A rose by any other name?

March 5, 2007 6:28 PM

Is there any difference between Amelia roses and Amelia Renaissance roses?

My mom is doing some landscaping and had someone order Amelia roses for her; the flowers she ended up with are called Amelia Renaissance roses. She says that roses can sometimes have multiple names, but all she knows about the flowers she picked out is that they were just called "Amelia roses." The name discrepancy is causing her to doubt her shipment, and if the word "Renaissance" makes these roses different in any way, she wants to send them back.

The roses haven't bloomed yet, so she can't compare them visually. She asked me to Google around for her (she doesn't have easy access to a computer) and the best I could come up with at the end of the workday was this, which doesn't make a distinction between the two. Is an Amelia rose a type of Renaissance rose? Is an Amelia Renaissance a type of Amelia? I don't speak flower, so I can't figure out how to refine my search. Help me help her out!

posted by phatkitten to home & garden (5 comments total)

This online nursery has listings for both "Amelia" and "Amelia Renaissance" if you scroll down a bit. They have different hardiness zones, so I'd imagine they're different.

Does she remember what the ones she wanted look like? Seems like you found a pic of Amelia Renaissance ("Renaissance Series"), here's something that comes up when googling images for "amelia rose". I guess the most salient point to ask her is if the roses she wanted had really petal-filled middles (like the ones you found), or showed their yellowy inner bits visible (like the pic I linked).

I'm not a flower person either, just googled around.
posted by CKmtl at 7:02 PM on March 5, 2007

I'm unfamiliar with the Amelias, but I've seen some other growers that use the term "Renaissance" for plants that are similar to the David Austin English roses -- something that has something more of the shape and fragrance of the old garden roses, but growth habits, disease resistance, etc. more like the better modern hybrids. Those pictures you showed, phatkitten, have the sort of cabbage-rose bloom shape I'd expect from something called "Renaissance". So even if you can't find a good visual ref. for a non-Renaissance variety called "Amelia", maybe just ask your friend if she was expecting something that looked like an OGR, or something with the more pointed appearance of a typical hybrid tea rose, like the pics CKmtl found?
posted by Smilla's Sense of Snark at 7:48 PM on March 5, 2007

CKmtl: That nursery link just the sort of thing I was trying to find -- something that clearly shows the two as mutually exclusive -- but my Google-fu was exceptionally weak today. Thanks!

Smilla's Sense of Snark: I think my mom did say something about "old" roses. I'll mention what you said about "Renaissance" and newish hybrids to her, because I have a feeling she wants something that's as traditional and close to the original as she can get. Thanks for your help!
posted by phatkitten at 8:40 PM on March 5, 2007

Aside from potentially not having the look your mom's looking for, if she's in the wrong hardiness zone the roses might not appreciate the weather.

That nursery I linked says the Renaissance ones are for zones 5 and warmer, while the non-Renaissance ones are 3 and warmer. So if she's in a zone 3 or 4 area, the Renaissance ones might not do so well. If she's in California too, then that whole point's moot.
posted by CKmtl at 1:25 PM on March 6, 2007

Yep, she's in Southern California; it looks like both will do well in that climate, but she's set on the Amelias and is going to send the Renaissance ones back. Actually, it turns out that the nursery you linked to, Hortico, is where they were ordered from (my Googling would've definitely turned out better had I known that in the first place). And the Amelia page says that they're unavailable until October, which really cleared up the mixed-up order mystery. So your answer was extra helpful. :)
posted by phatkitten at 5:20 PM on March 6, 2007