A Home Gardener Got to Give This New Blushing Yellow Rose Its Name

If you’re an avid gardener, you know that new breeds of roses are introduced all the time. But unless you love dusting off your Latin skills, those new roses also need new names that roll off the tongue a little more easily. This year, one lucky rose fan got the opportunity to name a brand-new flower thanks to nursery and rose breeder Jackson & Perkins which, for the first time in decades, held a contest to give its newest rose variety a fitting name. With over 4,700 entries from the public, the winner was announced earlier this month. We’d say they knocked it out of the park — er, garden.

What is the new rose?

Meet Ruffled Romance, a floribunda variant with dense yellow and gold petals that, over time, develop a tinge of pink.

“It’s a multi-colored bloom, and the combination of the yellow and the gold that, as it matures, blushes into pink is very dramatic,” Wes Harvell, a category manager and rosearian at Jackson & Perkins, told HGTV.com. “It’s not just like it blooms a color and sits there and dies. It blooms a color and then changes over time.”

Other notable features include its larger-than-average clustered blooms (for a floribunda), moderate fruity aroma, glossy dark green foliage and relatively hearty disease resistance.

How was Ruffled Romance named?

“When I learned my entry had won the contest, I was completely in shock and still am,” contest winner Adriana C. of Studio City, California told HGTV.com. “I still can't explain the feeling but it's truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Adriana said she decided to enter the contest, “as soon as I saw the rose,” adding that “her delicate colors, effortlessly blending from soft pink to warm apricot simply stole my heart.”

“As an avid rose collector, I am always drawn to a rose by its color and name, so I felt confident I could capture her beauty with the perfect name,” Adriana said. “I used my creativity to paint a love story about a rose unlike any other. Ruffled Romance captures the delicate beauty and timeless elegance, its softly ruffled petals unfold in a dreamy blend of golden yellow, tender peach, and the faintest blush of pink, just like a love story painted by the sunset.”

How are roses usually named?

Naming roses can be tricky business. Harvell said rose names can be no more than four words long, they can’t have been used before, and they have to be trademarkable, meaning they can’t use a famous brand or name in their title. But these names aren’t just exercises in quirkiness and creativity — they’re also crucial to the marketing and success of a rose.

“It takes a rose about eight to ten years to get to the market. It starts off with paintbrush and pollen in a greenhouse and ends up with fields and rows of variety in production,” Harvell said.

And when you consider the dozens of rose breeders out there creating varieties over decades and decades of cultivation, and the fact that descriptive terms like ruffled and words associated with romance are commonly used, Harvell admitted he was surprised this particular combination was new.

Like show dogs and racehorses, roses, too, often have notable parentage which can sometimes inform their chosen name. While that lineage-based nomenclature wasn’t used for Ruffled Romance, it inspired some notable roses, including Amber Queen — a multi-award-winning British rose introduced over 40 years ago — and Walking on Sunshine, a 2011 All-America Rose Selections winner originally bred by famed rose hybridizer Dr. Keith Zary. Zary is also the breeder behind Ruffled Romance, marking the finale of a long-running collaboration with Jackson & Perkins.

How can you plant Ruffed Romance roses?

As the winner of the naming contest, Adriana will receive the first official Ruffled Romance rose plant. While she’s not sure where it will be placed just yet, she is “planning a planting ceremony with my loved ones” and placing a commemorative plaque commissioned by her father.

If you’re interested in adding Ruffled Romance to your rose collection, it will probably fit right in, no matter your setup.

“It’s not a finicky rose to grow,” Harvell said. “It could go into a moderate-to-large space, it could be planted in mass plantings, it could go in pots, it could go on a patio or deck. It’s very adaptable.”

And, as Adriana put it, “Ruffled Romance is a love story waiting to unfold in our gardens.”

Ruffled Romance roses are available for preorder now on the Jackson & Perkins website, with shipping slated for Spring 2026.