Blue For You

• Variety: Blue For You, mauve-lilac with golden stamens and a citrus fragrance
• Type: Floribunda
• Colour: Mauve-lilac fading to slate-blue as flowers open; prominent golden stamens
• Fragrance: Moderate, citrus-sweet with a violet character
• Height: 75cm (2.5ft)
• Spread: 75cm (2.5ft)
• Flowering: July to first frosts, repeat-flowering
• RHS AGM: Yes, awarded 2012
• Pruning: Cut back hard to 30-40cm in late February, just above an outward-facing bud. Light tidy in autumn.
• Good for: Borders, containers, informal hedging, cut flowers
• Container suitable: Yes, minimum 40cm pot with loam-based compost
• Similar varieties: Burgundy Ice (deeper plum-purple, slight scent); Rhapsody in Blue (slate-purple shrub, stronger fragrance, RHS AGM)
• Sold as: Bareroot plants (November to March) and 3L container grown plants (spring and summer)
• Plant: Bareroot: November to March while dormant. Container grown: any time the ground is workable.
• Delivered: Bareroot: November to March. Container grown: spring and summer dispatch. Collection from Castle Cary also available.

Blue For You is a floribunda rose growing to 75cm, producing clusters of semi-double blooms in soft mauve-lilac that deepen to a distinctive slate-blue as each flower opens and ages. It has a genuine moderate fragrance, a clean citrus note with a violet character, and repeat-flowers from July to the first frosts. It holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit, awarded in 2012.

Blue For You, the Closest Thing to a Blue Rose

Roses cannot make blue. The biochemical pathway that produces delphinidin, the pigment responsible for true blue in delphiniums and hydrangeas, is absent from the genus. Over a hundred years of breeding has refined the best available result: mauve, lilac, and slate-purple varieties that read as blue in certain lights. Blue For You, bred by British amateur Peter James and introduced in 2007, is one of the most successful of those results. The colour shifts across the life of each flower, opening as mauve-lilac and settling to a grey-slate tone that gives the plant its unusual quality. The golden stamens are visible through the petals, adding warmth that stops the overall effect from reading cold.

The fragrance is worth noting separately. Blue For You has a clean citrus note with a violet undertone, strongest in the morning and on warm afternoons, and it carries to a cut stem in a glass of water. Peter James's variety became one of the most widely grown floribundas in the UK purple-mauve range partly on colour, partly on that fragrance, and partly because the plant is simply reliable: disease-resistant, free-flowering from July to first frosts, and at 75cm in both height and spread, compact and tidy. It holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit, which assesses disease resistance, garden performance, and ornamental quality together. Our floribunda rose growing guide has everything you need on planting, feeding, and pruning.

Planting Companions

Mauve-lilac shows best against warm tones and whites. Arthur Bell in warm yellow-cream makes a classic pairing: the warm and cool tones set each other off. Margaret Merril, white and very strongly scented, reinforces the fragrance theme. At the base, Munstead lavender echoes the colour at a lower level and brings bees through the season. Caradonna salvia adds dark violet spires that flower at the same time. Plant Christophii alliums between the roses in autumn for large silver-lilac spheres in May and June, setting the palette before Blue For You comes into flower in July.

Why buy your roses from Ashridge?

Our roses are grown specifically for us by specialist rose growers, some of whom we have worked with for decades. Bareroot plants are dispatched between November and March while dormant. Container grown plants go out in spring and summer. We are peat-free throughout, use no neonicotinoids, and guarantee every plant we send. Which? Gardening named us Best Plant Supplier, and Feefo gave us their Platinum Trusted Service Award.

Frequently Asked Questions

How hard should I prune Blue For You rose?

Hard, back to 30-40cm in late February, just above an outward-facing bud. Blue For You comes back more vigorously and flowers more freely for it. Remove any dead or crossing stems at the same time. Our pruning guide covers the full method for floribunda roses.

Is Blue For You rose disease resistant?

Blue For You has good, all-round disease resistance to black spot, powdery mildew, and rust. It grows well without spraying, though ensuring decent air circulation and clearing fallen leaves in autumn always helps. Reliable in most UK conditions, including wet summers.

What does Blue For You rose smell like?

Blue For You has a clean citrus note with a violet undertone, strongest in the morning and on warm afternoons. Cut a stem for the house and the scent carries well. It is one of the most fragrant floribundas in the mauve-purple colour range, which is unusual, as most roses in that group have slight or no scent.

What is the difference between Blue For You and Burgundy Ice?

Both are purplish floribundas with strong disease resistance. Blue For You is a soft mauve-lilac with a citrus-violet fragrance and the RHS Award of Garden Merit; Burgundy Ice is a deeper plum-purple with a slight scent. Blue For You is the more compact grower at 75cm by 75cm.

Does Blue For You need deadheading?

Blue For You is a repeat-flowering rose, and deadheading spent flowers encourages it to produce more buds rather than set seed, extending the display by several weeks. Ten minutes with sharp secateurs every week or two through summer makes a real difference. Our deadheading guide covers the method.

Is Blue For You really blue?

Not true blue, as no rose in commercial cultivation achieves that yet. Blue For You is a soft mauve-lilac, similar in tone to lavender, that shifts towards slate-grey in cool or overcast conditions. That quality, alongside its excellent disease resistance, is what took it to the RHS Award of Garden Merit in 2012.