I'm assuming that you might be totally new to roses and to landscaping with this new house. If not, please bear with me some here... I've written a good bit below for what I might do with your new yard, something suited to my own tastes and ideas as to what I like in roses. (Probably too much but I kind of got going in imagining your landscape design.) I'd also like to highly recommend a book that can help hugely in forming your own landscaping ideas with roses. You can buy it cheaply at Amazon.com. If I had to buy it used, I'd do that, even if it were in crummy condition. The book gives ideas, lots and lots of ideas: "Landscape with Roses" by Jeff Cox. And one more: "The House & Garden Book of Country Gardens" by Charles Quest-Ritson. Not so much for specific ideas as really good for helping you to define for yourself your general taste preferences. I got mine used at Amazon, and have enjoyed it hugely; it helped me to figure out what kinds of styles in landscaping I really like best, and which I really don't want to emulate. Regarding your new house, the northwest orientation on the back is something less than ideal for most roses, but the front of your house and yard would likely be easy for growing roses. SHADE TOLERANCE: In general, you can probably plant most roses that are reasonably hardy along the front, and probably many hybrid musks would work for the back just fine too, but some roses that are considered shade tolerant might be less shade tolerant than you might need, with that two-story house creating lots of shade around the back yard. ROSES SUGGESTIONS FOR THE BACK: I'd guess that Ghislaine de Feligonde might work out nicely, if you give her enough time to get where you want her to go. It's fragrant, low in thorns, disease resistant, shade tolerant, and those who have it tend to love it. It blooms a lot. Be sure to attach it to some kind of trellis or wiring to stand the rose out from the bricks a bit to allow for some air circulation behind it. Along the bottom, you could make a whole row of that same variety. Many different hybrid musk varieties ought to work for this job too, though they probably wouldn't reach as far as Ghislaine. Just to name a few: Cornelia, Buff Beauty, Lavender Lassie, Prosperity, Penelope, Will Scarlet. Possibly use a different variety with a contrasting color to accent each end (or possibly make this contrast with a different kind of shrubbery altogether: evergreen hiemalis camellia Kanjiro with thick waxy leaves). Then choose some lower growing shade tolerant polyantha roses to plant in front of those large bushes choosing the color according to what you think would look nice with the color of whatever you've planted against the wall. (Or try the very low growing *wonderful* hiemalis camellia 'Shishigashira' there in front of the large rose bushes.) MORE LANDSCAPING POSSIBILITIES ON THE BACK: Construct a huge heavy wooden wide arch to lead into the back entrance, and grow roses on it, with a beautiful little floor of something like bricks with brick steps going down into the lower area, with room in front with a bit more bricks as a little patio with enough room to sit a huge pot on each side of the arch entrance with some favorite roses growing in the pots. (Mortimer Sackler might have enough shade tolerance for the arch, though I wouldn't guarantee that at all.) Then add a couple of climbers on each side of the house wall too, in a contrasting color (both the same variety) to those on the arch, with some evergreen shrubs along the wall as well. If you don't opt for camellias, then there are a ton of azaleas that would also work quite well (one of the small-leaved Kurumes or Gables would especially look nice, I think). THE FRONT: Almost any rose you want to plant will grow. The problem is going to be in how you tie it in with what you have there already. What you have looks fairly good right now. I can't tell exactly what it is, but it looks good. So I'd assume that you probably would like to keep it? The best I can come up with quickly would be to take a nice short low-thorns rambler like Climbing Pinkie, Annie Laurie McDowell or Renae, and pot her up in a huge pot on each side of your doorway. Then let her send a single cane (or two) up between the door and the window, and pull her other canes over and outward via pegs toward the ground away from the door, just to let her other canes ramble along the underside of the windows. Then at the two far corners on the outside of that line of shubbery, plant another rambler (possibly the same variety) and let it flop over, building up on itself in a huge bushy display. (Gorgeous picture of Rhonda in zone 7 doing that with climbing pinkie: www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=21.88187). Then in front of the existing shrubbery, plant a short row of low-growing polyantha roses, something that would look nice with the rest (Marie Daley for a similar color, or Marie Pavie to contrast, perhaps.) These varieties will all tolerate some partial shade too, as might be the case to the far left on the front. Another variety that you might like to do something along these lines with would be the David Austin rose Mortimer Sackler. It's nicely fragrant, beautiful, and easy to grow, though it tends to want more to be more upright like a shrub than to flop over like the above three ramblers. You might want to do these rose additions in stages, and just start with a row of low polyanthas in front of the existing shrubbery. ALTERNATIVE FOR THE FRONT: If you're really ambitious, take two garden hoses and lay out a slightly winding path to the front door. Pave that path with something you like, perhaps something to match or complement the paving in front of the front door. If there's a large enough area in the front, make this walk split around a central focal point with a fountain, birdbath, or some striking shrubbery that you particularly like (Camellia Japonica Nuccio's Jewel or Nuccio's Pearl would do that!), perhaps surrounded by small roses. It would likely be a round focal point, but doesn't necessarily have to be round, especially if you decide to make a part of the walkway veer off to one side to, say, another planting area, another parking area, or a side yard's garden. Then figure on your front landscaping as a whole, taking that walkway into account, and trying for an informal balance. To give you some online inspiration for figuring out what kind of looks you might like, I've attached a link to Philip Oliver's website. It takes a good while to look at all his pictures, but you can see how he started with an open non-landscaped yard and has ended up a mere ten years later with something gorgeous. You have a zillion different good options! These are just my own leanings showing up now in this response. I hope you enjoy your new house and working on your new yard. :) Best wishes, Mary Here is a link that might be useful: Phillip Oliver's pictures offer lots of landscaping ideas

Matt- Do I remember correctly that it was you who posted a picture of yourself enjoying a beer in another thread? I remember it because it actually made me laugh. I have told my friend who isn't a gardener that no drink ever tastes as good as the one you have after you have been working in the yard all day and you sit back to survey your progress (OK, a beer at a Cubs game is pretty good too). I ordered my New Dawn from RU as well... Awakening is a possibility, it would balance the color on each side of the front of the house. I was thinking white because I planted a Moondance and a Huldine clematis near this area and I was going to continue the sweep of white. Hmmm... I feel like I need a drink already. Thanks Matt. Gilli- I will keep you posted, Matt is corrupting my plans. :)

The arbor above is at least 5 feet across and 18 years old. It's a good quality metal one (rust isn't a problem here), and it stands on a slope to make things even more difficult for the arbor. In those 18 years, the arbor has supported a huge New Dawn for 7 years, and now its current occupant, the biggest Colette around, for 11 years. To ensure stability of the arbor, my son in law drove cattle fence posts into the ground and lashed the top foot or so of the posts to the arbor's legs. I can't remember where I ordered this arbor from 18 years ago, but it wasn't cheap, nor was it the most expensive. I've seen a wonderful selection of arbors from Hayneedle (I've purchased some good gardening products from them), Amazon, and Gardener's Supply. A lot of the same arbors are sold on all three of these websites, so look for the best deal and free shipping, if you choose to order. Diane

Erasmus, that is a very inspirational story about your friend Dickie. I agree with you, his efforts to provide for his family are heroic and isn’t it just the cherry on top that he beat the cancer. Thanks for sharing that story, and not a hijack at all! And I agree with RoseCanadian, ‘Dickie’ is a very pretty rose! Librarian, I always have to give my husband a very large portion of the credit for all the work he does in every part of our garden, so I know how you feel. That was a big project for him to take on. I looked up Wollerton Old Hall and is it as fragrant as they claim? Chris, ‘Mel’s Heritage’ is a Paul Barden rose? I’ve never had one. You make a great point about getting a vigorous rose to get over the top and fill out. Pretty sure I’m going to keep the roses I have. ‘New Dawn’ should be vigorous enough to get to the top and then some. I got mine after seeing it on a very large arbor on the P.Allen Smith garden. Not that I ever hope to see mine look that good, [g] but at least I know the rose has potential. And it is a once bloomer for me. Last year I did have difficulty deadheading all of it because it was not possible to get the ladder close enough to reach the top without leaning over the rose. No way was I going to do that. I had visions of falling into the middle of the whole thing! Lol RoseCanadian - I know from experience that we are not good at keeping up painting and I’d rather have a wood aging naturally, then looking at peeling paint. And with a climber, I’d think it would be hard to get access to paint it? You go to a lot of work I assume to train the rose to the arbor and what would you do to paint? Prune it all the way off the arbor? I love the green arbor, but they seem to be growing an annual vine on the very top and all the painted surfaces have easy access to paint, so that makes sense.