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| Around February of this year, I decided I had enough of looking at the danged propane tank, which is right in the center of my backyard, sigh. Prior, the yard was just bermuda grass.
I decided to surround the tank with roses - my calcs were about 9 or 10 of them. Now in fall, there are about 30, and growing. What I find interesting, is for this garden area, I've been going where my heart is - roses, roses, roses. I put in two huge canna lilies (got them on sale, and had the most room there to put them), and a few succulents that also fascinated me. But that's it. I haven't been thinking at all about adding companion plants - it's turning into a true rose garden. Curious as you continue to garden and make additions - which way you tend. Pretty split on companions and roses, more roses, less roses, and thoughts about why? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by Karolina11 6a (My Page) on Fri, Nov 23, 12 at 11:40
| I own a standard small city lot. I tend to start making a rose bed and then buy one too many perennials and/or bulbs and have no where to put them so they end up in the rose bed. Thus I have the perfectly measured out and planted rose beds with random perennials sticking out and eventually they fill in with more perennials. I now need to start thinking that they will end up as perennial beds from the get-go. I have three new beds and a bed that was expanded to fill in in the spring. Roses all ordered, now just to plan out the rest.... Do you have any photos of your rose garden? Would love to see it! |
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| I'm trying to make it less roses, but somehow it just doesn't happen. |
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| I have to have more roses than companion plants because they're my passion and are also often less trouble to take care of since they're basically shrubs. On the other hand roses alone mostly bore me, except for the row of tea roses along a curving path around the house which will eventually have the function of screening us from the road that is about 30 feet below us. Since I grow mainly old roses of various classes that alone gives interest, but I still intersperse them with reblooming irises, sea lavender, marjoram, pelargoniums and day lilies, with butterfly bushes, junipers and crape myrtles as accents. I believe variety creates a more healthy garden than monoculture, and is also more hospitable to birds, bees and many other creatures. |
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| I have 4 main rose areas at my allotment, although there are lots of perennials amongst them. I also have a long rose hedge and I tend to pop roses at the ends of various veggie beds. Oh yes, I stick a couple in amongst the fruit bushes too....but I also have areas where there are no roses (although only when there are permanent veg beds (such as the strawbs and asparagras). Part of the appeal of roses is their great versatility so my scree bed has a ground covering rose, a species rose and a small pimpinellifolia, while the hedge consists of ramblers on posts and wires and more species roses assort well with the fruits (and I like little jokes like the apple rose next to my apple cordons). So, if I am at the limit on roses, it is because of lack of space rather than a desire to have something other. I am happy with the general balance but really, all bets are off as my allotment will be winding down over the next couple of years and I will be starting afresh....so who knows. |
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| Well, after 30+ years of increasingly going overboard with roses, I'm reducing their numbers. Not that they don't still fascinate me. It's energy, water and slope. My soil isn't dense enough to maintain sufficient water without regular irrigation. It's a 24% slope, making keeping water dependent plantings growing well more than "challenging". Water costs continue escalating. Allotments continue shrinking. Roses are favorite 'foods' for all the vermin who either take up residence or travel across the hill. I'm being tremendously more selective in what I choose to provide any of my limited space and water for. I'm reserving the suitable planting spaces for my own creations. Dragging amendments and other "supplies" down the hill gets harder as time progresses. Those plants which appreciate my conditions, stabilize the soil, reduce fire issues and attract my eye deserve to be where I don't have to drag myself to them for support. Thankfully, there really are some and I'm making increasingly greater use of them. Kim |
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- Posted by roseblush1 8a/Sunset 7 (My Page) on Fri, Nov 23, 12 at 15:49
| Kim delivered 10 roses to me last Friday. These are the last roses I intend to add to my garden. I'll be removing a couple of roses that just haven't thrived in this climate and giving away a few roses that no longer call my name to incorporate the new roses in the garden. No, rose lust has not diminished. It's just that I am now working in an older body and it's still hard labor to dig rose holes. My mind may want more roses, but my body isn't going along with the program. Maintaining the roses is not a problem yet, bug digging rose holes is becoming a huge issue for me. I, too, garden on a slope and have to haul everything up from the street level to the house pad level where the roses are protected from deer. That's getting old. Although I agree with Ingrid that a mono garden is not really a healthy garden, I hate companion plants planted in the rose beds simply because I am always stepping on them when I am working on the roses, so they have to go into other beds. I have finally realized that I will never have room to grow all of the roses on my lust list, so it's time to enjoy the roses I have in my garden. Smiles, |
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| I'm still deep in rose lust, but I do plant a lot of companion plants. I have a lot of once bloomers--gallicas, etc--and those need companions that bloom later. Also, I have a fair bit of shade, so I have to plant others things. And we have real leafless winter here, so I also put in all sorts of evergreens. Basically, roses are the main attraction, but I'll plant anything. |
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| I've cut back on roses to a more sustainable amount. But I've done this in stages over the years, and many of the roses are gone because of RRD or similar death dealing causes. I just haven't replaced them. It's so rough in our erratic climate, with so many deadly diseases, our lousy soil, up and down "surprise" weather patterns, winds, drought, deluging floods, tornados, hail storms, ice storms and bugs. I once talked to a Doctor (heart surgeon) who grew roses. He told me he only grew 10 hybrid teas. But those 10 hybrid teas were perfectly groomed and grown. A larger unkempt group of roses that, because of his schedule, couldn't be properly managed didn't appeal to him. It was in his nature to do things well or not at all. I thought that was insightful....Of course after cutting back on roses, then the daylily bug bit me, but that's a whole other story......Maryl |
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| In my climate & ground, roses are the ultimate spoilers. I started to say there isn't a single companion plant that stays in bloom as long here, but as I think about that - the geraniums are in bloom all year long, as are the potato vine and japanese honeysuckle. I still buy continual perennials (cannot fathom the idea of annuals were there are so many plants as perennials here). Finding great luck with Canna Lilies - I find them incredibly beautiful, they look wonderful amongst the roses, and they are easy for me. As are the Dahlias, which are a little more sensitive and the snails love them, but they come up and thrive despite them. And I'm really enjoying the diversity, ease, and disease free succulents intermixed with roses. Can't figure out the daylilies - they don't seem to bloom much for me, plus many have just "disappeared". I think a lot of my issue with perennials was not knowing where they went - and then finding that the gophers were just pulling them underground and poof - gone. Love mums and bulbs, but don't get much bloom time from them, and I constantly forget where the bulbs are, and accidently dig them up. Then since I forget where I put them, I never know where / when to expect them, and I'm sure less than half of those I've planted, I've ever seen. Camellias are saving me in my shady places, and I've given up on veggies. After spending 3 months pampering my corn daily, helping to hand pollinate it since it was in a wind protected place, and then getting about 24 delicious cobs was fun for a season, and quite delicious. But going into the store and finding white corn at 10 for $1 made it a one year only venture. I just don't have "veggies" in me. Roses in serious bloom 3 months in spring and 3 months in fall, with a mix of misc. blooms throughout the hot summer, and our mild winters, and most with delicious fragrance. Nothing really compares to me, to their beauty and hardiness. |
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- Posted by amberroses 10a-Pinellas Co.FL (My Page) on Sat, Nov 24, 12 at 6:48
| I been getting more of everything for years now. I have a small yard so it is filling up. Periodically I will remove underperforming roses and other plants and replace them. Our climate eats plants. |
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- Posted by Kippy-the-Hippy 10 Sunset 24 (My Page) on Sat, Nov 24, 12 at 11:00
| After years of mega clean up at my parents place, we are just in the past year getting to the reconstruction phase. Some beds were planted by me earlier with things I found on the property in kind of a random style. But we had to have something there. I have a few roses purchased cheaply that will end up getting replaced. Of course once you say that in front of the rose it puts out a bud just to make you think you are nuts. We also have some fairly defined areas of certain types of roses, I am thinking toward the future when I have more time and a better photo studio and want a certain look for pictures. Mom loves purple so we also have a bed that is mostly purples whites and pinks right were it is easy for her to come and sit and enjoy them in the morning. We also added one rose to each corner of our winter veggie garden. Mom was not super thrilled at first, but she is loving Munstead Wood now and enjoys that one little red rose can scent up the area. We have mostly "bulbs" (daffs-Canna-Cala-Iris-Bella Donnas) in with the roses. Mostly because, those are the things I dug up and moved before. I like adding Salvias and Lavenders. And we have some happy and self seeding Poppies and Columbines. But space around the house is premium and fairly complete. The lower garden is where I want to add a few antiques. The hope is to limit the zones that require irrigation and for the fruit trees and roses to share and enjoy some of the water we use on the veggies. Mom at 89 is very healthy and is pretty much a vegetarian so a large heavy producing garden is more than just a water bill its medicine and food. She also enjoys sharing. I do plan on adding annuals at the end of the rows this year, we had way more than we could use or give away last year so we will try to mix up the balance this coming season. |
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- Posted by ken-n.ga.mts 7a/7b (My Page) on Sat, Nov 24, 12 at 14:34
| After retiring and moving up to the N.GA area back in the fall of 08, I told myself I wasn't going to have a garden as large as I did in S.FL. (150+/- bush's. Mostly HT's). I'm keeping my promise so far. I should top out at 80/90 bushs with a good mix of just about everything. Up here I can grow bulbs I couldn't grow down south. The bed in front of my porch has 5 OGR/Austins and a BIG pile of tulips and several tree lily's. I'll be adding more bulbs to the end of each rose bed (3). The OGR/Austin bed on the hill will hold about 13/15 bushs. I'll be putting in companion plants as needed. At my house, roses come first :) |
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- Posted by melissa_thefarm NItaly (My Page) on Sat, Nov 24, 12 at 14:39
| We have a large, young, and still-expanding garden, so roses are still coming in. I can't have a garden of just roses, though: for me to be happy with the garden it needs other shrubs, subshrubs, trees unless it's a really small space, bulbs (varmints tend to eat these, or I'd have more), herbaceous plants. Of course space isn't much of a consideration here, we have lots of room, but I had the same basic style in my last garden in a neighborhood in town, and I'm pretty sure I would garden like this even if I only had a few square yards I could plant. Roses are about as beautiful, productive, easy, tough, and versatile a garden plant as a person could ask for, but they just don't make a garden by themselves. Not for me. |
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| After the rose bug hit me hard a few years back, I added about 300. I already had mature gardens full of iris, clematis, hydrangeas, daylilies, and other perennials, but roses just took my breath away. Unfortunately, RRD has hit my gardens hard and I've suffered some terrible losses. Battling the summer-long Japanese beetles also makes it hard when you only get one flush and then the dang devils hit and devour your precious blooms until September. I've taken out one western garden that was hit hard by RRD and designed it with conifers, heathers, barberries, and other grasses that are easy to maintain. Roses will always grip my heart, but the losses are just too devastating. I've taken a second look at my designs and am looking at what the future holds for my ever-evolving piece of Mother Earth. |
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| I have pretty much of a mix, but the old roses are where my heart is; have also become addicted to the Texas native grasses and wildflowers. They look good all summer as well as winter, are tough as nails and can handle drought conditions which is a consideration here. I have bulbs, cannas, day lilies and other ornamental bushes, but roses is where it's at! |
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| And Karolina11 - I finally charged my phone, so here is a photo of the new garden. Not much to look at yet, but potential:
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