I'm in a different zone so I can't suggest anything. I just wanted to extend my condolences to you and your husband. I think this is a wonderful idea. I know as a lover of roses, I'd love it if someone did this in my memory when the time comes.
Nancy

Hi,
First i am very sorry to hear about your mother in law, losing loved ones is a very tough process. I think that what you are doing is a lovely idea though.

I too love roses, i'm not great with climbers, but i am much better with bush roses. I don't know too much about roses in northern VA, but do David Austin roses do well there? if they do then maybe you could think about getting some of those as in my experience they are better allround than many other types of roses i have purchased in the past. If you are interested in David austin Roses then both 'Jude the Obscure' and 'Gertrude Jekyll' are a must. These two are some of the strongest smelling roses available and they look very nice and grow well.

Jude the obscure is my favourite. It smells like lychees and sparkling lemonade all in one and when i smell it i just want to eat it. It is a yellowish colour verging on more of an apricot. I have 7 of these planted outside my living room window and the smell is amazing. It repeat flowers in abundance too and it always has a lot of flowers on it so 7 of those plants all flowering at the same time really give off quite a scent. I can smell them before i am even at my house and i am always getting complements about the smell and look of them. They are bushy, they repeat flower, they resist blackspot well and David austin himself described Jude the obscure as having the strongest scent of all his roses and the scent is just amazing. 'Gertrude Jekyll' on the other hand is more of a traditional smelling rose rather than a fruity smelling rose like jude is. Gertrude Jekyll is also very strong smelling though and is a lovely deep pink colour. The smell is really nice, fresh and sweet and just a very lovely 'rose' smell. It also repeat flowers and has a nice bushy look and nice coloured leaves. I have had other David Austins which are amazing too, but jude the obscure and gertrude jekyll really stand out. The fact that you don't have to bend over and put your nose to the flower to smell it is great, actually you don't even haveto be near the rose to smell it they are both that strong. I suggest looking at other David austins too as there are so many with a great strong scent. They really make nice roses. Maybe do some research on them and read other peoples reviews about them. I must say that they are really easy to look after. Try the david Austin website for a greater selection. I have never understood why anyone would weant a rose that doesn't have a scent or has a very weak scent. I really couldn't recoment Jude the obscure and Gertrude Jekyll enough. I'm sorry i couldn't help very much with anyother suggestions. I hope that you and your husband can overcome your mother in laws passing soon though. I hope that this doesn't sound cheesy or bad in anyway, but smelling a beautifully scented rose really cheers my day up, i'm not saying that it is enough to get over a loved one's death in anyway, but i should imagine that standing in a beautifully scented rose garden made in your mother in laws memmory could only be a positive.

(Gosh, this is a long post for just recomending two roses)

I am sorry for your loss.

I'll recommend that you go over to the Antique Roses forum. There are a lot of folks from your area over there, and they can recommend a lot of beautiful roses that will be easy to care for. Here are a couple of threads from over there to start, Need recommendations for fragrance and BS resistance, Need a well behaved climber for a Z7 chainlink fence.

I am also sorry for your loss and extend my condolences to your husband.

Most David Austins will need a lot of care, spraying etc. in the east coast and Jude is among the most demanding. Galloping Gerty (Gertrude Jekyll) is not for beginners either and it is infamous for not repeating very well. If I would recommend a David Austin to a novice rose gardener that would be Prospero or William Shakespeare2000 though WS2000 must be sprayed but still less bothersome than Gertie or Jude.

I think Olga would be needed here for input because I could recommend a few no-spray roses but some of those may not be hardy in northern Virginia or may not be blackspot free there like are here in coastal NC.

A.) My blackspot free and easy climbers are the Noisette Crepuscule (came through this unusually cold winter very well), the modern Romantica climber Colette and the relatively new intro, Laguna. All are fragrant, Laguna and Colette are very fragrant to my nose. Papi Delbard is also a beautiful and fragrant though smaller climber, I grow it without spraying but the thrips love the huge blooms. New Dawn is also trouble-free but it is a monster and very thorny - I think New Dawn is OK in your area, too, Olga grows it. You just have to find a good source because very often the parent, the once-blooming Dr.van Fleet is sold as New Dawn. I just planted Reve d'Or, but again, I don't know if it is hardy in northern Virginia. Mme. Alfred Carriere is
hardy, but if I remember well, Olga said she had to spray it. You do not want to start with a huge climber that you have to spray, believe me.

2.)Shrubs. I would recommend some of the Griffith Buck roses for starters like Earth Song, Prairie Star - check out Chamblee's rose nursery's web site. They give you a detailed description about the color, fragrance and disease resistance of these roses as well.

The new Kordes floribundas are also proved to be beautiful and disease free for me, I don't know how they fared in N Virginia. Pickering or Palatine are the best sources for them if they still have any left. Pickering nurseries has a separate list for the 'most disease resistant roses' and then you can cross reference it with fragrant roses - but I am afraid not many roses are left there and very soon is going to be late to plant bare root roses. Roses Unlimited also has most of the Kordes roses but it isn't easy to navigate their website.

If you want to check out the roses that were/are mentioned here, visit helpmefind.com/roses and search (under plants) for the various rose names people recommend here - just to get an idea.

Good luck. You have a lovely project ahead of you.

Here is a photo of Laguna
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And Colette:

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And Papi Delbard (who isn't drunk, nor was I, just I didn't hold the camera straight.....)

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I just wanted to extend my condolences to you and your husband. What a fantastic idea to have a rose garden that your husband (and you) can sit in and remember your MIL.

You are smart to do some research. I have found that when a rose dies, it was generally my fault for having the wrong rose in the first place, not necessarily anything that I did or didn't do. Good luck in your search for finding the right roses for your area.

I was touched by your post and your love of your MIL. It is so heartwarming to hear that some women are close to their mother-in-laws. We often hear so much negative about them. My son and I are also extremely close and my DIL is wonderful about 'sharing' him with me. So I do understand the depths of sorrow you and your husband are feeling. But it is a blessing that you all had that close bond. Your idea for a memorial rose garden is precious.

I wouldn't pretend to know which roses will do well in the south, since I am way up in New Hampshire. I do know that besides KnockOuts there are other roses that are low-maintenance for me, but our climates are so different. But as to a vine that would go well with climbing roses on an arch, clematis are wonderful. I grow over a dozen cultivars of clematis and they are beautiful.

There is a hybrid tea rose that I grow called 'Loving Son'
that would be wonderful if you can find it, to honor the love between your son and his mother. I got mine from a mailorder nursery called Rogue Valley. The roses you get from them are ownroot and are small, but with your climate should grow quickly. I had gotten roses to commemorate the names of everyone in my family (Tiffany, Grace, Jennifer, etc.) but couldn't find a rose with my son's name. When I researched, I found this rose and it was so appropriate because he is indeed a loving son. Your husband may be comforted by having a rose to celebrate the wonderful relationship he shared with his mom. He sounds like a loving son indeed.

Take care,

Celeste

clematis growing on an arch with roses......
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'Loving Son' rose......
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Oh wowzer, thank you all so much for your advice and the photos.. Unbeleiveable.. how many years does it take to have a rose garden look like the ones you all have??? Celeste what a great idea!!!,are those all just roses.. or something else mixed in there?ceterum- What a garden.. Can I have it???

And thank you everyone else for sharing ideas... and Lozloz.. thank you too so much for the names of your loves..

xoxooxo

What a lovely thing to do; it sounds like it will be a comforting place for your husband (as well as for you).
I don't garden in anywhere near your zone, so my only thoughts are:

If you can grow clematis they are great rose companions, as Celeste showed. They're not scented, but bloom constantly.

What zone was your mother in law in? You said she was 7 hours away; is there a chance that her growing conditions were similar to yours? If so, you could possibly plant some of the same cultivars as she grew. Assuming you have a way of finding out what roses she had, The people here could tell you which of them would be easiest to deal with.

Good luck with your new venture; I'm sure it will be lovely!

Best,
Lara

I have to echo all with my regrets for your loss. I also have to echo Diane and ceterum, to also query the Antique forum. I know it sounds kind of scary at first with all of the long names but people will be gentle with you and they are not hard to come by at all by mail order from reputable places. The reason you may be more pleased with old garden roses is that often they have more disease resistance, more and more of us don't spray due to the environment, but honestly speaking who has the time and dedication? This might also be why the ones you lost didn't fare well.

I particularly like the 'found' roses with names of who found them or where they were found. Some may only bloom once which isn't bad, but for your application you may want to make sure that they bloom throughout your season. I finally dove into them this last year and am very excited about how they will look and do, you sound like it wouldn't take too much for you to become just as excited if only you had better guidance (and enabling, you've come to the right place for that!) than what's at the local big box or nursery.

Although you've described your needs pretty well, you might want to think about colors before you start studying what to get. If I may suggest, you might want to focus on bold (but not overly gaudy) colors. I especially like yellow as an accent, it is such a happy color to me and that's what you'll want to feel in the spot, not that she's gone of course, but all the happy memories of times shared. Too many pale colors would just get me down, I know, and that's where you want to go to get away from such a mood. You might also want to include her favorite color as a main color or accent depending on what it is. If she liked white or pale pink, just pair it with a saturated dark pink or the lovely purple clematis above.

Best of luck and don't be afraid to really dig in and ask more questions here, we really thrive on wonderful projects like yours.

Kerin

I wish there was a way to reply to each post.. but cant figure out how to do to this. Love the idea of clematis mixed in with the roses. Wowzer!!!!!
and yes.. I will come up with more questions for sure .. taking notes down of the names that are given.. and will call around to locate some. I love the idea.. of brightly colored roses as well.. So its a happy place!!! but that white and hot purple clematis is stunning in my eyes.. LOL I have always had a fondness of multi colored flowers and the worst at putting a garden together. But seeing the white with the purple.. or even yellow, white, and purple combination sounds devine!!!

Thank you again everyone

To answer your questions with climbers it usually takes 2-3 years till they really get established. Laguna was quite fast, it bloomed very well in its second year. I have clematis growing with every climber. A very dark purple with Colette, a white, or actually two whites with Laguna and I had a dark blue clematis Rooguchi with Papi Delbard for two years but this clematis wilted and died for no obvious reason in the third year.

And Yes, I do have hardy geraniums for edging siberian Iris and German irises mixed in the beds and you can have Delphiniums that are gorgeous with roses but, alas they don't last in my climate very long. There are salvias and many perennials to make the garden interesting in times when the roses are not blooming but you should research carefully the size of the various plants - in my experience most nurseries give the mature size of plants as if everyone would garden in zone 5 and that means that if one does not calculate with that you should replant those perennials in year 2 or 3 because they will shade the roses. Or, you can wait and see how the roses are doing and the decide where you need some complementing color and texture.

There is not one Knockout in my yard. I find them boring, they have no fragrance, don't look like roses at all, here they are not even really disease free here but very thorny monsters and look worse than Encore azaleas. You can find much better roses in the polyantha class that are far more interesting, disease free and look like roses. Or, old teas, Bourbons if they are hardy in your area. But if you could give up on fragrance the new Kordes floribundas are disease free and gorgeous; wait a minute: some are even fragrant.

My most sincere condolences on your loss. This must be a difficult time for you and your husband, but doing something so wonderful for someone you love can help you get some peace at such a time. My mother-in-law and I share a very loving and close relationship and it was through her that I fell in love with roses (she introduced me to them a few years ago).

I do not live in your area, so I can't advice much. Most of the others seem to have given you some fantastic ideas. Laguna seems to me to be a very good choice for a climber. Floribundas are normally fairly continuous blooming, two great yellow ones I have are Friesia(smells good too) and Gold Bunny. For reds I love Evelyn Fison (it does not have a fragrance though). I think Celeste's idea is a lovely one to plant 'Loving Son'. This year I've planted Iceberg and Burgundy Iceberg and they have bloomed very well for me. If you like oranges you might check out Tuscan Sun which blooms 9 months in a year (in Aus) and continuously (not in flushes). I have Gertrude Jekyll, its a beautiful rose (fantastic perfume), but has one great flush and then hardly blooms much for me at all. As mentioned by the others, OGRs might be a good idea for such a purpose, I'm just getting into them this year, so I can't add much to it.

I wish you all the best. I know your love and effort will mean a lot to your husband. Take care
Sanju

Thank you all so very much, I just ordered my 3 sided arch, and 2 of each- polish spirit, betty corning, and something harding.. white, oh and sac... these are all climatis vines.. so my idea is to place a huge butterfly bush in the corner, My dear mother n law loved watching butterflys.. then place the three sided arch infront and have the clematis on each side.. and want to add in white climbing roses.. and white and purple rose bushes below?? the sac will go over the pergola when its done?? now to search out white climbing roses?? to pop up against the white and purple climatis.. ?? off to look some more. I thank you each for your ideas and you have no idea how I am sitting here with my pen and paper taking notes on what each of you have shared.
xoxoxoo

My advise would be to keep the Huge butterfly bushes far from the clematis and the roses. Clematis needs time to establish a good and strong root system, so do roses and butter fly bushes are very fast growing and spreading so they could be detrimental for the other two species if the butterfly bushes get planted first and too close to the clematis and the roses. Have you thought of getting, first of course, searching for some nice and fragrant peonies that should be ordered in summer and planted in the fall? They do very well in N. Virginia. You just have to find a quality supplier who would send relatively big plants, I mean crowns (5 eyes or more, I think) and don't plant them deep.

As to clematis in case you dare not familiar with it, check out Clematis on the Web , it is an amazing UK website listing all clematis with gorgeous photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: Clematis on the web

Thanks for the advise about the butterfly bush.. info.. your absolutely right.. Cen, and peonies I do have those.. love them, but they only bloom for such a short very short time to me.. but ohh so gorgeous. I bought so much today.. cant imagine spending more.. LOL, but you are God Send.. your so right about putting the butterfly bushes there. Since I oredered so much I am sure some will look just find on their own around the outside of the trellis and behind the trelis..

Celeste.. whooooooooooooohey.. their stunning, now some what do you have them growing over??? for support..?? and yep.. ordered the two you have showing there.. how long does it take to look like yours?? years and years and years?? boohoo!!! but hey.. with beauty you just have to have patience!!!! and they are all gorgeous.

Thank you so much for sharing!!!