I see "free flowering" and " blooming freely" in rose description every now and then, but I can't find what's the meaning of it. It seems to be a blooming style. But, what rose doesn't bloom freely? I'm so curious.

I tend to think of it in two ways, depending on how it is included in the overall description. One way is that it can refer to the frequency of bloom, meaning it blooms continuously or repeatedly throughout the season. Another way is that it can refer to a loose bloom form, which I associate with floribunda, shrub roses, and bushy OGRs, which can have a less "structured" form compared to upright hybrid teas that often (though not always) have a single bud per stem (or just a few).

Thank you Mike. It looks like an ambiguous term to describe maybe all roses except once bloomer or HT right? Who invented it is a genius!

I find similarities between writing descriptions of wines and descriptions of roses. Having written many rose descriptions, I start to run out of adjectives after a while, and though I've seen "free-floweirng" in other descriptions, I've not used it before. I'll have to add it to my lexicon!

Admittedly, I know more about the English language than about roses - but it seems quite an adequate and precise term to me. Free-flowering as an adjective simply means that the plant produces flowers freely; generously and in profusion. In the same way that you might say a person who is generous with their time gives their time freely.
Or that a person who offers unsolicited language and grammar advice is a jackass. I mean an ass freely. I'll have to work on that bit.

Aerith...I listened to a rose grower in BC talk about if you wanted Julia Child to be in full bloom for a garden party, cut off all the buds and blooms 4 weeks before the event, then you would have bush covered in blooms... from that Julia Child is not free-flowering, but more flushes from his description, yet if I leave Julia to her own nature, she always has a few blooms or half the bush.

But I would consider a rose bush covered in blooms free flowering. Some roses just don't give many blooms.

Mike said:I tend to think of it in two ways, depending on how it is included in the overall description. One way is that it can refer to the frequency of bloom, meaning it blooms continuously or repeatedly throughout the season. Another way is that it can refer to a loose bloom form, which I associate with floribunda, shrub roses, and bushy OGRs, which can have a less "structured" form compared to upright hybrid teas that often (though not always) have a single bud per stem (or just a few).

I tend to agree with your second definition, Mike, referring to the looser forms, sometimes lax petals, and often clustered blooms of a floribunda or shrub as opposed to the high-centered, exhibition-quality form of most hybrid tea blooms.

To me "free flowering" sounds like language in a marketing plan.

To me, "free flowering" means that it blooms a lot, particularly indicating that it repeats frequently, and presumably that there are a good number of blooms per flush. So, to me, that certainly doesn't exclude roses that bloom in flushes. If I get 6 flushes per season from a rose, I'd consider that more free flowering than one I get 4 flushes from. But I deadhead my roses.

The most "floriferous " of the roses I am acquainted with:

Betty Boop—never without blooms from the end of March to the middle of the following Feb., or whenever winter pruning takes place:

(I had just deadheaded. The blooms retain the petals);

This one I am not sure of the name. On the rose map it is identified as "Cartwheel":





This mini always seems to be blooming—Wild Plum.