Virginiana Rose

Light Needs

Partial Shade to Full Sun

(At Least 3 Hours of Direct Sunlight)

Mature Height

5-6 Feet

Mature Spread

6-7 Feet

Growing Zones

3 to 8

Native roses like Virginiana Rose make wildlife-friendly gardens pop with color that attracts and helps bees, birds, and butterflies. This rose has deep pink single flowers that are 2 to 3 inches in diameter and filled with a bright yellow center. They grow like an upright shrub, filled with plenty of leafy branches. Flowers open in June and can continue through late summer. After the petals drop in late fall, rose hips appear to feed songbirds and other wildlife in winter. 

Wild (native) roses like this one differ from hybrid roses. Their blooms still stun, so they offer attractive color to your landscape while offering food and shelter to birds and insects. They tend to be easy to care for, since they grow fine in the wild. Virginiana grows to 5 or 6 feet high and 6 to 7 feet wide. It thrives in zones 3 through 8. Use the pretty shrub as a screen or as the focal point of a butterfly garden.

Virginiana Rose Care

Place your rose where it will get partial to full sun, so no less than 4 to 6 hours a day for full bloom. In the hotter ends of its growing zones, you can give it some afternoon shade. It can grow in nearly any soil, so plant it where you and wildlife can enjoy it most. After its first year, it can tolerate moderate to full drought, but water it a little extra during very hot and dry spells. 

There is no need to deadhead blooms as they fade. In fact, doing so will cut down on rose hip production and the food the tiny seed heads provide. After the hips dry out in winter, prune the plant back to maintain the shape you like and remove damaged canes if you like. These simple but pretty plants need no other care such as fertilizer or complex pruning. They are best left alone unless their growth begins to impede on other plants.

Virginiana Rose Spacing

Avoid crowding these roses too closely to one another or other plants. Even if creating a row or border, space them about 6 feet or more apart.