light fragrance, and rosehips emerge in fall.
‘Sally Holmes’ is a rose to order in February for its versatility. It withstands high heat, and, with nearly thornless canes, training and clipping fresh stems are easy. Plant it as a focal point, as a screen, or to climb along an arbor.
‘Louise Odier’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Louise Odier’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 5’ |
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hardiness zones 5-10 |
Another prized Bourbon rose, ‘Louise Odier’ graces with rich pink domed blooms that repeat all season. The luscious, double flowers resemble camellias and carry a strong, fruity fragrance.
Bred in 1851, ‘Louise Odier’ is vigorous but with a well-behaved, rounded habit. Thick stems with prickles hold the numerous, continual blooms. The historic specimen tolerates partial shade, with at least four hours of sunlight for best growth.
‘Henri Martin’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Henri Martin’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 5-6’ |
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hardiness zones 4-9 |
Rosa ‘Henri Martin’ is a top specimen among old garden roses. This heirloom has crimson and magenta blooms, ample foliage, and an intoxicating old rose fragrance. The rounded flowers are semi-double and fully-petaled.
‘Henri Martin,’ also called ‘Red Moss,’ has mossy-looking growth on stems and buds for added interest. Moss roses feature pronounced growth along their stems and buds, creating a fuzzy, mossy effect. Moss roses arose from crosses between Centifolia (cabbage) and Damask roses.
‘Henri Martin’ is a recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit and an America Rose Society top selection among Old Garden Roses. It tolerates a range of growing conditions, including heat, with a profusion of blooms.
‘Secret’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Hilaroma’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 4-6’ |
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hardiness zones 5-9 |
‘Secret’ is a pale pink hybrid tea with creamy yellow undertones. Its distinctive hues and pastel petal variations set it apart, along with its lovely pointed blooms and intensely sweet fragrance.
A vigorous, bushy habit adds to this award winner, a recipient of the AARS award, among others. Exhibition-quality flowers extend from glossy green foliage that emerges deep mahogany-red.
Disease resistance and heat and shade tolerance make ‘Secret’ a prize. Its fragrance will delight as it drifts through the landscape or in fresh floral.
‘Duchesse de Brabant’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Duchesse de Brabant’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 4-6’ |
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hardiness zones 7-9 |
‘Duchesse de Brabant’ holds decadent cupped cabbage blooms in a true rose pink. This classic beauty has double blooms and a characteristic old garden rose fragrance. An antique variety from 1857, ‘Duchesse’ was reportedly a favorite of Theodore Roosevelt, often worn on his lapel.
‘Duchesse de Brabant’ blooms in flushes throughout spring, summer, and fall (and in warmer climates, even longer). The nodding blooms grace an upright, slightly spreading shrub form.
An Earth-KindⓇ rose, ‘Duchesse de Brabant’ is a strong performer across varying conditions with little supplemental maintenance. It benefits from good air circulation and adequate spacing, avoiding overcrowding with additional plantings.
‘Great Maiden’s Blush’

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botanical name Rosa ‘Great Maiden’s Blush’ |
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sun requirements Full sun to partial shade |
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height 5-8’ |
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hardiness zones 3-9 |
Rosa ‘Great Maiden’s Blush’ has silky pink blooms and an exceptional pure rose scent. A single-season bloomer, it flushes with clusters of large globe blooms in early summer. Attractive gray-blue foliage is pretty among other green shades in the border, even when the rose isn’t in flower.
‘Great Maiden’s Blush’ is an alba rose, a classification among the oldest garden roses bred for beautiful flowers, vigorous growth, and high fragrance. ‘Great Maiden’s Blush’s’ heritage dates to the 15th century and makes a beautiful heirloom in any collection today.
Thought to be a sport of ‘Maiden’s Blush’, the two are similar in flower and perfume, but the ‘Great’ is larger in stature than the original. Some hybridizers use the two as synonyms. Alternate names include ‘Cuisse de Nymphe,’ the French counterpart to the English’s ‘Great Maiden’s Blush.’
‘Great Maiden’s Blush’ holds the Award of Garden Merit status and is an American Rose Society winner worth adding to your February order for its blooms and performance. It tolerates a range of growing conditions, including partial shade.