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Rose Gardens - Part 2 - Design

© Kirk Johnson

This is the second in a two part series about rose gardens. In part one, I wrote a short history of rose gardens, this article will be about designing a traditional rose garden.Suite 101's Rose Gardening editor, Mark Whitelaw, is currently writing a series of articles about landscaping with roses, this is why I focused on traditional rose gardens. If you love roses, you should read his articles and decide whether you would prefer a traditional rose garden or a mixed planting, there are advantages to both approaches.

Traditionally, rose gardens were located in a spot which was not visible from the house. This was partially because before the 19th Century, most roses in European gardens just bloomed in late spring and early summer, but it was also because roses are not very attractive during the winter. When designing a rose garden, one of your first thoughts should be about how it will look during the winter. A few roses don't look too bad during the winter, but an entire garden of roses is likely to look dreary. In a mild climate, the winter bareness of roses can be counter-balanced by planting them in geometric beds which are edged with low hedges of clipped evergreens such as dwarf boxwood. If the beds are arranged as a parterre, the design will be attractive enough during the winter to have a rose garden next to the house. If you live in a climate where roses have to be protected, it will be best to not have the rose garden visible from the house.

Rose gardens are monocultures, and this can cause problems. If you concentrate a collection of one kind of plant in a garden, you are more likely to have severe problems with insects and disease than if you spread out your rose collection in a garden of many kinds of plants. Some roses, such as the Albas and Rugosas, are known for disease resistance, a collection of these roses should be less maintenance than a collection of hybrid teas. The advantage on concentrating your roses into a rose garden is that you can design the garden to suit their cultural needs. Roses can be planted in narrow beds so that they are easy to tend, and drip irrigation can be used to reduce the danger of fungal infections. If the rose garden is a feature in a larger garden, the diverse planting in the surrounding garden will attract beneficial insects. For example, if there is an infestation of aphids in the rose garden, insects which eat aphids will come in from other parts of the garden. This is an important consideration, many rose lovers want their entire garden to be full of roses, but it is best to just collect your favorite roses and plant lots of other flowers in your garden. Roses are attractive when underplanted with herbaceous flowers, especially the hardy geraniums, but this does add to the maintenance problems. It is difficult to weed around roses, and the main source of fungal infections is from fallen rose leaves, fungus spores over-winter on the fallen leaves. If you are going to have a rose garden, it is best to clean up the fallen leaves and this is easiest when the roses just have a mulch.

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