Same bed on August 10th

And on September 15th. I was amazed at how much my roses grew this year.

Bigger and lovelier! Good job!

They are looking really healthy also.

Kate

Beautiful with the brick around it. They really grew nicely! I love bricks with roses. I love your fragrant choices too. What about another row just like this for next year with brick and a small fountain between to make a small Charleston style garden? You already have the beautiful large tree. You have almost all of my favorites!

Others I like in this style are
Jardins Bagatelle
Firefighter
Oklahoma
Radox Bouquet
Memorial Day
Fragrant Cloud
Pope John Paul II
Eternal Flame
Love Song

Congratulations again on your rose garden

Very nice! Thanks for sharing! :)

Beautiful roses, Sara Ann!

wow. simply gorgeous. enjoy!

whatever you're doing, keep it up.

Everything looks great, and healthy. Watch out for Tropicana. It can get real tall real fast.

Thank you for the kind words everyone. Kitty, thanks for the suggestions, I've never had a knack for design, I welcome any suggestions in that area. Interesting that you mentioned Jardins de Bagatelle. I was glancing through one of my rose books yesterday and for some reason that one stood out, it is a beautiful rose with the classic hybrid tea shape that I love. They are all good suggestions. You would think I would have Oklahoma, but I don't. I've never been that impressed with the way it looks when I see pictures of it, but a few years ago I saw it in bloom at an area nursery and it was gorgeous, was tempted then to get it, but I didn't.

I've seen some pictures of some beautiful roses from most of you on here, that is something I thoroughly enjoy. Hope to see more in the future.

Sara-Ann

Are you going to add to the bed for next season? Looks like that could be a fun start to a formal garden

Wonderful job, Sara! Not only is the bed lovely but the roses are beautiful and look so very happy and healthy!

Sara-Ann what a lovely rose garden! It is just beautiful and your roses are so healthy. Thanks for sharing them! Lesley

Beautifully done and cared for. Bravo!

So pretty!

I love what you've done!!!! Stunning!!
You DO have a knack for design - it shows in what you've done.
Carol

Thanks so much everyone for the kind words and the encouragement, I appreciate it. You've got the wheels turning in my head, you are all enablers, but in a good way!

A square rectangle of rose beds with brick paths and a sculpture in the center might be pretty too. You have so much room and the roses are doing so well. I'd keep going.

Your luscious roses obviously love the Oklahoma sun and the good care you give them. I second kitty's suggestion above--a rectangle with central sculpture or fountain would be spectacular. I wish I had the space to do something like that. Diane

Thanks again Kitty and Diane, it sounds lovely, I'm trying to picture all this in my mind. I've always wanted suggestions on the layout of my roses, I really do appreciate this..

What a lovely bed! So neat and the roses so gorgeous, so green and healthy too! I'm green with jealousy, my young plants grew well this year but were attacked by thrip and cucumber beetles, I'll have to work harder to fend those off next year.

I have a question though, about the spacing of the plants. All info I have found online says keep HT's 2-3 feet apart, others even further apart, mainly to prevent the spread of disease. But Sara-Ann's roses seem to be planted very closely, will there be enough room for them to grow into? Or are you going to control the sizes by pruning? Or are these all very disease-resistant so you don't worry about diseases spreading?

Folks, what spacing do you use in your rose garden/bed?

I plan to do minimal pruning and just let the plants grow to their content, so the way I did it was first give each plant the estimated space that they will occupy when in maturity, then I added 2 feet, that's where the next rose's perimeter would start. For instance, Generosity is supposed to grow to 4' wide, half of that is 2'; Cherry Parfait is supposed to grow to 3' wide, half of that is 1.5'. So the planting holes are 2'+1.5'+2'(spacing)=5.5' apart. Did I do it right or was the spacing too wide?

Rosybunny - Thank you for your honesty. There are two rows and in each row the roses are planted about 4 feet apart, but the rows are too close together, I know that, realized it as soon as I did it, but I wasn't going to do it over, very poor planning on my part. I'm going to have to live with it for right now and maybe control it some with pruning. I think you probably have planned much better than I did and you live in Zone 8, so your roses will probably grow fast. I am going to try to plan better in the future.

Beautiful. The formal rose bed is still a wonderful option for HT's. Your bed looks great and provides easy access to your plants. Not to mention plenty of light and air.

Spacing is less important when the plants are in a row with no root competition from the sides. The wide brick border provides free space for their roots.

Nice job.

I second Harry's remarks. : )

Rosybunny, about spacing, I think it partly depends on whether you plan to mix in some other plantings with the roses or whether you want it to be all roses and nothing else. If you want just roses, I might be inclined to stick a mini rose in-between the hts--since there is lots of space open between them. There are some lovely minis out there. There's certainly nothing wrong with the spacing you used, but for future reference, you don't need that extra 2 ft between the roses--maybe just 6 inches or so--unless, as I said above, you want to insert something, presumably smaller, in between them. It really just depends on what look you are striving for.

Kate

Beautiful and so healthy looking!

Oh Kate, what a relief to hear form you that I didn't plant them too closely! Even better, they don't actually need that much spacing, which really will be convenient when I plant out the rest next spring!

The bed where I planted the roses is rather small, narrow and one end doesn't receive much sun, and I was trying to provide this wide spacing which makes the task rather screwy. My husband (a vet farmer but not particularly experienced with roses) kept telling me they didn't need to be That far apart but I wouldn't trust him. Now that I got your word, I plan on putting some annuals in between, such as marigolds in the hope of fending off the pests a bit.

Again Sara-Ann, I do adore your bed and roses, I'm glad you showed us. Best luck and have fun. :)

Rosybunny - Thank you and I wish you the same.

Sara, u r rose bed still there? Send a pic .. Just curious to c as to how they r doing after a couple of yrs.

Simply gorgeous Sara!

Awesome!

Pretty! Are those pink ones Belinda's Dreams? I can't find any at HD/Lowe's.

They r gorgeous!!!! All pink... I luv the way they r giving big blooms

Stunning, better each year.

That is exquisite.

SO beautiful...I am speechless!!!!! What are you feeding these beauties? really, thank you for sharing your beautiful garden with us.

Thank you so much everyone. Summersrhythm, no I don't have Belinda's Dream in this bed, the roses in this one are mostly hybrid teas, one grandiflora, Fragrant Plum. I think the rose you are asking about is Bewitched. I do have Belinda's Dream in a different bed, it is a great one, hope you're able to find it. Lesley, I use Mills Rose Magic. This is the third season I've used it. I add two cups to each rose after I prune them. and also to each rose when I plant them. I will use it again in early July.

Sara, those are the most beautiful roses and bushes I have ever seen. When did you prune your roses and how long does it take to get the spring flush after pruning. I am in zone 5 Cleveland OH and not had my first flower yet. They are just having some new growth. I had to prune my roses almost to below ground level. I feel my roses are very slow. I pruned them on April 16 and put a cup of rose tone and some Epsom salt at that time. Is it normal for my zone or am I doing something wrong. Also the temps are so weird last couple days close to 90 daytime and this Wednesday drops into 39 at night.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated, as I am anxiously waiting for my roses to start blooming.

Thanks in advance, Madri.

I love your gorgeous combination of pinks, Sarah-Ann. Those blooms do look huge and lush, and what progress that bed has made. Do you have more pics of this bed? Diane

Madri - I try to prune when the forsythia blooms, this year I got anxious and did it about a week earlier, the temps had moderated by then, so it didn't hurt anything. Seems like the temperatures here warmed up fairly early this year. We haven't had any temperatures below the 40's for several weeks. For the most part our day time temps have been running in the mid to high seventies, although we've had a few in the high eighties. Sometimes we get lucky. All the flowers around here have been gorgeous this spring, the irises are so colorful and the peonies are huge and gorgeous. I don't think you're doing anything wrong, I think when it begins to get consistently warmer your roses will take off, I'm sure they'll be gorgeous.

Beautiful!

I remember your rose bed Sara, it is very exquisite. Love the edging, simple yet elegant.

Thank you so much for the info Sara. That was very helpful sets my mind at ease.

Beautiful pinks Sara!

Thanks again everyone for the nice comments.