I was facing the same question but I am a totally new grower without any once bloomers. For future, I was thinking of putting a once bloomer, then a DA shrub, then a once bloomer, then a DA shrub again. That way, at least something would be blooming in the "row" all the time(hopefully).

The other idea I had was to put it behind a little bed with peonies, daylilies, etc so that something would be blooming over there all the time. I opted for Mutabilis instead but it was a thought.

Ah, a subject dear to my heart. I have tried it several ways myself and have decided that this approach works best, at least in my eyes.

If you have enough space, you can put several once bloomers in a separate bed by themselves, then plant with them perennials that bloom in midsummer and fall after the roses are done. Don't waste space here on perennials that bloom at the same time as the roses. The once bloomers will be impressive enough all by themselves, and you need the limited planting space for flowers that come after the roses have finished up for the year. This way you will have a display all season long.

Rosefolly

If the rose is large enough, you can grow a flowering vine through it such as a clematis. There are clematis that will start blooming at about the same time as the rose and then continue after the rose is done. If you were working with a once blooming yellow and wanted a hot color on the vine, there are some vining honeysuckles that would work.

I have been thinking about the same thing and wondering about approaching the problem from a different direction... How about locating once blooming roses with particularly beautiful foliage. I'm trying to remember a rose that I read about with bright red stems. (??) I already completely love the various types of foliage on the roses I already have, especially the burgundy shades of new growth... Just wondering if there is something out there with something especially pretty...

There are certainly once bloomers that make very handsome foliage shrubs and vines (Wichuriana bybrids, e.g.). I've decided to mix some once bloomers in with the repeating roses...In spring I'll have an enormous splash, then I'll continue to have flowers throughout the year. I did decide this week that my favorite (or hope to be favorite) repeat bloomers need much more water than I can supply if they are spread to the outreaches of my 2.5 acres, so I'm gradually consolidating them into the main rose garden, and the empty spaces will be filled with once bloomers (gallicas, albas, centifolias, moss, species, etc.) It seems as though the once bloomers can handle drought. I'll supplement the plantings with other drought tolerant perenials (e.g., daylilies come to mind)..
Robert

While I have a particularly nice climate for the once bloomers(many still have blooms) I mix them around with repeaters and also plant in perennials. Many of the once bloomers will have a relatively ratty period after the bloom is over but will put on new foliage as they put on new growth-I am thinking of Gallicas for instance. I ignore them while they redress themselves and they are very nice foliage plants. The eye is drawn to what is happening and the rest makes a good backdrop. Mme Hardy is wonderful on a pillar with Clematis and Ispahan is a particularly long bloomer here. Francie-are you perhaps thinking of R. glauca, used to be rubrifolia? I love that rose.

patricia

My once bloomers are mixed in with repeaters throughout the yard. Gallicas are mixed with teas and older hybrid teas while the albas are used as a backdrop behind smaller roses or annuals.

Lance

Once bloomers vary so enormously in growth habits, that to ask where they should go in the garden is a uselessly broad question. Mme Hardy and Ispahan are two of my less graceful once bloomers, so I am happy to have them in a place where I don't have to look at them the rest of the year.

Some of the best roses as shrubs, are once bloomers, so they should be used in positions where they can be shown off. I really like Rosa Glauca in the middle of a planting. It grows tall, and lots of plants and flowers look good with the red-gray foliage in the background. When it is in bloom there is nothing prettier, and it produces good, chocolate brown hips.

The pimpinellifoliae section is full of some of the best specimen shrubs around. Every spring we talk about the early blooming yellows, and they are shrubs I wouldn't be without. Rosa pimpinellifolia altaica is also an excellent specimen shrub. Rosa pimpinellifolia is a cute little thing. We've got ours in the middle of an iris border. Bearded Irises behave like few other plants I know and there are few plants I would subject to their culture, but pimpimellifolia (spinosissima) is perfectly happy, and ornamentally excellent there. To get a little tricker, the roses with broad, ornamental prickles are especially effective in a location southeast of a tree where they can catch the receding sunlight of evening. This is how those amazing pictures are taken. In our garden Rosa primula has this spot of honor, and we are still scratching our head over where to plant Rosa sericea pteracantha.

Anywhere you want a big healthy horse of a plant with large, green textured foliage, in full bloom in rosy pink fading from blush to white for the month of July, then producing an excellent crop of hips, would be a good place to plant Rosa setigera. It is the most shade tolerant rose I know, and will climb trees to find more sun if it needs to.

Our native Carolinae are full of pretty roses that range from moisture tolerant to moisture loving, so if you have such locations where you want roses, keep this in mind.

Well behaved gallicas go wonderfully in mixed perennial borders. The problem with this vague statement is knowing which ones are going to be well behaved. In my garden some gallicas want to conquer the garden. Some of these roses have had to be exiled to Elba. I hate planting some of my favorite roses in such out of the way locations, but we can't have a rose in a mixed border sprouting up in the middle of a beloved perennial. Some of our best behaved gallicas include Rosa mundi, Apothecary's Rose, Oeillet Flammand. Some very nice ones are too young to declare well behaved.

Albas are well suited to use as specimen shrubs, though thourh no real planning, we don't grow many. What Robert says about wichurana ramblers is true. They are not hardy enough to be successful here, but that shouldn't be a problem for you.

You should probably take a trip to BBG to see what some of these roses look like throughout the year. Or spend a year on the Gallery of this forum. Those of us who grow big, old once bloomers tend to like bush shots with our mug shots, and post pictures at various stages of the season.

Thank you very much everyone. I like the idea of mixing them in with repeaters. I guess that is really the only choice. And growing clematis in with them can work for me.

What clematis might work for Mme hardy and Ispahan?

Now estevinho, WOW! what a response. I have nowhere the knowledge or experience (yet) to conceive my garden as you are describing. But I hope to some day. Meanwhile I will look up every single plant you have mentioned.

estevinho, just wanted to clarify something that isn't clear in my first message. When I mentioned once bloomers I was thinking of very fragrant once bloomers. I am, at least at this at moment, driven by fragrance. I want to be bathed in in fragrance every time I step outside or open a door. I want to walk by it, or sit next to it. (And not have to find it in some nether land.) But I still want the planting to make some sense in the garden. It is in this context that I asked. Thank you for so much information, it is greatly appreciated.

K.

Hmm...actually I think all of the best spots in my garden
have been filled with once bloomers! Repeat bloom just
doesn't seem to matter to me anymore. You will never see
a repeater as COVERED with blooms as the once bloomers are.
Mine tend to bloom in different parts of the spring & summer
so somethings usually going on. I can't say that all of them
are fragrant but a good many of them are. I love all of my
once bloomers so much!
If you like albas, my 'Blush Hip' has a very long bloom
period, and beautiful fragrance, and blooms!
Alida

I don't discriminate between oncebloomers and repeaters. They are all mixed and in many cases the best and most prominent places are occupied by oncebloomers. I agree with Estevinho that early yellows make the best poosible garden plants, and many of them are very fragrant. Gallicas, Albas, species they all have good spots in my yard. Repeat doesn't mean much to me.
Olga

K,
I, too, am driven by fragrance. Although not a rose, can you grow Sweet Olive (Osmanthus fragrans)? This is one of the most fragrant shrubs...and it blooms in December for me...smells of fresh apricots, I think. I'm always adding plants for fragrance.

I don't discriminate between once bloomers and repeat bloomers either. I'm finding that I like most of the once bloomers best...especially the ramblers! Wanna a rambler with some wafting scent? Try Paul Transon...he's amazing.

Robert

K, You asked about clematis for Mme Hardy and Ispahan. I'd suggest the Group 3 Viticellas - with the Madame's pure white, you have so many choices: Comtesse de Bouchaud (mid pink), Mme Julia Correvon (claret red), Niobe (deep red), Ville de Lyon (dark pink). For Ispahan, you might try Rooguchi (blue), Betty Corning (a light blue), Blekitny Aniol aka Blue Angel or Duchess of Albany (dark pink very floriferous). The President is a dark purple and would be pretty as well. Guernsey Cream or John Huxtable would give you whites to play with. There are so many possibilities. Try two for each rose!

Mme Hardy is such a leaner that she really needs a structure to grow on and I have her wrapped with Chapeau de Napoleon (she heads to the back of the tripod and Chapeau has the front). At some point I should plant a clematis or two with them to continue bloom but the structure itself is nice to look at.

Ispahan in my garden is unexpectedly huge in her third year and has a very long bloom cycle. Her blooms are deliciously fragrant - just give her plenty of room...she'd be my choice for a "sitting" rose of the two you mentioned.

I planted Mme Plantier outside the bedroom window so that we'd have that perfect sweetness to smell waking and going to sleep. And Celsiana, my favorite rose of the summer, is by the path where we walk many times each day.

Sue

Ann has once bloomers planted on the lower fence line at her place. Visible from all the windows and the other gardens - a lovely show when they are in bloom, background when they are not.

I like it so well, I did something similar at my property. Once bloomers are mixed in with flowering shrubs along the original lot line. I have grouped them in three (not necessarily three of a kind though) and am planting perenniels, vines and herbs with them.

I tend to mix my once-bloomers in with repeaters, though some of my once-bloomers (like Ispahan) get larger and have their own special spots. Prominant corners of my garden are also dedicated to larger once-blooming shrubs, and the arbor in the center of my garden has two once-blooming ramblers growing on it. I plant clematis with the ramblers to extend the season of bloom on the arbor. I also like to use big species roses in a mixed shrub and wildflower area and enjoy their foliage and hips when not in bloom.

I mix them in with repeaters, too. When placing a once bloomer, I try to make sure there are some repeaters nearby. Right now though, all the roses that try to repeat are devoured by Japanese beetles, so their repeat is wasted.
Some of the early yellows mentioned have nice, ferny foliage. Like Harison's yellow and rosa primula. The chestnut rose has similar foliage. Rosa glauca has gorgeous grey foliage with purpley-red tints.
Many once bloomers will tolerate drought and shade more than repeaters, so that can also be a factor in choosing sites. They are worth the space for certain!
-Stephanie

I have planted most of my once-bloomers together, both to achieve a mass effect and because it's a partially shaded area which gets the most sun before the trees leaf out fully. The once-bloomers don't seem to mind.

They are interplanted with hydrangea, astilbe, foxglove, clematis and other perennials, so there's always something in bloom.

George

This has been a greatly enriching thread for me. It is why I like being on this forum (and gardenweb in general). It takes me beyond the factuals of gardening and pushes me to think differently about the way I want to garden.

I am starting to rethink once bloomers. Everything else in my garden is an once bloomer, often for very short periods.
Just weave beloved roses into this tableau. (Easily said but not so easily done!)

seattlesuze, thank you specially for all those suggestions for clematis. The only clematis I have is Nelly Moser and Montana. I am going to be adding a lot more this fall and next spring.
And your Ispahan, how much space should I give it when I plant? How much combined space did you give Mme Hardy and CdN?

robert, I tried growing osmantus, but it wont grow in my zone. It just gets scales when I take it in for the winter.
And YES, I really want to plant some ramblers. I got into roses only when I saw these absolutely huge ramblers in full bloom on big trees in England and wild ones in the lower Himalayas. I think I am going to start a thread for some recommendations.

George, for the first time I am going to plant some roses among the hydrangeas. To my mind hydrangeas like cool shady places with slightly acidic soil such as under tall trees. I would have never though roses would like such a place to grow. But I will try it anyway. Do yours bloom well amongst the hydrangeas?

I am still studying all the other interesting roses mentioned above!

Thank you again!

K.