Standard Tree Rose: A Rose on a Stem for Your Garden

A standard rose is not a variety but a way of growing roses: a rose bush grafted onto a tall, straight stem. In the garden such a little tree crowned with flowers becomes a focal point, lines paths and entrances or stands in a large container. Here is what types of standard roses exist and how to plant, prune and protect them in winter.

What Is a Standard Rose

A standard is a straight stem with no side branches. To make a standard rose, growers take a rootstock (usually a vigorous dog rose), train it into a straight stem and graft a garden variety on top. Within a year or two a head forms at the graft and flowers like an ordinary bush. Everything that grows below the graft is rootstock sucker growth and must be removed.

Types of Standard Roses by Height

• Miniature standards — 40–50 cm, made from miniature and patio roses; good for pots and balconies.
• Half standards — 60–90 cm, for small gardens and beds.
• Full standards — about 90–120 cm, the most common choice for avenues.
• Weeping standards — 140–200 cm, grafted with climbing or ground-cover roses whose stems cascade like a fountain.

Which Varieties Suit a Standard

Free-flowering varieties with a compact habit are grafted onto standards: floribundas, hybrid teas, English roses and miniatures. Weeping forms use varieties with long, flexible shoots. Ideally choose a repeat-flowering variety with good disease resistance.

Planting a Standard Rose

Plant in spring once the soil thaws or in early autumn, in a sunny spot sheltered from strong wind. Drive a sturdy stake into the hole first — it should reach the base of the head, because the stem can snap under the weight of flowers. Set the plant at the same depth it grew in the nursery and tie it in several places with soft tape. General rules are in planting roses.

Care and Pruning

• Watering — less often but deeply; dry soil during flowering harms a standard.
• Shoots on the stem or from the roots — remove at once: they are rootstock suckers that steal energy from the head.
• Pruning — in spring, to keep the head even and rounded: shorten shoots to 3–5 buds and remove weak or inward-growing ones. Weeping forms are only thinned. See pruning roses.
• Spent flowers — deadhead so the rose blooms in waves until autumn.

Winter Protection for Standard Roses

The weakest point is the graft at the top of the stem. In autumn, young standards are gradually bent to the ground, pegged down, and the head and graft are covered with conifer branches and fleece. Old thick stems that will not bend are protected in place: tie the head together, wrap it in several layers of fleece or hessian and wrap the stem too. Container standards go into a cool unheated room for winter. More tips are in preparing roses for winter.

FAQ

What is a standard rose in simple terms?

A rose grafted on top of a tall straight rootstock stem, so it grows like a small tree.

Why are shoots with different leaves growing on the stem?

They are rootstock (dog rose) suckers. Cut them off flush with the stem, or they will smother the grafted variety.

Can I leave a standard rose uncovered in winter?

In most of Ukraine, no: the high graft freezes faster than on a bush rose.

How long does a standard rose live?

With good winter protection and pruning, more than ten years.

Author: Maria Svitlovir

Graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Biology and Medicine (2001). BSc in Biology, MSc in Horticulture. Writes about plants, works at a garden centre selecting and repotting plants, and contributes to plant reference guides.

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