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Roses in The Landscape
Selecting Roses and Laying Out The Garden
Paul F. Zimmerman - Part 2 of a three part series published in The Rose official
publication of The American Rose Society 2008
So how do you the home
rose gardener go about deciding which roses are Garden
Roses? First and foremost ask other rose growers in your
area either through local rose society meetings or via
the many rose forums on the internet. No rose does well
in all parts of the country, so local information from
rose growers who grow Garden Roses in your area is
important.
You can begin by using the rose classes as a guide. As
with most things it’s not perfect but a good place to
start. Keeping in mind the point I made in the previous
paragraph about not all roses doing well everywhere, I
asked Richard Beales of Peter Beales Roses U.K. to help
me with this. Richard and I put our thoughts together
and we feel these classes make good Garden Roses both
here and in the U.K. I feel that should cover a good
part of the U.S.
The Chinas – This group of roses are invaluable in that
they stay on the short side – something important in
today’s smaller gardens. In addition they are usually
healthy, continuous flowering through the summer and
have an important genealogy as ancestors to modern
roses. Many do well in pots and they excel in mass
plantings. In the U.S. they are hardy to zone seven and
maybe a few in zone six with shelter from the wind. One
exception (isn’t there always one) is Mutabilis which
I’ve been told is hardy to zone five.
The Albas - A very healthy group of roses and can be
used as climbers or shrubs. All are fragrant and,
although spring flowering only, are very charismatic in
that their grey-green foliage make perfect backdrops for
summer and fall flowering perennials and roses. In terms
of size they can get tall – up to six feet. They are
very hardy with some withstanding zone 4.
The Portlands – Our northern gardening friends rightly
lament that it is difficult to find hardy, repeat
flowering shrubs. Look no further because all Portlands
flower continuously through the summer and most have a
built in resistance to diseases. They are, without
exception, fragrant and easy to grow especially in group
planting or bedding. Easily hardy to zone five and some
to zone four. Average height is three to five feet –
ideal for any garden.
The Gallicas – Also spring flowering but make up for
this by having some of the most beautiful and fragrant
flowers of the old garden roses. Grown as shrubs, they
are usually easy to accommodate in any situation. Fans
of “purple” colors will love the gallicas as that shade
runs rampant through the class. Hardy to zone 4 and some
even beyond they need a winter chill to bloom well so I
would advise against growing them above a zone seven and
even that might be pushing it.
The Hybrid Musks – A class created by the Rev. Joseph
Pemberton in England this is a superb group of remontant
shrub roses, almost all developed between the two World
Wars. They are easy to maintain and healthy. Some are
quite capable of making small, continuous flowering
climbers if grown on walls or given support. They can
handle to zone five and also seem to thrive in heat.
The Rugosas – The roses that grow wild on the beaches of
Maine in sandy soil. These must be classified as the
healthiest of all roses. Almost all are fragrant and
repeat their flowers in succession throughout the
summer. They have durable dark green foliage and most of
the single flowered varieties produce an excellent crop
of bright red hips every autumn. All make superb hedging
plants. Easily hardy to zone four and three one thing to
keep in mind is they hate spraying of any kind on their
leaves. I have also found in hotter climates it is best
to plant them in a location so that by mid-day they are
out of the scorching sun as it will burn their leaves.
The Noisettes – Created in Charleston, South Carolina by
a rice planter named John Champney, these are a class of
mostly repeat blooming climbers with colours ranging
from white through the yellows and reds. Almost without
exception they are fragrant with good healthy foliage.
Some of the earlier Noisettes like Mary Washington are
shrubs so do some homework. It was when they became
crossed with Teas that they almost all became climbers.
They are hardy to zone six and some are grown in zone
five in sheltered spots or with winter protection.
Ramblers of both Wichurana and Multiflora origin –
Almost all have the `wow’ factor when in full bloom.
Within their ranks is a complete spectrum of colour.
They are healthy and, if necessary, will tolerate
impoverished soil and harsher weather conditions. An
excellent use of these ramblers is as backdrop to repeat
flowering climbers. In spring all the roses are in bloom
and for the rest of the season the healthy and abundant
foliage of the ramblers set off the repeat flowering
roses. Easily hardy to cold climates of zone four and
even lower.
Modern Shrubs – These are a group of roses that have
been developed since the end of World War 11. They are
of mixed progeny, almost all continuous flowering and
are good where space permits them to develop their own
personality. Many can be grown as small climbers if
placed against some form of support. With this group it
is especially important to judge each variety
individually and speak with other rose growers in your
area about the ones you are thinking about trying.
Almost all will be hardy to zone six with many to zone
five and some to even four or lower. Size can vary from
three feet to eight feet or more.
Floribunda Roses (Cluster Flowered) These have been
developed over the last 100 years or so and some of them
make superb garden plants especially if grown in groups.
Usually more healthy than Hybrid Teas, a few of the
older varieties of quieter colours fit comfortably
amongst the older roses of all types. Their smaller size
of on average three to five feet, make them welcome
additions to the garden. Many are hardy to zone five.
The Species Roses – Amongst the Species are many that
make superb garden plants. Although few are remontant,
they are invariably healthy and most produce a superb
crop of brightly coloured hips. Hardiness will vary so
again, check with rose growers in your area or on the
internet forums. Sizes vary widely so do a little
homework because when they get big, they get very big.
Tea roses - Superb Garden Roses that continually bear
their blooms all season long and come in most every
color found in the rose world – including bicolour.
Their open growth habit and rounded shape are very
pleasing in any garden setting. In warm climates some
can grow to seven feet or more but generally they stay
in the five foot range. They also don’t mind being
regularly trimmed. They are hardy to zone seven and can
handle zone six if sheltered from freezing winds.
The Polyanthas – A very under used and under appreciated
group of first-class Garden Roses. The smaller blooms
appear in clusters all season on shrubs packed with
proportionately sized foliage. Most stay under three
feet and will spread as wide or more. Very healthy and
easily hardy to zone five.
Now that you have chosen your roses keeping in mind
size, color and growth habit just as you would for any
garden design, it’s time to think about doing an initial
layout on paper. Doing so gives you a moment to think
about your garden before you start the actual planting.
This is important because you want to make sure colors
aren’t clashing or a taller variety is screening out a
smaller one. It’s also time to think about how much area
do you want each variety to cover and how many bushes of
that variety you will need to make that happen. That’s
right, how many. We are too often tempted to plant one
of each variety, and while okay for a collector’s
garden, for a rose garden (with or without other
planting) multiples of one variety really give the
garden that punch. And that brings me to spacing of the
actual plants.
It was during my first
visit to Mottisfont Abbey in the UK when I first began
to expand my ideas on how to use roses in the garden,
and spacing was something I rethought during that visit.
Conventional wisdom at the time was spacing should be at
great distances so the roses don’t touch each other and
something called “maximum air circulation” can be
realized. At Mottisfont in many cases three to five of
the same rose are planted in close groups so the roses
can intermingle and make it appear as if one solid bush
is covering a large area.
It is important at this point to pause for a moment and
understand why the conventional wisdom of spacing
existed. That can be found in the supposed need for air
circulation. It was believed air circulation was needed
to help keep the roses disease free. Well if you are
growing disease prone roses this is true. Garden Roses
are by their very nature disease resistant so the need
for air circulation isn’t a factor.
The concept of spacing has been taken to its logical
next step by Michael Marriott of David Austin Roses in
the UK. We were fortunate enough to bring Michael to
Ashdown for a workshop in the fall of 2007. I had asked
Michael to simply do a day on his philosophy on roses,
in his own words and boy did he deliver. The day was
wonderful but there was one part that really rocked
people’s rose world. And that was his section on spacing
of the plants in a rose garden. Michael has been kind
enough to allow me to pass it on to you in this article.
I covered it in our E-Gazette after his visit and here
is that section.
One of the many subjects Michael Marriott covered
during his recent all-day workshop here at Ashdown was
the way he plants his roses in groups to get a stunning
mass effect. Unlike most of us who plant one bush of
each variety several feet apart, Michael tightly plants
several bushes of the same variety.
In England Michael plants them anywhere from eighteen to
thirty inches apart depending on how large the variety
will ultimately grow. For warmer climates he recommends
starting at twenty-four inches and working your way up
from there. But the idea is to plant them close enough
so they intermingle and you cannot tell where one bush
starts and another ends. He uses anywhere from three to
six to twelve or more bushes of one variety depending on
how much space he wants to cover in the flower border.
He does not worry about planting in odd numbers.
In between the mass plantings of a particular variety he
leaves enough room before the start of the next variety
for maintenance and to define where one variety begins
and another ends. For example if he is planting plants
of particular varieties eighteen inches apart the first
bush of the next variety will begin thirty-six inches
away and then its plants would be spaced eighteen inches
apart and so on.
Lastly one of the most important points he made concerns
pruning and shaping the bushes in this type of garden.
He does not prune each bush of a variety's mass planting
individually. Rather he treats the mass as one plant and
shapes the whole.
Don't be afraid to try this method. Michael has used it
successfully in gardens all over the world and we
certainly can't argue with the results!
The simplest way to layout your garden is on graph
paper. The first step is to decide what “scale” are you
going to use – scale being the distance each square
covers. Michael had another great tip for this as well.
Set your scale at one square equals twelve inches. That
way as you draw the area each variety will cover you can
simply count the squares to help you determine out how
many plants of each variety you will need.
As an example. You decide a short variety is going to
cover an area three feet by four feet. As you lay it out
you find it covers a total of twelve squares. Planting
the bushes eighteen inches apart means each one will
take up 1.5 squares. Simply divide twelve by 1.5 and you
arrive at eight plants. A variety spaced twenty-four
inches apart will take up two squares each. So divide
twelve squares by two and you need six plants. A variety
spaced thirty inches apart will take up 2.5 squares each
so divide twelve squares by 2.5 and you conclude you
will need five plants or you can use four and spread
them out a little more.
The same method works for figuring out how many of a
perennial, annual or other shrub you will need. As you
continue to layout your garden on paper consult the
spacing recommendation for the other plants you are
using. Count the number of squares, do a little simple
math and you will quickly know! I’ve used this since
Michael’s workshop and find it a real simple and quick
way to lay out the garden.
As you lay out your rose garden keep in mind color and
height of the plants you are choosing – be they roses,
perennials, annuals, shrubs or other. It’s best to make
sure colors blend smoothly from one group of plants to
the other. If you have an awkward transition plants with
white blooms always make a good color to put in between.
But in the end your personal choices is your guide. Some
people like soft pastels and some like hot colors that
clash – it’s your choice in the end.
As you lay out your garden try to get out of the habit
of using only one plant of each variety. Think drifts of
plants and color planted in tight groups. In the end it
is a more pleasing effect that polka dots of one plant
here and one there. After all as Graham Stuart Thomas so
aptly titled his book it is “The Art of Gardening With
Roses”.
Next. Bringing in other plants and some care tips. |
