I have a relatively small yard so not much room, but I am agonizing trying to decide how to lay out my roses and the companion plants to try to come up with something that makes sense and is beautiful. I would love to see what others have done just to enjoy their gardens and to get inspiration. I want to see how you arranged your beds and even what type of edging was used. Please share!

I am at work so I can post mine now, I will when I get home (mine is NOT much to look at right now unfortunately, but I'm only on my first year)

However, I do like to take wide photos of the different parts - I will post 2 of them. This one is of a new bed we just put in a couple of years ago right in front of the front stairs - it is an oval bed with a standard rose underplanted with small roses and trailing petunias (and daffodils, which are finishing in this May photo). We used brick to outline it because the front walk is brick.

Jackie

Jackie

I would also love to see more flowering plants when they are NOT flowering, just to get an better idea of how they would look in a garden/landscape. For example, I've been wanting to plant a peony in my limited garden space, but if a plant is only going to flower for a short period the foliage really needs to look nice.

If you don't know your climate zone, where do you live geographically? Then we can perhaps suggest flowering plants that would still look good for you when not flowering.

Jackie

Here is a white bridal something (I've forgotten the full name) peony in the middle of this bed. You can see the red Double Knock Out behind it. What you can't see is the two red roses in front of the peony -- but the next pic will give you an idea of what it looks like. (Those are blue iris to the right-rear, in case you were wondering.)



The next pic is not very good, but you can see one of the red rose bushes (Kordes rose called Eutin) front-left of the white bridal peony (there's another one front-right of the peony). One bloom of the bridal peony can be spotted on the right side of the pic. At the feet of the peony is a low-growing white mini rose called Green Ice.



Here's a gorgeous peony on the left -- I think it is Cora Stubbs (might be Bowl of Beauty)--purple pansies in front of it and a smaller floribunda called Easter Basket to the right of the pansies--with a somewhat taller floribunda called Our Lady of Guadalupe slightly behind it, in right-rear corner. I was playing with variations on pink and white--might have overdone it, but I love all the bloomers there!



Hope that gives you some ideas.

Kate

East side

West side

In the picture your eye is drawn to the peonies but part of the yard is blocked from view.

Since you have a small garden how about growing wildflowers in the free space? They bloom from Spring to Fall.

BTW, this year I will replace the tree peony (it died) with a pillar rose. (Thanks to a ton of help I got here on this forum.)

I'm more concerned with the summer growing months. On my urban property I have limited space, and in particular limited space that receives full sun. So anything I plant is at a premium for fragrance and beauty, and so if it only blooms a couple of weeks or so, it needs to be both a spectacular bloom and some nice foliage.

As a new gardener I have been experimenting with all sorts of different plants without too much regard for a cohesive plan so that I can see what works in certain places, and what I like. So I have a mishmash of rose shrubs, rose of sharon, hydrangeas, weigela, spirea, and other shrubs. I've mostly stuck to shrubs because they are easier, but I am trying out some easier perennials as well as adding some annuals.

What I've learned so far is that I need to pay more attention changing shade patterns of part off my garden, that I like fragrance more than I thought I would, and that certain plants don't have a long enough bloom period or attractive enough foliage for me to keep them around. It's possible that as I gain experience I won't worry about constant blooming as a positive reinforcement, but for now I am looking at more long bloomers like shrub roses. If something has a short bloom period it needs to be spectacular, like the wonderfully fragrant, mature lilac in my backyard.

Ingrid

My different gardens are still developing, so no pictures. I usually have to buy things small, but they are all getting there (and I have acres, so no one garden is finished/mature enough yet because it takes a lot of plants!).

I think starting with shrubs is a good idea. Many take longer to get big, and perennials can always be added later.

-jannike

Sorry if you've seen these before. This is from last year, the peak bloom has yet to arrive this year (but soon).

The front slope is too arid for roses. There are xeric plants out there. This shows xeric plants can be as colorful as roses:

This is in the back yard, old photo but I couldn't find a newer one off hand. It hasn't changed except the plants have all grown larger.

There's the pink rose stairway. Another oldish picture. The roses have grown a lot since then. 'Bishop's Castle' so you walk down the stairs and get fragrance the whole way down. Boy is that fun. The warmer pink rose is 'Petal Pusher' which I got for 99 cents from Home Cheapo.

jannike, I'm not a painter or designer (my husband is a painter). I just have a passionate love of art and the aesthetics of interior design and gardening. My garden pales compared to hoovb and mendocino rose. The latter lives on 40 acres and has over 1500 roses!

It's so encouraging to see that there are still people who garden and love roses as evidenced by all these beautiful examples.

Such absolutely gorgeous gardens, y'all!!

Jackie

Your garden is gorgeous! But I have always been curious: how do you manage to work in a garden like that without snagging yourself on things or breaking off branches/flowers? This is my one big fear of creating deeper garden beds, and is why I currently divide my garden into smaller, narrower areas with a defined walking path.

When I see the pics it looks like so many plants are tucked in so tight, and all with proper heights. But as I plan my garden I am always confused because I get such contradictory info about how big something will grow. Sometimes as much as 100% different ("it will grow 4-8 feet high and 4-8 feet wide").

How do you do it? Experience? Do you often have things that don't fit and you re-arrange/replace?

Yes, well, ahem, I carefully research and plan everything, using my vast expertise and landscaping background, not at t'all like those mere plunk and plant people...EERRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr (buzzer noise for wrong answer aka 'big giant fib in my case')

I don't know about everybody else, but I *try* to plan but as soon as I do, a tree falls down and everything that had shade now has baking sun all day (a really different problem in seriously sunny places like LA than in the other regions I've gardened in (Iowa and Virginia). Or, as you said, roses meant to get 6' high turn out to be mislabeled or just love the CA sun so much it's throwing 15 feet octopus arms out in every direction. Even stuff that grew wonderfully in my garden at my former house in Hollywood won't grow in my new LA nabe and stuff I couldn't grow there I can grow here. So I plan best I can, and space the best I can, and then:

edit and add, edit and add, edit and add. Edit edit edit. Cut back. Move. Move, shuffle,shuffle,shuffle. My husband and my gardener have a look they exchange when it's that time of year and I'm ordering them about with their spades trying to keep up my ersatz plans.

The great thing about roses is that you can almost *always* move them if they wind up in a wrong spot.

I have a cottage garden, so volunteers are both encouraged and watched with a beady eye. I want butterflies and bees. But are those milkweedsenhancing or detracting there? Enhancing, great, they earn their keep. Detracting? Sorry, out. I sometimes have to cull a lovely wildflower because it's just an *wonceybit* too close to one of the beloved roses who will blackspot if I turn my back.

My garden isn't nearly as lovely as the other ones pictured, but it's mine. As Heraclitus said of rivers, I never step into the same garden twice--it's constantly changing by its own agency, and I'm always changing my mind what works in it and what doesn't.

Right now I'm thinking about giving up on a primrose bed I started under an umbrella plant that just gets ravaged by slugs, and resowing lawn. Or something.

I can't actually recall moving a plant because it was too high/low, although that's not to say it might not have happened. Usually I have a fairly good guesstimate of heights in my type of climate. However, it also doesn't bother me if a plant in front turns out to be bigger than another one behind it. My different garden areas can all be viewed from several angles so no plant is ever entirely overlooked. I actually feel this is more interesting than having everything lined up strictly by height, which can sometimes give an unnatural appearance. I like a more unstudied look which works for me because the symmetrical hardscape surrounding the plants gives a sense of control, which allows for informality in the beds themselves.

Ingrid

I do have retired show dog--a beautiful fellow named Topper who apparently was quite the deal back in the day. I never followed shows. His mom died suddenly and he needed a home, and he's a treat. Thinks he's a studmuffin at at the age of 15. But it's too much work to keep up with the coat so I keep them all in kennel cuts. I seldom need to air condition in this old house, so the short cut keeps them cooler, too.

I was struck by the photo of the dogs all lined up looking out the window. They are adorable!

Also, the kitties. So much naughty, all on one windowsill!

Ingrid

Kate

Midwinter

Spring

I wish we could urge "Help me Find" to add a garden division, so we could take similar tours whenever we wish.

I love the roses, but with a smaller collection of about 140 once they start blooming again, I am far behind in landscaping my roses with other plants.

I am really impressed with what you do with your spaces, and am really impressed with the idea that so many of us do it ourselves without professional help. The beauty is equal, of course if we direct a pro, but I like to see what we can do.

I hope we continue to post gardens. I do love to see them as well as the blooms.

Sammy

emrogers--and so will your garden be when it grows up! Good start.

Kate

Em, we all started like you, and most of us have had failures; I know I've had tons. I really like what you've done so far; it's very pretty and the dianthus are darling. I'd love to have some myself. The regular ones I had got rangy and messy by the second year but yours look small and bushy. I'm going to have to look for some for myself.

I'm now going to look at the whole thread from top to bottom again.

Ingrid

Daisy, your garden is a little bit of paradise - thanks for sharing it with us.

Jackie

Wonderful photos, thank you all for sharing the beauty.

Meanwhile, I keep coming back to view pics in this thread for inspiration. Thank you, all, for sharing the fruits of your labors -- I'm quite enamored.

:-)

~Christopher

Christopher, I'm looking forward to seeing your garden this spring.

hoovb, I'm looking forwards to seeing one of the best gardens anywhere.

Ingrid