FLOWER
FORMS

Flower form plays a defining role in how blooms are experienced in the garden and has fascinated gardeners for centuries. From softly layered petals to intricate doubles and sculptural shapes, flower forms influence texture, proportion, and overall visual appeal. Celebrated across cultures and generations, these variations have guided plant breeding and garden design alike. Today, flower forms continue to shape how roses, dahlias, tulips, and daffodils are grown, admired, and enjoyed in landscapes and floral displays.


Roses come in many types, each developed to emphasize qualities like bloom style, growth habit, fragrance, or ease of care. Breeders have produced roses for nearly every garden setting—from elegant, long-stemmed varieties for cutting to compact plants for containers or groundcover. Learning the major rose types helps gardeners choose plants that suit their landscape and goals, whether filling borders with color, training canes along an arch, or enjoying old-fashioned blossoms.

ROSE FORMS

  • Climbing

    Long canes that can be trained on supports, producing abundant flowers along tied or arched stems.

  • Floribunda

    Clusters of medium-sized blooms that flower continuously, offering color throughout the season.

  • Grandiflora

    Tall plants that combine hybrid tea bloom form with floribunda-style clusters for garden display and cutting.

  • Groundcover

    Low, spreading roses that create colorful carpets of blooms across slopes, borders, or open areas.

  • Hybrid Tea

    Large, high-centered blooms borne mostly one per stem, prized as the classic cut-flower rose.

  • Miniature

    Compact roses with small-scale leaves and blooms, perfect for containers and edging.

  • Rugosa

    Hardy, fragrant roses with wrinkled foliage, pest resistance, and showy hips after flowering.

  • Shrub

    Bushy, free-flowering roses with a wide range of sizes and forms, often including modern English roses.


Dahlias are truly unique in the flower world for their incredible variety of forms, each showcasing a different shape, petal arrangement, and texture. From delicate, pom-pom-like blooms to large, sprawling blossoms, these diverse forms offer something for every taste and garden style. This variety makes dahlias endlessly captivating to collectors and gardeners alike, with each form bringing its own charm and visual impact to floral displays, bouquets, and landscapes. The following list highlights the distinct forms of dahlias, each one offering a unique take on this exceptional flower.

DAHLIA FORMS

  • Anemone

    Dense cluster of tubular petaloids (pincushion) at its center, surrounded by a single or double row of flat ray petals.

  • Ball

    Perfectly round, fully double blooms with tightly arranged petals in a spiral patter. Miniature ball offers the same spherical shape but in smaller, compact sizes.

  • Cactus

    Spiky, fully double blooms with long, narrow petals that roll back or twist. Semi-cactus are partly rolled, and incurved cactus petals curve inward toward the center.

  • Collarette

    Open-centered bloom with a single row of flat ray petals and a distinctive collar of smaller, often contrasting, petaloids surrounding the center disc.

  • Formal Decorative

    Fully double, symmetrical blooms with broad, smooth petals that uniformly curve toward the center.

  • Informal Decorative

    Fully double blooms with loosely arranged petals that twist or curl in varying directions.

  • Lacinated

    Fully double blooms with deeply split or fringed petal tips, giving the flower a finely ruffled, feathered appearance.

  • Novelty

    Unusual petal shapes, arrangements, or color patterns that do not fit into traditional dahlia categories.

  • Orchid

    Single row of long, tubular ray petals that flare outward around an open center. The orchette form adds a second, smaller row of petaloids beneath the main petals.

  • Peony

    Fully double blooms with broad, overlapping petals that create a dense, rounded shape similar to traditional peony flowers.

  • Pom Pon

    Perfectly round, fully double blooms with tightly arranged, slightly cupped petals, forming a small, globe-like shape.

  • Single

    Single row of flat ray petals surrounding a prominent central disc. The mignon single form has smaller, compact blooms.

  • Stellar

    Star-shaped blooms, with elongated, pointed petals that radiate outward from a central disc.

  • Waterlily

    Flat, wide blooms with broad petals that are loosely arranged, resembling the graceful, open shape of waterlily flowers.


Tulips offer a wide range of flower forms, from classic cup-shaped blooms to elegant lily-flowered, fringed, ruffled, and fully double types. Variations in petal shape, layering, and opening style create distinctive looks, from clean and structured to soft and expressive. These forms help to highlight the wide diversity found within the genus Tulipa and the many visual expressions it brings to spring gardens.

TULIP FORMS

  • Single

    Tulips with smooth, cup-shaped flowers that open cleanly to reveal their classic spring silhouette.

  • Double

    Tulips with fully layered petals that form rounded, peony-like blooms with a dense, formal appearance.

  • Triumph

    Tulips with smooth, symmetrical cup-shaped blooms and clean lines that hold their form well.

  • Fringed

    Tulips featuring finely cut petal edges that create a delicate, crystalline texture around each bloom.

  • Lily-flowered

    Tulips with slender, pointed petals that flare outward into an elegant, star-shaped bloom.

  • Rembrandt

    Tulips marked with flame-like streaks and broken color patterns that give each bloom a painted appearance.

  • Multiflowering

    Tulips producing several medium-sized blooms per stem, creating a clustered floral display.

  • Darwin Hybrid

    Tulips producing large, broad-cupped flowers with bold color and a classic spring outline.

  • Parrot

    Tulips with deeply twisted, feathered petals that unfurl into dramatic, irregularly shaped flowers.

  • Fosteriana

    Tulips bearing elongated flowers that open broadly, revealing a luminous interior.

  • Viridiflora

    Tulips displaying petals streaked or brushed with green, adding contrast and structure to the flower surface.

  • Species

    Tulips with naturally shaped flowers that range from slender cups to wide, star-like blooms, reflecting their wild origins.

  • Kaufmanniana

    Tulips with wide-opening blooms that flatten into star shapes, often accented with contrasting centers.

  • Greigii

    Tulips with open, bowl-shaped blooms often highlighted by vivid basal markings.


Daffodils display a wide variety of flower forms, ranging from familiar long-trumpeted blooms to delicate, multi-flowered types and richly layered doubles. Differences in cup size, petal shape, and overall structure create distinct appearances, from upright silhouettes to soft, nodding blossoms. These forms are organized into recognized divisions that describe how each flower is shaped and how the central cup relates to the surrounding petals.

DAFFODIL FORMS

  • Trumpet

    Large central trumpet equal to or longer than the surrounding petals on a single bloom.

  • Large-Cupped

    Prominent cup shorter than the petals but still clearly defined at the flower’s center.

  • Double

    Full flowers with extra petals or multiple cups creating a layered, ruffled appearance.

  • Triandrus

    Graceful, nodding flowers with swept-back petals, often borne in small clusters on each stem.

  • Cyclamineus

    Strongly reflexed petals with a long, flared trumpet that gives a swept-back look.

  • Jonquilla

    Clusters of small, rounded flowers, usually fragrant, with a warm, informal garden style.

  • Tazetta

    Multiple blooms per stem with short cups and strong fragrance, often used indoors too.

  • Poeticus

    Pure white petals with a small, contrasting colored eye and a refined, late-spring look.

  • Split-Corona

    Cup divided into segments that spread across the petals, creating an open, starry look.

  • Small-Cupped

    Short, shallow cup that sits close to the petals and looks more open and flat.

  • Bulbocodium

    Large flared cup with very small or reduced petals, creating a tiny, bell-like bloom.

  • Species

    Naturally occurring wild daffodils and their close hybrids, often smaller and earlier blooming.