Do Purple Roses Exist?

Purple roses do exist, but they are a rarer rose color. To obtain a purple rose, different naturally occurring rose species must be crossbred. You can also make a white or pink rose into a purple rose with artificial dyes.

Types

Some varieties of “hybrid tea” roses can be grown with light-purple hues. Cardinal Hume roses provide deeper purple tones than hybrid teas, but they are more difficult to grow.

Alternatives

Purple roses require specialized breeding, so they are more expensive to purchase at a florist. However, you can make a rose look purple by placing white rose cuttings in a mixture of water and purple food coloring. Within a day or two, the rose petals will become purplish.

Considerations

While food coloring works for cut roses, it is not advisable for growing purple roses in a garden. To grow an entire bush of purple roses, you'll need to buy a rose species that is naturally purple.

Varieties Of Purple Roses

The hybrid tea rose is the quintessential rose. Each flower cluster can contain anywhere from three to 15 flowers. These rose plants have a mounding, shrublike appearance and are very dense. Floribundas tend to be on the small side, maturing at heights between 2 and 3 feet with an equal spread. Climbing roses are an unusual variety of rose in that they produce long, crawling canes. Blooms range from small, simple single-petal flowers to large, frilly double-petal giants. Shrub roses produce single-stemmed roses or clusters. Midnight Blue, Tradescant, Hansa and Lavender Lassie are all varieties of purple shrub roses.