Red Leaf Rose Hedge Plants

• Variety: Rosa glauca — the red-leaved rose, grown for foliage rather than flowers
• Type: Species shrub rose, sold for hedging
• Colour: Blue-grey leaves flushed with purple-red; small single pink flowers
• Fragrance: Slight
• Height: To 2m
• Spread: To 1.5m
• Flowering: Once-flowering, early to midsummer, followed by red hips through autumn
• RHS AGM: Yes — holds the RHS Award of Garden Merit
• Pruning: Minimal — thin out a few of the oldest stems from the base in late winter; no hard annual cut needed
• Good for: Informal flowering hedges, foliage colour, autumn hips, wildlife, cut foliage
• Container suitable: Not ideal — a large, arching shrub that needs open ground
• Similar varieties: Grown for its foliage colour rather than its flowers, unlike our other flowering shrub roses
• Sold as: Bareroot plants grown for us by specialist rose growers
• Plant: November to March while dormant
• Delivered: November to March. Collection from Castle Cary also available

Red Leaf Rose is grown for its foliage rather than its flowers — a distinctive blue-grey leaf flushed with reddish purple, a colour combination found in no other commonly grown shrub. The small, single pink flowers in early summer are almost an afterthought; the foliage is the reason gardeners plant it.

A Foliage Rose, Not a Flowering One

Native to the mountains of central and southern Europe, Rosa glauca is a vigorous, arching shrub with sparsely thorny, red-flushed stems. It flowers once, in early to midsummer, in small clusters of simple pink blooms — then carries round red hips through autumn that are as much a feature as the leaves. It's tolerant of poor soil, part shade and a north-facing spot, and takes to hedging duty better than most species roses because of its naturally informal, arching habit.

Used at the back of a border, it works as a foil for hot-coloured perennials in exactly the way a smoke bush does — the purple-flushed foliage sets off orange and red flowers without competing with them.

Planting Companions

Red Leaf Rose is at its best paired with silver or grey foliage and blue or purple flowers that pick up the tones in its leaves — Hidcote lavender at its foot, or Purple Top Vervain threaded through nearby for late-summer colour. See our full wild and hedging rose range or browse all hedging plants.

Why Ashridge for Your Roses

Every Ashridge rose is grown for us by specialist rose growers and dispatched bareroot in season. We've supplied UK gardens since 1949, hold Which? Gardening's Best Plant Supplier award and a Feefo Platinum Trusted Service Award, and grow peat-free with no neonicotinoids. All our roses are guaranteed.

Does Red Leaf Rose flower more than once?

No — it flowers once, in early to midsummer, and the display afterwards comes from its foliage colour and its red autumn hips rather than a second flush of bloom.

Is Rosa glauca hardy?

Yes, very — it's one of the hardiest roses we sell, reliably hardy throughout the UK even in a severe winter.

Can I grow Red Leaf Rose as a hedge?

Yes — its naturally arching, informal habit and sparse thorns make it a good choice for an informal flowering hedge rather than a clipped formal one.

Does it need feeding or hard pruning?

Very little. Thin out a few of the oldest stems from the base in late winter if it needs tidying; it does not need the hard annual cut that modern repeat-flowering roses do.

Will it grow in shade or poor soil?

Better than most roses — it tolerates part shade, a north-facing spot and poor soil, though it flowers and colours best with reasonable sun.