If you’re dreaming of a garden that turns heads and melts hearts, shrub roses are your secret weapon. These 17 varieties don’t just bloom—they explode with color, fragrance, and romance all summer long.
Low-maintenance yet high-impact, they’re perfect for beginners and rose lovers alike. Get ready to fall in love with the most swoon-worthy shrubs of the season.
1. Knock Out Roses
Gardeners everywhere have fallen in love with Knock Out roses for their incredible disease resistance and non-stop flowering habit. These low-maintenance beauties produce vibrant blooms from spring until frost without deadheading.
Available in red, pink, yellow, and white varieties, they grow 3-4 feet tall and wide, making them perfect for borders or mass plantings. Their compact size works well in both large landscapes and smaller gardens.
Fun fact: Knock Out roses were developed by rose breeder William Radler and first introduced to the market in 2000, revolutionizing rose growing for average gardeners!
2. Drift Roses
Looking for roses that spread rather than grow tall? Drift roses create a carpet of color with their groundcover growth habit, reaching just 1-2 feet high but spreading 2-3 feet wide.
Their petite size makes them perfect for front borders, slopes, or container gardens. The continuous blooms appear in coral, peach, pink, red, and white, creating a stunning display from spring through fall.
Like their Knock Out cousins, Drift roses resist common diseases that plague other roses, meaning less spraying and more enjoying for you!
3. Double Knock Out Roses
Double Knock Out roses elevate the beloved Knock Out family with fuller, more traditional-looking blooms. Each flower boasts multiple layers of petals, creating a lush, romantic appearance while maintaining the same easy-care qualities.
Growing 3-4 feet tall and wide, these stunners offer the same disease resistance and continuous flowering as single Knock Outs. The double flowers last slightly longer and make better cut flowers for indoor arrangements.
Plant them where you can enjoy their vivid colors daily – along walkways, near patios, or as foundation plantings around your home.
4. Flower Carpet Roses
True to their name, Flower Carpet roses blanket the ground with waves of colorful blooms. These groundcover roses typically grow 2-3 feet tall but spread 3-4 feet wide, creating a stunning carpet effect in the landscape.
What makes them special is their ability to produce up to 2,000 flowers per plant throughout the growing season. Available in pink, red, yellow, white, and amber, they’re perfect for covering slopes or filling large spaces with color.
Their exceptional drought tolerance once established means less watering for you during hot summer months!
5. David Austin English Roses
David Austin roses combine the romantic looks of old-fashioned roses with modern repeat-blooming habits. Their cupped, many-petaled flowers offer rich fragrances ranging from myrrh to fruit to classic damask scents.
Growing 3-5 feet tall, these English roses bring cottage garden charm to any landscape. Popular varieties include ‘Graham Thomas’ (yellow), ‘Lady of Shalott’ (salmon), and ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ (pink).
While slightly more demanding than Knock Outs, their intoxicating scent and old-world beauty make them worth the extra attention for rose enthusiasts seeking something special.
6. Oso Easy Roses
Oso Easy roses live up to their name with exceptional disease resistance and non-stop flowering that requires zero deadheading. Their compact size (typically 1-3 feet tall) makes them perfect for smaller gardens or containers.
The vibrant color range includes cherry red, mango salsa (coral-orange), paprika (orange-red), and lemon zest (bright yellow). Their naturally rounded growth habit means minimal pruning – just a light trim in early spring keeps them looking their best.
These roses establish quickly and show excellent cold hardiness, surviving harsh winters in zones as cold as zone 4.
7. Rugosa Roses
Rugosa roses bring rugged coastal charm to gardens with their distinctive wrinkled foliage and exceptional salt tolerance. Native to seaside areas of Asia, they thrive in sandy soils where other roses struggle.
After their spring-to-fall blooming period, rugosas produce large orange-red rose hips loaded with vitamin C. Growing 4-6 feet tall, varieties like ‘Hansa’ (magenta) and ‘Blanc Double de Coubert’ (white) offer intoxicating clove-like fragrance.
Their ability to withstand harsh conditions makes them perfect for coastal gardens or challenging sites with poor soil and limited care.
8. Sweet Drift Roses
Sweet Drift roses offer the best of both worlds – the easy-care nature of Drift roses with the romantic double blooms of traditional roses. Their soft pink flowers appear in clusters throughout the growing season, creating a continuous display of color.
Growing just 1.5-2 feet tall and wide, these compact beauties work perfectly in containers, small gardens, or as edging plants. The fully double blooms have a light, sweet fragrance that’s most noticeable on warm days.
Their exceptional disease resistance means you’ll spend less time treating problems and more time enjoying the abundant flowers from spring through fall.
9. Carefree Wonder Roses
Carefree Wonder roses create a magical display with their unique two-toned blooms – pink petals with white centers that seem to glow in the garden. Growing 3-4 feet tall and wide, they form a naturally rounded shrub requiring minimal shaping.
The semi-double flowers appear in waves from late spring through fall, with especially heavy flushes in early summer. Their strong disease resistance lives up to the “carefree” name, particularly against black spot and powdery mildew.
The slightly arching branches make them perfect for the middle of mixed borders where they can be surrounded by complementary perennials.
10. Sunny Knock Out Roses
Sunny Knock Out roses bring a burst of cheerful yellow to the famous Knock Out family. Unlike many yellow roses that fade quickly to white, these maintain their bright buttery color throughout the bloom cycle.
Growing 3-4 feet tall and wide, they share the same disease resistance and continuous flowering as their red cousins. The bright yellow blooms create stunning combinations when planted alongside purple or blue perennials like salvia or catmint.
The fragrant flowers also attract butterflies, adding movement and additional beauty to your garden throughout the summer months.
11. Home Run Roses
Home Run roses knock disease resistance out of the park with unmatched protection against both black spot and powdery mildew. Their vibrant red single blooms appear continuously from spring until hard frost without deadheading.
Growing 3-4 feet tall and wide, they make excellent landscape roses for areas where disease pressure is high, such as humid climates. The glossy green foliage stays clean and attractive all season, even during rainy periods.
Their heat tolerance is exceptional, allowing them to keep blooming even during the hottest summer days when other roses might take a break.
12. Bonica Roses
Bonica roses have earned worldwide fame for their incredible flowering performance, winning multiple awards including the prestigious All-America Rose Selection. The soft pink, semi-double blooms appear in large clusters that cover the plant from top to bottom.
Growing 3-5 feet tall and wide, Bonica forms a gracefully arching shrub that works beautifully as a specimen plant or in groupings. The flowers gradually fade to white as they age, creating a multi-toned effect on each cluster.
After flowering, attractive red rose hips develop, extending the ornamental season into fall and winter while providing food for birds.
13. Nearly Wild Roses
Nearly Wild roses capture the charm of wild roses with their simple, five-petaled pink blooms, but offer modern repeat-flowering that wild roses lack. Their natural-looking flowers blend perfectly in cottage gardens or native-inspired landscapes.
Growing just 2-3 feet tall and wide, these compact shrubs work well in smaller spaces or toward the front of borders. The flowers have a light, sweet fragrance that attracts pollinators including bees and butterflies.
Their excellent cold hardiness (to zone 4) and disease resistance make them reliable performers even for beginning gardeners in challenging climates.
14. Pink Double Knock Out Roses
Pink Double Knock Out roses bring a softer color palette to the famous Knock Out family with their medium pink, fully double blooms. The layered petals create a more traditional rose appearance while maintaining the same easy-care qualities.
Growing 3-4 feet tall and wide, they make excellent foundation plantings or middle-border additions. Their continuous flowering from spring until frost ensures your garden never lacks color, even during the hottest summer months.
The bright green foliage stays clean and attractive without spraying, making these roses perfect for organic gardens where chemical use is avoided.
15. Peachy Knock Out Roses
Peachy Knock Out roses expand the color range of this popular series with unique coral-peach blooms that transition to shell pink as they age. This color-changing quality creates a multi-toned effect on each bush that’s truly captivating.
Growing 3-4 feet tall and wide like other Knock Outs, they blend beautifully with perennials in blues and purples. The semi-double flowers appear continuously from spring until frost, requiring no deadheading to keep blooming.
Their warm color makes them especially effective when planted where they’ll catch the golden light of sunset, making the peachy tones glow.
16. Rainbow Knock Out Roses
Rainbow Knock Out roses delight with their color-changing blooms that open coral-orange and mature to pink, creating a multi-colored display on each bush. The single flowers with yellow centers attract butterflies and beneficial insects to your garden.
Growing slightly smaller than other Knock Outs at 3 feet tall and wide, they fit perfectly in containers or smaller garden spaces. Their compact size makes them ideal for planting along walkways where their changing colors can be appreciated up close.
Like all Knock Outs, they resist black spot and powdery mildew, keeping their foliage attractive throughout the growing season.
17. The Fairy Roses
The Fairy roses have charmed gardeners since 1932 with their profuse clusters of tiny, double pink blooms that cover the plant like a floral blanket. Each spray can contain dozens of inch-wide rosettes, creating a truly magical display.
Growing 2-3 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide, The Fairy forms a naturally mounded shape that requires minimal pruning. The small, glossy leaves provide an attractive backdrop for the continuous display of flowers from summer until frost.
Their slightly spreading habit makes them perfect for softening the edges of walls or steps, or allowing them to spill over retaining walls.