Virginia Rose
Rosa virginiana
Single pink June flowers that smell like a rose should, then some of the best fall color of any native rose. Built for sandy, windy edges.
Typically 1 quart–3 gal · $17–$85 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Aug 138 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Aug 148 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Aug 158 AM – 2 PM
The fragrant native rose for wild edges. single pink flowers for native bees, brilliant hips for birds through winter.
Virginia rose is the native rose built for wild edges and coastal slopes, not the curated garden, but the real landscape where wind comes off the water and the soil is sandy and thin. It's covered in single pink five-petaled flowers through June that smell like what a rose is supposed to smell like, not the cloyingly engineered fragrance of modern hybrids. Native bees love single roses; the open flowers give them full access to pollen that doubled hybridized varieties deny them. The fall color is one of the best of any native rose: glossy foliage turning deep orange-red to burgundy. Bright red-orange hips persist through winter and are taken by birds when little else is available. It spreads by suckers to form dense colonies that stabilize slopes and provide nesting cover for birds. Not a plant for a small manicured border, but perfect for a naturalized edge.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown virginia rose propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
Plant virginia rose instead of Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora). Same job in the garden, without the spread.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Average
- Mature size
- 4–7 ft · 4–7 ft wide
- Bloom time
- June
- Bloom color
- Pink
- USDA zones
- 3–8
- Family
- Rosaceae
- Native range
- Eastern North America from Newfoundland to Virginia along coast and piedmont
Care notes for virginia rose.
Full sun in dry to average, well-drained soil. Tolerates poor sandy soil and salt spray. Spreads by suckering. this is part of its character in naturalized plantings. Remove suckers if keeping it contained in a border. No fertilization needed. Cut out old canes every few years in late winter to maintain vigorous flowering.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside virginia rose.
Or skip the guesswork.
Curated packages bundle complementary species for an instant habitat. One reservation, one pickup day, a printed layout map.
Short on Space Package
For gardeners who have an abundance of passion but are short on space, this package features tidy, upright, clump-forming natives that behave and function well in small spaces.
Shade Bed Package
Ferns, sedges, and woodland natives that thrive under existing trees.
Birder’s Paradise Package
For the avid bird watchers and budding ornithologists in our community, the Birder’s Paradise Package consists of species that Hill House Nursery staff and longtime native plant advocates such as Doug Tallamy consider ‘premier bird garden plants’.