ETHNE CLARKE wrote a very good book on designing a rose garden. Published in 1992, MAKING A ROSE GARDEN could be really helpful to you. Price Grabber has it for $1.99
(See link below.)

Here is a link that might be useful: MAKING A ROSE GARDEN by Ethne Clarke

Un;ess your arbor includes a bench, ie, a destination, it should be either at the beginning or at least in the middle somewhere. Swings can be anywhere, but a shadey spot is best. It's nice to be able to hear a fountain from indoors...

How big is your space?

Here's another site that has Jeri's recommended book cheaper - new and used. I may buy one, too - even though my beds are pretty much done. I want to see what they're supposed to look like now that the roses are in. :))

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Half.com

Well, I doubted you could find it cheaper than $1.99 -- but you were right.
75-cents. Wow.

Jeri

Here's some pictures of my main rose garden - my husband built the arbors, brick walks, etc. I like the benches on either side of the main rose garden - they invite you to not only sit down, but to see the roses from a lower, more rose-level perspective.

The third picture, taken in the springtime before roses bloom, is of the arbor that leads to the vegetable garden. Tends to draw the eye, and the visitor, from the lawn to the entrance to another garden.
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karenforroses, thanks for those beautiful pictures!!! I have long admired your abbility to get roses to thrive in your area that are not legitimately supposed to. Are you interested in sharing, again, the link to the photos of your home and roses and clems growing on it?

Is this the link you want, greenhaven?

Here is a link that might be useful: Photobucket rose link

Karenforroses, your pics are beautiful! Second pic won me over. I had envision my fountain surrounded by circular rose beds just like that but did not know where to put the swing. I like your bench idea. Gotta go shopping again!

Catrose, my property is a half acre, but my purse strings is not that extensive to fill the entire property with roses. :-(

I was thinking on working the grounds directly adjacent to the kitchen window and deck. This is where I go most often when the weather cooperates. I would like garden rooms all eventually connecting with one another. Hope this is possible.

If you have a half acre, don't skimp on pathways. My main one is 4 feet wide, and could have been five to allow people to walk two abreast and for roses and other plants to encroach a bit. Also think about stepping stones for the planting beds.

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How well drained is your soil? You could dig some holes and fill them with water, and see how quickly it drains. In my clay soil, drainage is an issue, and I worked on grading and drains before planting. I dug in about four inches of compost, and mulched with wood chips. I'm a big believer in mulch as a way to attract beneficial organisms and eventually improve the soil. Where I've mulched heavily for the past five years, the soil is actually friable.

Definitely, you can connect your garden rooms. Starting with an overall plan, even if sketchy, is a good idea, and planting in the areas you'll use most is a great approach. Pay attention to where the sun is (it's going to change throughout the year, so try to figure that out, too). I measured my yard and put it on graph paper, and ran copies of it to sketch upon.

If you can propagate, you can fill all of the half acre with roses eventually, no matter how limited your purse. However, I like some variety - my much smaller lot has an Asian corner,
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some raised beds for veggies, a little patch of lawn (for my husband), a shade garden with many ferns, and perennials. I crammed too much in, but couldn't resist.
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I'm really big on vertical elements - archways, arbors, trees, narrow shrubs, roses on fences, tripods, whatever. It's so much nicer to be surrounded by plants.

I really wouldn't plant in August in Sacramento, not just because of how hard it would be on me, but the plants are pretty well dormant in our heat. I'd definitely wait a month, at least.
Anita

cemeteryrose(Anita) - Can you tell me the names of the climbers(pink and white) in the last photo? Your garden looks beautiful.

Cemetaryrose, your pictures, and your gardens, are just stunning! Thank you so much for sharing.

Anita, I just had to comment that this is the first time I think I've seen your garden. I love it. Only being to California once, the impression here is that it's arid and scrubby (which I know isn't true-it's a big state with many different climate zones). I didn't know Sacramento could be so lush!

Oh, and you know we would ask about the climbers, I too want to know about the ones in the last photo, as well as that big pink one in the first.

Eric

Anita, love the pics, especially the pink climber on your arbor. What is the name?

I did a drainage test yesterday by digging a foot deep, filled in the whole, came back 30 minutes later, still there, came back 30 more minutes, and water was gone. So is this good drainage? The soil is heavy clay with caliche beneath. My plot is slightly sloped so this may have helped with the drainage. I then tilled the area about six inches deep. I could have gone deeper but I remember reading somewhere that I'm not supposed to till too long to pulverize the dirt. Since I'm creating raised beds, would tilling six inches be sufficient?

To all fellow pot ghetto landlords, I've completely gone overboard! I went to a nearby nursery yesterday and purchased more roses!!!! 25 more, in addition to the 12 I'd purchased the other day. The nurseries were having a 1/2 off sale so I couldn't resist. Also, I've never been a patient person to wait until next spring to enjoy some blooms. Now I'm more determined to get a design for the beds and get the babies in quickly!

Thank you all for sending pics and advices. I've been reading the older threads throughout this forum and have gained a lot of knowledge. Though I don't know ya'll personally, I feel like I do from the posts that ya'll wrote. I've been able to interpret your sense of humor through the posts, and it warms my heart to know that there are others out there just like me! I aspire to be like ya'll someday :-)

karenforroses, oh my! lol No, but thos epcs were still fabulous! :o) I think I had you confused with someone else from Michigan....someone with a two story brick house that had climbers and clems all over it.

I thoroughly enjoyed your link though, thanks for your generosity!

Anita, wow! I don't think your garden looks crowded, it is simply stunning! I am inspired.

Pattie

bouquet, you are in my state! So glad to know I can have a lush garden in Texas. I like the little elf bench. Very cute!

If you have full sun, you'll be amazed at all that will grow for you. I learned everything I know about gardening on this forum, so you came to the right place!

I would post pictures but I have way to much of a pot ghetto ... well 200 plus minis in black plastic containers kinda draws attention !!!!(waiting until after October to plant) cemeteryrose ,That pink climber is FAB looking.who is it? I would also love to know the name of some of those companion plants.

I should have known that y'all would want NAMES of roses, not just photos!

The climber to the left in the first picture is Phyllis Bide. On the other side is Narrow Water. Phyllis takes some whacking to keep in shape on the arbor, but I do like the rose. It's next to its parent, Perle d'Or, which pleases me. Narrow Water is much more mannerly, and really lovely, floriferous and fragrant. Also in that photo are coral bells (an especially big cultivar but I don't know the name), geranium maxima (that's the blue flower underneath White Pearl in Red Dragon's mouth), lots of California poppies, and a foxglove. To the left, under Archduke Charles, is geranium sanguineum and lamb's ears. The poppies will grow in Ohio, I know, because my mother had them thanks to me sending her seeds now and then. We sowed them in the spring, but sometimes they self-seeded too. In California, they pop up in the fall and I pull out the ones that I don't want, and then pull out the plants altogether in early summer. My garden is full of volunteer forget-me-nots in the spring, too, but they don't really show up in the photo.

In the bottom photo, that's Zephirine Drouhin on one side and Crepuscule, which looks rather white in the photo, on the other. My good friend Vivian says that yellow and pink stink as a color combination, but I like it fine, especially since the colors echo Mutabilis which grows into the purple-leaved plum next to it.

My garden is more overgrown this year, partly because it's getting some age, and partly because I haven't been here much. The last photo is misleading because the garden was pretty new and things looked deceptively orderly. The vegetable beds have eight-ft-tall tomatoes right now, which certainly makes it feel more crowded.

Bouquet, I love your garden. It's the sort of casual, inviting, cottage-y look that is my favorite. Karenforroses, yours is more formal, but I love it too, especially envying you your lush grass and surrounding trees. We sure do have a lot of different conditions, and a lot of different styles! It's fun to see people's gardens, not just shots of individual roses.
Anita

These garden shots are so beautiful. I can`t tell you how much I have enjoyed seeing garden shots instead of close ups. You`all have done such an outstanding job. Thanks.....Lesley

Anita and bouquet, your gardens are so very lovely and wonderful. I feel awed and inspired at the same time. I'm beginning to realize more and more that the vertical rose element is lacking in my garden. I need an arbor! It just adds so much drama and beauty to have a gorgeous rose or two overhead. Thanks so much for posting these beauties. You're such talented ladies!

Ingrid

Absolutely beautiful gardens! Wow! Very inspiring for sure! Thanks for sharing! :-)

Allison

I have the Ethne Clark book and like it a lot. If you ask for books that have inspired us on another thread, you'll get some great suggestions, I'll bet.

I'm adding a couple of pictures of my garden because I enjoyed looking at everyone else's so much. Really pretty gardens,thanks for sharing. Garden shots are my favorites. Gean

This is the back garden
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Front garden

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This is a side garden with a number of first year tea roses; you can see my vegetable patch on the other side of the picket fence in the front yard.
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Beautiful gardens everyone!
Here's some of mine.
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My best advice is to make the garden yours and not a copy of anyone else. Put your heart into it and it will be beautiful.

Thanks everyone for the nice comments! "Deceptively orderly" - I like the sound of that. Things have changed since those photos were taken. I replaced the Cl. Icebergs with a Lamarque and yanked the Mutabilis and replaced with a sweet olive. The Mutabilis was way too big for the spot, although it was very pretty. The Mon. Tillier is making a comeback after I got a little agressive with the pruning last year. And my poor Heritage...was purchased as a grafted rose, before I knew better. It has a trunk about 3" diameter and the overall shape is not as nice as it once was...wondering if I should wait it out or replace with an own root version? Making time to replace, replant, rethink -- that's what makes it so much fun for me.

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Thanks Jeri and Sherry-O for the book idea. I went to half.com (one of my favorite places in the online-world) and snarfed up a used one. Amazon says there's a 2009 revised edition but for the price the used one will be fine for me.

Just think, an American created one of the most famous gardens in England. I'd love to see it someday. Adding it the list of dream travel along with the rose gardens of France....

Denise

My apologies to those of you who have seen pictures of my garden umpteen times and must be sick of them, but I thought the more the merrier for vuwugarden. It gave me the pleasure of another opportunity to admire the gardens everyone else had posted. It's wonderful to see the talent and love that have gone into making those gardens.

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Ingrid

I have not been very good about pictures this past year. The link below is to pictures while it was being built. Part of the garden is in its second season, part in the first. (The old, old rose is still there -- a miniature white climber, clusters of up to 50 in first flush, moderate though continuous rebloom. It has made a thicket through tip-rooting.)

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: my rose garden

Thank you everyone for posting your pics! Your gardens are all so beautiful and awe inspiring.

I love this site so much! Sometimes I can hang around, reading old posts that I tend to forget to eat. What a great way to lose weight! Reading about roses and working out in the garden -- I can do the latter more if only my body was younger :-(

Thanks again for all your help with ideas and advice. It's really nice to know I can go to the forum for support and inspiration. Okay, out to the garden to lay those paths!