I like your garden and your house.

You could under plant with (for example) some daylilys and Geranium 'Rozanne' for a fuller, lusher look. The roses will get larger in time.

But if it was my house I'd make the bed wider, a lot wider. Standard rule of thumb is bed width should be at minimum 1/3 the height of your house.

Builders are always stingy with bed widths because grass is cheap and shrubs are not. But if you look at any really beautiful garden, it doesn't have 2 foot wide beds. There are 6' or 10' or more beds with layers of different heights of plants. Yes, it's more work. Beauty ain't easy.

With a wider bed you could (for example) enclose the HTs with boxwood hedges for a formal, simple, classical look.

You have a beautiful home!

Deb--what a lovely house and garden! You should be proud.

If it is the height of the hts that bothers you--and if you had somewhere else you could plant them (how about digging up a big circle bed in the middle of all that green stuff I see in the pic and planting them there), then I might consider planting some shorter roses there--say, a whole row of nothing but the mini Sweet Diana. She grows 2 ft maximum and has the prettiest yellow mini flowers--good bloomer and rebloomer, good disesease resistance, smaller and fuller bush shape.

But what you have looks first rate--so it is more what look you are trying for.

Kate

First let me say I love, love, love, your house and land! More pics please :-)
If you are looking for a more uniform look you could go with alternating two different types of "shrub" roses. ? There are so many to choose from.
Or you could pot up the ones you don't think are working. Betcha' have room for pots. :-) And fill in with your roses of choice.
I also, like Dublinbay, thought about minis to fill in the bottom 1/3ish. (Then I thought that they can be temperamental and not always look full and lovely.) Companion plants like Hoovb suggested. Maybe small and medium height to fill in. I am where you are at with my roses beds. Since the "cap" is not finished on the border I am waiting to make adjustments. lol
Fun!

Allison

Wow, Redsox, this is so interesting that we have verrrrrry similar color palettes when we began our beginner roses. You started your garden 2 years ago and I started mine this year in April 2009 for my back lot garden and March 2009 for my one Gemini. If you were to add an orange blend to your line of roses and swap out one of your pinks, that would make us Twins, LOL! I too am very petite, short, but I love a tall consistent hedge of roses. I am thinking an orange-blend is a lovely transitional color that balances the pink and the red, but that's IMHO.That's why I'm ordering 2 orange blends to go with my 2 Lincolns, Tiffany, and Aromatherapy.

Do not give up on Mr. Lincoln!!! what you must do is get that Gardenville Sea Tea right away!!!! It is a 100% guarantee for encouraging multiple basal breaks in Lincoln. For the winter dormancy, cut back the V-shape but don't lop off the entire V. I would probably cut to the second leggy cluster of the V. If it remains tip-hardy in your zone, it will help fill out that bush next spring. Winter protect, of course, I will be doing this to all my outdoor roses.

I am enclosing photos of the development of my back lot garden....Again, it has that same color palette as yours. The only difference is that I will be adding orange blends to go with Lincoln and my pinks...and I will be taking out those messy gladiolus (but at least the gladiolus let me know that orange goes wonderfully with red Lincoln and with pinks)

It's hard to believe that my Lincolns went from this tiny size in May:

And here in July:

To these roses in mid-late September. Unfortunately Tiffany's other buds are still developing and it just had that one stray pink bloom developing sooner in this photo.
Tiffany is actually my height now (5'2") we're head-to-head from my reflection in the window this is truly so, but you can barely see the full height because its tallest stem blends with Lincoln. Tiffany is trying to be as tall as Lincoln right now. I believe 5'2" is tall for a first year own-root. All my roses have very thick base canes.

Honey, I would take those out and put in a pretty hedge of something bushy and full, maybe like Anne Boleyn, Belinda's Dream, or Mrs. B.R. Cant. And soft pinks would look darling with your brick house.

Bonne Chance,

Juliet

I wouldn't plant shrubs in a narrow bed next to a path. You would have to have a wider bed. If you aren't up for that, adding compact companion plants (just one or two kinds throughout) would greatly modify the leggy look.

Yes, I would widen the bed to grow a shrub hedge. To clarify, you could plant the hedge over the brick in the grass area if you don't feel like working that hard and let it free flow around the bed. Naturally, you would plant it just far enough so it doesn't interfere with the path. It could be a small hedge, medium hedge or large hedge.

Juliet

The first thing that caught my eye was that ideal spot to the left of the lower window where a Lyda Rose pinned to the wall would not only be stunning to the eye but pleasant to the nose as well, but that's just me :-)

Narrow beds are always tough for anything but dwarf type plants or formal hedge types because you generally have to plant in straight lines rather than offsets or groupings. Since roses generally are more random in their growth habit, it seems to me that when they are used in narrow beds it is best if it is against a structure such as a fence or a building. One of the only ways to overcome straight lines, at least in my experience, is to purposely contrast foliage color or texture which is always a tall order with roses. What I saw when I first looked at it was that the foundation shrubs and the roses were candidates for a bed swap because then you cut the site lines for the roses in half. Instead of seeing the sometimes 'random-ness' from both sides you simply silouette against the brick and underplant in front to mute the neckedness of the legs:-) By now, you have a better idea of each rose's growth habit and you could also change the 'order of go' to accomodate that.

While I am by no means an expert, I do play one at home in my own garden :-)

Hoovb said it for me. Your home is beautiful, but a much larger bed would be great.

As far as color goes, it is up to you. I love all roses.

Sammy

Wider beds. Companion plants with height and foliage. THe roses look "odd" because they don't stand out against the brick. They would stand out if they were backed by a green hedge, but you don't want a hedge in that location. Or a climbing white would stand out against the brickwork if it was trained against the house.

Rain2Fall

Thank you all for your input!! What I didn't show or indicate is that for one thing, the bed goes around a corner and down beyond that fence line as it is actually an L shape. So it would be a little tough to extend it for that reason. The green grass looks promising next to it but there is also a weeping cherry over there and then the driveway. Maybe I will try to take a longer range picture tomorrow if it is not raining.

The area of the hedge would be great for roses except that it does not get full sun based on trees nearby etc. So I settle for those boring boxwoods, a holly and some clematis stuck in.

I like all of the ideas and I did consider Geranium Rozanne as a companion, but do you think that would make it difficult to spray? Rozanne does like to wind and climb.

If I removed the roses from the 2 and 4 spots, which are the annoying Mister Lincoln (sorry, Serena) and the lazy Flaming Peace I could put shorter plants in those spots but I felt it might look funny with such a tall neighbor in Memorial Day.

I am with the school that says some conmpanion plants are in order. I think you would be much happier with the roses that way, they would lessen the apparent height of the roses and fill in the bottom to make it a lusher planting. I planted Rose Sensation salvias under my Windermeres, and am very pleased with the way they spread out almost like a ground cover to give some fill-in there and some height variation.

Something to consider is changing the outer bed border from a straight line to something possibly jagged. It depends on how easily the resulting edge could be mowed. If it is coming out at an angle, rather like a lighting bolt, there would be more room for companion plants and it would break the line up, but it wouldn't take a lot more room.

I, too, have a narrow bed - and although it may be beautiful if it were wider, I am not into all that much work! lol

So, since I wouldn't do it myself, I don't suggest you change your beds. But, like others have mentioned before, companion plantings will add to the beauty that you already have there. I think it looks lovely. If you are going to replace some of the roses, or are looking for others, I would suggest white or yellow roses to stand out against the brick. See how Mr. Lincoln almost blends into the background?

I think you're almost there - you just need to tweak a little. Thanks for sharing. I can imagine walking along with the scent of roses filling the air. What a warm welcome!

Here are some additional pictures. I guess I won't be moving the bed because the bricks are set in cement. This is just a view to include the cherry tree which prohibits another bed. The bed goes around the corner here.

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You can cheat! You can make another border out farther and just cover the bricks with mulch. Voila: wide bed without having to disturb the existing bricks/concrete.

Don't ask me how I know. ;^)

As to spraying, Geranium 'Rozanne' takes spraying just fine here.

I'd probably cheat and widen the path, but then again I just really like flowers and am working on eliminating all the grass in my yard - jk, sorta - the grass really does seem to be drastically disappearing every year

But in all seriousness I would underplant- maybe not the same plants under each bush, but I would try to find something that either meandered along the brick (phlox?), or maybe something scented like lavender or salvia - although geranium would be nice too - so many plants so little time/space

hoovb - thanks for the 'cheating' advice! I may have to try that in my front bed! ha! I'd have never thought of that! :O

redsox - I still think your beds are beautiful and would just try some underplantings for now. To me, your beds just seem right for the space, though larger beds could have a more plush appearance. Let us know what you decide to do! :)

Wow, I really love your brick house with the brick path and your wood fence too! I think I would have used a ground cover type of rose for the bed along the path. I'd probably stick to one color of rose too. I think it looks very nice as is though. I'm not sure if you have room for under planting, but if you do I think lady's mantle would look nice spilling over the edge.

Deb, I just had a thought. Since the height of those roses bothers you, is it possible to dig another row at the back end of the "L"? I can't tell from the pics how much sunlight that area gets and what directions the shadows go, but if there is sufficient sunlight, you could move the taller roses back there and they could be easily seen because of their height. Then for the narrow row along the steps, plant a hedge row of smaller roses--let's say Virgin of Guadelupe. The lighter color would contrast with the brick color of the house, and she has a fuller floribunda look--graceful bush and kinda frilly looking bloom. I've only had mine one season now, but I seem to remember that I picked her because she only gets around 3 ft tall, and she is supposed to be pretty good on disease-resistance. You might even stick in a few annuals around her ankles--maybe some blue lobelia and/or white alysium (sp?). Or a shorter yellow floribunda might look nice against that brick color--you could ask the forum for some more suggestions in that category.

Just another thought. I think planning is half the fun sometimes of rose gardening.

Kate

Kate, that is an outstanding idea. But unfortunately, the sun patterns are strange at the "L." From about late April through mid August there is very full sun. But because of nearby angles, trees, it is fairly shady in early Spring and late summer into Fall. I feel like I "get away with" planting shade tolerants over there; I have Chuckles and Cramoisi Superieur, both of which are shade tolerant.

In fact by this time of year or even by mid September, the HT row is even in a little more shade. They seem to tolerate it late in the season.