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Choosing which roses to plant in my new bed

12 years ago

The work on my new garden area is progressing well but I have allow the concrete to firm up around the posts of the new retaining wall before I can jump in and start turning over the dirt. So instead of digging today I'm thinking of what I will plant in the new area, it is 32' long and about 4' wide. Part of me wants to squeeze in as many roses as I can just to get them out of the pot ghetto, but the more rational side of me is winning out and I think I will plant 8 roses spaced 4' apart. Which leaves me the problem of choosing which of my potted roses will be the ones to get a spot in the ground.

The bed is going to be on the border of my vegetable garden and I want it to be a riot of color, with bold, bright roses and companion plants. I shovel pruned several of my yellows, leaving me with only one that is bright enough for this spot, but I have lots of oranges and pinks, and some blends.

These are the roses I have to choose from, narrowing down to only 8 is difficult: 2 Joseph's Coat, Playboy, Anthony Meilland, Fragrant Cloud, Kirsten Poulsen, Rose de Rescht, Marchioness of Lorne, Kordes' Brilliant, Livin' Easy, Vavoom, Mystery Purple (possibly Ebb Tide,) Honeysweet, Father's Day.

If you were me, which roses would you choose to plant?

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Comments (3)

jerijen
12 years ago
Peachy -- You know that unless sprayed, Playboy has rust problems in Southern CA, right?

Jeri
seil zone 6b MI
12 years ago
That's a tough choice and depends on how you want it to look. Some of those are shrubs and OGRs and will get to be good size bushes but others and HTs, floris and polys that will stay much smaller. If you want a more uniform appearance go with all of one or the other. And Joseph's Coat is a climber so I don't know where he'd fit in. Maybe you could put him in the center and then have them get smaller in size as they go out to the ends. A lot of those are orange and orange blends so you could do an all oranges bed. It would be a very cheerful bright spot!
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peachymomo
Original Author
12 years ago
I didn't know that Playboy gets rust in So Cal, hopefully he'll be okay up here Sonoma. I had him in a pot last year and didn't notice any particular susceptibility to disease, but if he does turn out to be a problem then out he will go!

I think I like the idea of putting both JC's together in the center, like a big centerpiece. The area has my veggy garden to the south and a retaining wall, line of fruit trees, and the driveway to the north. I can train the JC's onto the fence next to the retaining wall and hopefully they will make a nice display to be seen from the driveway.

All oranges would be very cool, but I want to enclose two other sides in rose beds eventually and I'd like them to flow once I do, so a mix would probably be better for the long-term look.

I think I might do this:
Livin' Easy, Anthony Meilland, Fragrant Cloud, Joseph's Coat x2, Kordes' Brilliant, Kirsten Poulsen, Playboy.

I can't decide if I want to mix my OGR's in with my modern roses, or have a separate area just for them.

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