Hi, I used to live in Washington state, near Seattle.
I've learned, by much trial and some effort, to find the best spot for a rose first and then purchase it, rather than to buy a rose that appears pretty to me, and then hope to G., after it arrives, that I have a good spot for it, somewhere.
Where I live now, near San Francisco, the sun is stronger at this latitude and because of this, I can grow Tea, China and Noisette roses on the east, or west side of my house where they get only half a days full sun and they bloom normally.
Here's some advice,
Of all the gardens I've seen, the ones that started with a even a simple landscape plan turned out better. This can be a sketch that marks out square footage, with a circle for each rosebush, so that the roses have enough room to grow.
In your latitude, sunlight is less strong, so I'd suggest you make sure that any rose that needs 8 hours of full sun, gets it. These include a majority of large-flowered roses
- that have more than 20 petals
- and re-bloom.

-the first thing I'd do would be a soil test to see which ammendments the soil needs, then add them.
-If deer are a problem, I would search for an attractive perrenial (i'd prefer an evergreen plant) that deer won't eat. Your local nursery folk may know of some. Then I would draw a landscape plan for that plant to be used to make a boundary hedge around where my rose garden would be.

I'd mark off on the landscape plan any area that gets less than 8 hours of full sun, and if it receives 5 hours or more I'd plant Alba roses there.

By the way, how much room do you have to plant roses?

Lux.

If deer are a problem, roses are going to be a problem. The rose family is one of the most targeted groups. You will have to effectively these highly selective browsers out to be able to have a pleasant gardening experience.

I agree that you shouldn't plant roses too close to the house. You have to keep painting, siding, windows and satelite dishes in mind when planting. Have you ever locked yourself out and had to climb in through a window? I have and I wouldn't want to climb through a rose bush to do it! One other thing to keep in mind is your view from inside the house. I put my arbor where I can enjoy it from my kitchen window since I spend so much time there. I don't have deer, but I do have horses and have come to accept you will lose plants sometimes. They can usually grow back and if they don't you get to try out a new rose!

I have them against my fence and around windows (ours are new), and in islands. As long as they arent tiny babies my bulldog wont trample them, thats the problem i have! I dont have deer in my yard, just a pup that loves to run over plants! He chews on rose bushes a little but i usually catch him. Treebarb is right about the view from the house, i look out of the diningrooms picture window to see how im doing alot!

I'm a strong advocate that roses are not a front yard plant. In my experience, roses do have a significant amount of time when they don't look good. In the winter, many are not very pretty. I wouldn't, for example, use them as the main foundation plantings. I might incorporate a couple that can be hidden by other evergreens when the roses don't look good.

Other than that little bit of comment, I will say that I put roses everywhere I think they can do well. But, lately, I've been adding much more evergreen with them.

Robert

I use a lot of roses as foundation plantings. But I do have some evergreens here and there so it doesn't look too bad in the winter.

I also have roses in a mixed border, and a separate bed that only has roses. The separate rose bed is in a space that gets used a lot in the summer, but not so much in the winter, so I don't think other plants are necessary there.

But in all, I planned first. Sometimes not the exact plant, and I've done my share of moving roses, but I had a basic plan of where I wanted roses, evergreens, or other flowers, etc. So, I think a plan is the best place to start.

I can't help you with the deer problem. We have them, but the rose garden in back is fenced, and they don't usually come up to the foundation plantings. Good luck in figuring out your garden plans. I always take the winter time to plan out new areas or changes in my garden, so just take your time and you will be ready to go come spring!

What kind of evergreens do you use? Does anyone have pictures?

I have a lot of land, but not a lot of space for a garden. That may sound strange, but we live on a farm and most of the land is fields and pasture. There's a creek behind the house a bit and the horses' pasture runs along that, between the creek and the house. The front yard is nice, but not huge as we are fairly close to the road. We also have outbuildings, so our yard is not as big as many of yours, I'm guessing. The view out the back, however, is beautiful!

Since I don't want to compete with that, I'm trying to keep the roses, lavender and other plants near the house, or at least out of the way of the snowblower. (LOL) We don't have a lot of deer, but a few wander down when they're curious. So far, substituting blueberries for the roses original location has worked well. I think as long as I can "hide" them a bit, the deer won't notice the roses too much. Thank you for the advice and please post pics :)

What Luxrosa said.

If you have deer, you're going to have to forget about roses unless you can arrange barrier protection. That means that you need some kind of fencing to protect the roses. Deer love roses the way I love chocolate. Even if they only wander down once in a while now, as soon as they find the roses that will all change.

If you cannot fence your garden, see if you can fence a portion of it. You might even just put cage fences around the individual roses. The roses will grow through the fence and be nibbled, but enough will survive that the rose will do well. If none of this appeals to you and you must have roses -- and believe me, I sympathize -- then consider climbing roses trained high, with the lower levels protected temporarily until they outgrow the reach of the foraging animals.

Paula

I don't want to give up on the roses, so I'll try hiding them with the blueberries, perennials, lavender and other herbs. Seems to be working so far, so I'll see how it goes next summer :)

We have a lot of native wild roses, so until they actually tried eating a hybrid tea, the deer didn't seem all that interested. After I moved them, they kind of lost interest. I'm going to try rugosas next year and I'm hoping the deer ignore them. If I'm lucky, I can use them to hide the more appealing appetizers...um, I mean roses. (LOL)

About what Robert said, I think that if you're going to be seeing your garden all year, also in winter looking out of your windows, you need to plan it for twelve-month interest. That means, in winter, evergreen plants, hips and berries, and interesting leafless plant structures. In spring, spring bulbs, followed by tender green foliage, followed by flowers. This is the glory season of roses. For summer, clematis worked well for me in Washington, coming in when the roses ended, and there are other summer-flowering plants but I don't know what grows in your zone; also the glory of mature foliage and shade in the heat. Fall, foliage color and fruits, and fall flowers. When choosing plants, consider habit, foliage, fruits and flowers, and other characteristics like bark and thorns, as well of course as suitability to your garden conditions.

Keep paths in mind. If they're going to be an architectural feature (open space amid masses of plants) they need to be a decent width; and in any case you need paths to get you where you need to go (as well as your family and your dog).

Plan for height. You need plants taller than you are, perhaps also structures. Gardens are three-dimensional. Lucky you, if you have some good trees. But don't plant forest giants if you don't have a park. In a small garden, shrubs can add considerable height and bulk.

Supply yourself with plenty of places to sit, including places that are comfortable at different seasons of the year and in different kinds of weather. If you like to read in the garden, write in the garden, eat in the garden, or think you'd like to do so, plan areas to do these things. Allow room for the other members of your family to do the things they do in the yard.

Think about what you'll see in the garden from different points of view. As lilyfinch said, the views from the house are important.

Don't plant roses more than two deep, and only one deep if you can only get at the roses from one side. You don't want to have to wade through thorns to do maintenance. If you want to make a big, wide bed, put the roses on each outer edge and plant different shrubs in the middle. This is for estethic as well as practical reasons: roses are beautiful, but they become boring if left to their own company.

If there's something ugly you can see, use plants to mask it. If there's something beautiful you want to see, don't block it.

That's all I can think of.

Melissa

You all have such great advice, but four season gardening isn't really an issue here. We just got our first snow last night (about 3 inches) so everything is covered for now. We have pine trees out on the hill behind the creek and aspens along the creek, so I guess that's my winter interest :)

As for the garden space, you all sound like you have a lot of gardens, do you do all your own maintenance? I have a hard time keeping everything watered in the summer and grass was growing in all my beds. It was my first year with a garden, so I guess my first lesson is to edge the beds! LOL

Luckily, my love of roses will probably be satisfied by a few rugosas, maybe a damask and a few albas and definitely some gallicas after seeing those pictures on the other post :) Thank you all for the input and I hope you'll put in pics of some of your gardens. If you already have, just let me know which thread they're under and I'm sure they'll give me more great ideas!

Lavender lass - I think winter interest is more important in your area. Winter interest can mean anything from evergreens to rose hips. What you see stickout out of the snow, or making bumps in the snow is winter interest for you.

I think all of us do our own maintenance. There are a few tricks. Yes, edging is one! lol Also, mulching, which keeps the weeds down, making sure you have good soil (check for earthworms), and just not overdoing. As the beds mature, generally they need less time for maintenance.

Right now there are a couple of great threads with beautiful garden pictures in the Antique Roses forum. They will give you lots of inspiration! Good luck! Most of us here probably learned by trial and error, so no worries. :)

The deer don't bother rugosas at all. They have never even nibbled mine. I've also found that they leave the gallicas, centifolias, spinosimias, musk and mosses alone. Rule of thumb, the newer the class, the more the deer like them. Hybrid teas are number one favorites. So I plant rugosas where the deer most frequently browse.

I also plant the more fragrant roses closer to more heavily trafficked areas and use the less scented ones for distance viewing.

It's nice to start off with a plan, but if you become a complete rose addict, you end up stuffing them in wherever you can find a spot. Paths and hardscape (benches, arbors, walls, patios) make the best underlying structure. Lay down main arteries(from the back door to a corner bench, from the deck to a pond, from the front door to the mailbox) and always use the most direct route or you will find yourself taking shortcuts, to the detrminent of whatever you hop over or squeeze past.