Where are you, approximately? (what does DFW mean?) No one can give you advice without having some idea of where you are gardening -

Jackie

I'm not sure what bearing where one is located has on layout but DFW stands for Dallas-Fort Worth, so east Texas.

Do you intend these for a dedicated rose bed? Or mixed in with other plantings? And if a dedicated rose bed, is it free-standing - that is - visible from all sides, like an island bed?

If a free standing bed, I would be inclined to group them by growth habit with the larger growing ramblers or shrub roses in the center and those with more compact habits surrounding on the perimeter. And if you have any climbers, those definitely should be on the interior with some sort of support structure, like an obelisk or tuteur.

If the bed is seen from only one side, larger growing plants in back, more compact ones forward. Be sure to allow enough room when spacing so that you can access easily for care, pruning, cutting, etc.

I'm not sure that organizing them by color is that effective, but that may be a personal choice - I'd like to see a mix of colors myself.

Although you do see dedicated rose gardens in my area, I much prefer them mixed in with other plantings. For one, it's my garden designer aesthetic but it also limits the spread of insect and disease issues that monoculture planting tends to promote. And it is always a delight to encounter a fully blooming rose in amongst other, lesser or more seasonally blooming shrubs and perennials. If you opt for this kind of planting scheme, you just need to select for complementary sizing/spacing and flowering with the other neighboring plants

Take into consideration height. Are there multiples of the same plant? Will you be cutting them for arrangements in the house or single blooms for vases? It can be convenient and eye catching, to group white, pink and burgandy together. Off white, yellow, peach color or peach-pink blend and salmon. Pink, white, red and dark red. Mauve, lavender and light yellow. Iceberg looks good behind or next to a lot of colors. Warm colors together, cool colors together.

Since you're in an area with warm summers, I would also suggest paying attention to where the roses will be planted. If you can plant in an area where there is morning sun and late afternoon shade, most roses would prefer that and you won't have to deal with multitudes of frizzled blooms. I'm also very much a fan of mixing roses with other plants for the reasons stated above. I've found that reblooming irises look very nice among roses, as do daylilies, ivy geraniums and penstemons.

Ingrid

We have several acres so have all types of sun. I prefer mixing them in with other plants but the more I think about this, I'll need help developing a plan so it doesn't end up looking bad. Is there anyone in the DFW area that is more familiar with rose gardens than the average landscaper?

Besides the suggests given here, I don't think anyone can really help plan someone else's garden. But I use a technique with clients who don't know plants but do have an idea of what they want to see. I ask them to make a rough sketch with crayons/colored pencils showing height, width and colors. Then I match plants to their ideas, sometimes making suggestions. So you might try looking out over one area at a time and imagine what you see there, then matching your roses and other plants to your vision.

If I were you, I would look for local rose societies in your area, go to a meeting, and explain what you are looking for regarding a landscape architect or garden planner with lots of experience with roses. I'll bet you will find people who have local knowledge about that.

Before you do that, I would make a decision about how much of your several acres you intend to make into a garden - just near the house? lots of different garden rooms? a more formal garden with more wild areas further away? Just a small garden? That would be my first question if I was local and trying to recommend someone to help you.

Stay tuned on here, too, because lots of folks who live in Texas are active on this forum.

Good luck - let us know how it goes...

Jackie

new_garden, if you prefer your roses mixed in with other types of plants, you might find it beneficial to visit the Antique Rose Emporium near Brenham, TX. They mix roses in with other plants at their display gardens, and you could probably get some ideas of what kind of plant combinations you like. Their annual Fall Festival of Roses is coming up in a couple of weeks on October 31 - November 2. It is a free event (except for the plants you end up buying) and is timed to occur when the roses are at their best. If you can't make it to the fall festival, their display gardens are open the rest of the year as well.

It has been years since I have been there, but Rhodes Nursery in Garland used to have a decent sized display garden. Their focus used to be on native plants, but they also sold and used some roses in their display gardens. I am sure there must be some other nurseries in the DFW area that also have display gardens using roses where you could get some ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fall Festival of Roses at the Antique Rose Emporium

With that large an area it would also be a good idea to consider first of all how much time and energy you'll be able to spend on your garden(s). It's easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of work it takes when you have large areas to take care of. It's often easiest to concentrate first on the area around your house and work your way out from there. Even though we have a larger property my garden is concentrated around the house because of drought and watering issues, and also because energy-wise that's about all I can handle. Once you have that area planted you'll be able to tell how much more you're really able and willing to handle.

Ingrid

Hiring a garden designer to assist you in planning your garden is a very good idea and well worth the investment. Once you have a plan worked out with layouts of beds, the selection of trees, shrubs and other plants, intended hardscaping, etc., planting can be done in stages - at your convenience and as your budget allows. You do not have to aproach this project as an all-at-once, full-blown, expensive landscape renovation.

And roses are just another type of plant - you do not need a designer that specializes in them. Just one that understands plants and their requirements, skills which many designers have in greater abundance than a landscape architect (who also tend to be more expensive and more focused on larger commercial or municipal projects).

I've linked you to the Southwest chapter of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, which lists various designers that cover your area. The APLD is an exceptional national professional organization and all member designers are highly skilled and very knowledgeable. Wander through their websites to find one nearby who's work you admire. Most will come out and at least provide an initial consultation for a very nominal fee.

Here is a link that might be useful: APLD Southwest Chapter

Definitely have a plan. When we had to landscape our back and side yard, we had 3 firms draw up plans. You have to pay for the plans, but it's worth getting different perspectives. Then you can either have them do the work, or do it yourself. Of course stress that you want to include the roses and give them what types and their growth habits. Not all landscapers are familiar with roses, especially OGRs.

I am planning a large circular bed in my front. This area has large overgrown junipers in there. The county has to dig these up to replace a drain pipe, so I'm getting them removed for free. I have mostly mixed beds, but I want this to be a semi-formal rose bed with some added plants, but mostly roses. I searched all over and found this for inspiration:

I then used landscaping software to further define the plan:

I loved this software because it allowed you to take a picture of your yard from Google Maps and use that as a guide, so no measuring! I'm still deciding which roses that will go in the new bed, and I probably won't start planting until spring. Once the bed is cleared, I will work on preparing the bed and put in a brick border.

Buford--I love your design (and way of designing). Just one question: while a tall rose would look good in the center, I can see something extra special there--a climbing rose (with clematis) on an 8 ft tuteur or other support (with a stepstone walk way around it?). Or maybe a fountain or at least bird bath in the center--or a stone statue of a garden goddess or fairy queen with some kind of vine twining up and around her (but not big enough to suffocate her). Or an arch with a built-in seat on each side and a couple gorgeous roses and vines growing up and over it. Or a simple arch with roses and a simple stone bench set in the center of it. Or a stone garden goddess/fairy queen set in the center of it. Or . . . . Or . . . .

As you can see, I'm getting carried away with these ideas. That's what happens when you run out of space in your yard and therefore have no more garden to plan. : (

I just love how you designed that bed!

Kate

Hi Kate, this is what I'm planning to do. I have Teasing Georgia, which gets way too big for the spot it's in. And last year, at our Rose Day, I won a large wood square obelisk in a raffle. I want to put that in the middle and have TG climb on it. My only concern is that it blooms in flushes, not regularly. But I think wrapped around the obelisk, it would always have some blooms on it and I can mix in clematis (great minds think alike!) I don't think the spot is big enough to put a seat or other statuary. Per our HSA rules (grrrrr) the obelisk can only be 6 ft high, but I think that will work. I'm thinking smaller roses in front and then some iris and other perennials and ground cover roses in the very front. And some evergreens (little green dots) and forsythia for spring color (the yellow dots). I'd love to do some border between the roses, but I really don't want to deal with boxwood trimming. Sigh, I just hope I can get something planted before spring.

BTW, there is already a formal rose garden in this design, much larger in area. It's how I found it. See the link.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Heather Lenkin Tiffany Garden

Oh, Buford, isn't Heather's garden beautiful!

Now that I see an example of this design (the garden is much bigger than I imagined) and know about the height restrictions you have, maybe you should just grow Teasing Georgia as a big shrub in the center. You said it was kinda wide, and I think I remember Seil saying she grows it as a shrub, so I think that is workable--you might check with her on that. Obviously you don't need my help--you have plenty of ideas going there--it's just that its so much fun planning such a project!

I do have a question about forsythia, however. I grow 3 bushes and they are BIG--like 6-8 ft tall, and 3-4 ft wide (plus they sprawl a lot). I put mine where they can grow "wild" and be natural--that gives them the best bloom in the spring. I don't know how you would fit even one forsythia in that design--unless you know of some new "mini" forsythia someone has created in recent years.

I would also wonder about the evergreen "bits"--I'm not as familiar with them, but I was under the impression that they also get quite wide and sprawling--or very tall. But maybe you know about some varieties that will fit in there.

But anyway, I love the mixtures you are planning on--with the roses dominating, of course. That is going to be so cool when you complete it. We will demand pictures , you know. : )

Kate

That design is spectacular! Wow!! What landscPe software are you using?

Hi Kate, the obelisk I have is about 6 feet, or not much larger, so I can use it. My experience with TG in my yard is that it needs support. The best support I had was an umbrella trellis, but unfortunately that rusted and blew over in a big storm.The one I have it on now is too short and narrow.

I have seen forsythia grown down here that are a manageable size, and dwarf hollies or boxwood. Of course I would have to trim them. The other idea is a yellowish false cypress. I just want to have some kind of other type of plant/color in there.

I put a link to the software I used below. It's a scaled down version of real professional landscape software. Just a hint, don't spend a lot of time on the house. I did that, but could never get it just right and probably wasted a lot of time. And the elevations I could never get right. But for plotting out landscape, it's great.

Here is a link that might be useful: Realtime Landscaping Plus 2014

It's going to be wunnerful, Buford. How about "in progress" type pictures also? It would be fun to watch it grow and develop over the course of several years.

I'm still rooting for a big arch in the center--a Teasing Georgia going up each side and a smaller stone object--bench, statue, fountain-- in the center. I'd like visitors to stroll right out into the middle of the design, sit down, and contemplate the roses. Hey, but that is my hang-up. There are so many different ways to design gardens -- please don't get hung up on my "fantasy garden." : )

Kate

Hi new_garden, I don't know how near Farmers Branch you are, but they will have their Celebration of Roses on Saturday, Oct 18. Mike Shoup from Antique Rose Emporium and garden designer Scott Ogden will give lectures. Farmers Branch has active rose gardening enthusiasts, bet you could get lots of information from them.

The only thing I would add is that no matter how large or small they advertise a rose to be, it gets a lot larger in our area. A LOT!

Formal layouts are odd without formal architecture for them to correspond to. If your house does not have a geometrically symmetric facade I would stay away from a geometrically symmetric rose garden layout. If it does, I would mimic the pattern of the house with the planting design, and put it right in front of the part of the house whose patterns are being repeated by the plantings.

bboy makes a great point. Frankly, buford, I like your ideas better than the layout at Lenkin garden. For one, I don't seem to see a yellow rose in the center, so the garden appears all too pink. The green-dyed gravel also didn't appeal. The boxwood would be more labor-intensive than I'd ever contemplate, and you'd be stooping over the little plants for hours. I think their design would have benefited from other plants such as irises (which in your case could be the repeat-blooming kind which do very well for me) and other, softer and lower plantings of some kinds of perennials. Of course that would make it less formal, but for anything other than a stately residence that might be all to the good. I also look forward to pictures of the design process and end result. This is too exciting not to share!

Ingrid

Thanks Ingrid, although the layout looks formal, I'm just using it as a guide. And the spot isn't that big, about 25 feet, so I'm sure after a few years, it will be filled with plants and the lines won't be that visible. I also tried to think of the colors in the original design, that's why I have a yellow rose in the middle.

Right now it's just a bunch of overgrown junipers (in the back of this picture) so this will be an improvement.

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I'd use iris or daylilly clumps (or dianthus and lillies) where you have the forsythia, and I'd do the small false cypress for the evergreens. They'll get bigger than they list where you are, I bet. I use one called snow (or snow-something) that is perfect with my roses :) It's white variegated, to go with my silvers.

The upright sedums make nice low borders for most of the year (I use the white variegated). Not winter, though. If thyme grows well for you, an upright version might do great. I can't ever grow it or lavender for more than a season or two, though. Too humid, maybe? Meh, I use dianthus (Williams, I think) a lot for short little borders, and they don't spread too quickly and bloom all the time, so I don't mind that they aren't so great in winter. There are some low grasses that look good in winter. Caryopteris is evergreen enough here, but it gets so big that that didn't work there (ditto rosemary).

Oh! The 'snow-something' little 'cedars' I have and love turn too brown in winter for my tastes. So make sure to get an evergreen that changes to a nice winter color or keeps its usual color. People always ask if mine got frosted out :( It isn't till spring that they turn so pretty again.

Such fun! Good luck, y'all!