Marion I agree it is an addiction but what a nice one, I plant my roses all through my garden mixed with other plants it works for me also I used to havea large rose garden & found so many roses all together was overwhelming where when they are mixed with other things I can really admire each rose seperatly
Jan.

I have just put in a new front garden with mainly roses. The colours move from dark red through to orange apricot & yellow creams & pale pink to white. My planting has been rather close and I suppose I have lost the opportunity for my daylias next season. The underplanting is mainly iris, penstemon, aquilegia, Asiatic lillies. For height I have a Denudata & Vulcan magnolia in separate areas. Although there is not a lot of greenery over Winter, only a couple of small rhodos, I rather like the bare framework of my weeping maples. Currently the pansies, snapdragons, cinerarias & penstemon are providing the colour. It will be interesting to see whether the "colour wheel" approach to my roses is okay or a system of contrast colours may have been a better approach. I might take a long term view just to see the performance of the various roses. Forgot to mention that I have used gardenias also as an evergreen contrast. My summer underplanting was cosmos and it created quite a visual display....from the other side of the street our house disappeared! It looked fabulous and the lady bird population demolished the aphids.