What makes a rose a garden rose
Florists use garden rose for the full, many-petaled, often fragrant roses descended from old European types and modern English-style breeding, as opposed to the high-centered, pointed hybrid tea roses sold by the dozen. A garden rose opens into a cup or a flat rosette packed with petals, which is exactly the shape that reads as romantic in an illustration. The cabbage rose, Rosa × centifolia, was nicknamed the hundred-petaled rose and shows up all over Dutch still-life paintings. The rose is the June birth flower and the national flower of the United States, adopted in 1986. Color carries meaning: red for romantic love, white for purity and new beginnings, pink for admiration and gratitude, and yellow for friendship.
Ten roses in six colors, with a bud and leaves
The set covers a blush-pink bloom in full cupped flower (01), a classic red rose with layered petals (02), an ivory white bloom (03), a peach rose with a green leaf (04), a pink cabbage rose with many petals (05), a single bud on a short stem (06), a soft coral bloom seen from the side (07), a pale yellow rose in full flower (08), a blush bloom with two leaves (09) and a deep red rose opening from the center (10). The mix of front views, a side view and a bud gives a bouquet depth: put the full blooms in the middle, the side view at an edge, and the bud at the top or trailing out of the arrangement.
Wedding suites, Valentine's Day and sympathy cards
Garden roses are the default flower for wedding stationery. The blush, ivory and peach blooms fit save-the-dates, invitation suites, menus, place cards and bridal shower games, and the red roses suit a winter or Valentine's wedding. Outside weddings, use the red blooms on Valentine's Day cards and anniversary gifts, the pink and coral on Mother's Day cards, and any bloom on a June birthday card. The ivory and pale yellow roses are a quiet choice for sympathy cards and memorial programs. Shops selling candles, soaps and perfume samples can use a single rose on a label, and floral wall-art sellers can combine several into a monogram frame.
Blush, coral and red with greenery
The palette runs from baby pink and blush through coral and salmon to deep red, with soft green-grey leaves. On-page thread matches include DMC 818 Baby Pink, 352 Coral Light and 817 Coral Red Very Dark, with 3053 Green Gray for the foliage. Roses pair with the loose blooms of peonies for a lush wedding look, with eucalyptus for grey-green filler, and with lavender for a Provence-style card. The gallery is part of the wedding hub, and the red roses also fit the red clipart hub. For a softer palette, keep to blush, ivory and peach on a cream background; for a dramatic one, set the deep red bloom against navy, black or forest green.
Building a rose bouquet or wreath from single blooms
Each PNG is 2048x2048 pixels on a transparent background, about 6.8 inches square at 300 DPI. For a bouquet on a 5x7 invitation, size the main bloom around 2 inches, the supporting blooms at 1.25 to 1.5 inches and the bud at about 1 inch, and keep to two or three colors so the arrangement looks deliberate. For a wreath, place blooms at roughly ten and four o'clock on a ring of greenery and leave the center open for names or a date. Rotate repeated blooms a few degrees each time so they do not look stamped.