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What are Old Garden Roses

The standard definition of an Old Garden Rose is that it belongs to a class of rose that existed before 1867 (not counting wild roses, also known as species roses), even if the rose in question was bred more recently.
So, according to this definition, an Old Garden Rose could have been bred in the last few years, while some "modern roses" still available today were bred 150 years ago.

Old Garden Rose

The date 1867 marks the introduction of the first Hybrid Tea rose, “La France”, which was bred from two classes of Old Rose: the Hybrid Perpetual rose “Madame Victor Verdier” and the Tea rose “Madame Bravy”.

Old Roses VS Antique Roses

Old Garden Roses are generally lumped into 2 main categories (as with many lists of this nature, it can be debated where or whether some of them belong, but this is good enough for an introduction):

  • Antique Roses: these only flower once per year. These were the only roses that existed in Europe before the 1790's.
  • Old Roses: most of these repeat flower due to having the Rosa chinensis (The China Rose) in their ancestry. The China rose revolutionised rose breeding in Europe from the early 1790's.

Famous Antique Rose (once-flowering) categories include: Alba, Centifolia, Damask, Gallica, Moss, Portland (AKA Damask Perpetual). Most people also include Rambling roses.

Famous Old Rose (repeat flowering) categories include: Bourbon, China, Hybrid Perpetual, Noisette, Tea.

Some great examples include:

Antique Roses: 

Old Roses: