@ woody, my main complaint about the wedge beds is not how they affect or don't affect maintenance, but that they look bad. To have the arrowhead shape bed greeting you as you arrive into its space is not friendly and welcoming. It's not attractive in ground hugging 2-d design. If it's a 3-d shape, it's attractiveness lessens with every inch of height it gains. The shape is in contradiction to the growth patterns of almost any plant. Usually these beds are planted in contradiction to their true shape which helps lessen the mistake of their existence. How about offering a picture of any pointed bed that proves me wrong? @ growsveges, overall, I like the shape of the beds/lawn in your last picture. It's remarkably similar to my first suggestion with a couple of detail differences. The only part of it with which I take exception is completely confining the walkway to the front entrance with a planting bed. If what was planted in the bed in front of the entrance was very low, I don't think it would be horrible. If it was very low, colorful flowers that added a lot of cheer, it could even be good. Other than that, it seems to some degree a contradiction to have an expanse of green velvet carpet that leads to the front entrance and then as visitors actually get there, tell them to go elsewhere and enter a different way. Even if people won't actually access the entrance via the front lawn, the appearance that they could completes a thought process that seems logical and sensible. Being confined by foliage along a walk is not necessarily a pleasant experience.

I have to agree with the masses here. Of course you should plant roses in the front yard!! If you're concerned about appearances, then landscape a bit by interspersing other plants and perhaps a little hardscape. If you just love roses, stick with that. Except for one hydrangea and a honeysuckle vine on the side fence, my front yard is all roses. I don't have as much space for all the roses I want, so I'm certainly not giving it up for many other plants. lol If I didn't grow my roses in the front yard, I wouldn't have any, because the back is mostly shady. Like others here, I've heard only positive comments from passers-by, and it does help meet neighbors. If someone considers growing roses purely for a "look," they should skip it. You grow roses because you love roses. It's pretty simple. If you enjoy the process enough to keep up with pruning and fussing over them, then they will generally look just fine to neighbors. Even when I'm less than fully-pleased with how my roses are doing at a particular time, other people still comment on how "great" they look. Even if you have a substantial winter, the winter rose beds can look pleasant if they're neatly kept; maybe some underplanting of cool weather annuals or something. Of course, if one is in the frigid north, my answer is "MOVE SOUTH!!" I love that we can have 10 or 11 months of rose blooms here. Yea! Sorry, couldn't help a little gloating. It helps me make it through our dismal July and August here. Almost forgot to mention; before I moved to my current house, the front yard here consisted of lots of weeds and a couple of garbage cans that the college students couldn't bother to move to the side yard. NOBODY complains about my roses being "over the top." : ) Front yard? --Go for it!!

Thank you so much for all the kind comments..I have great soil and everything I plant just takes off.. Florence, the climber is New Dawn. It had a great flush but unfortunately I will have to take it down this year..the arbor is flimsy pine wood one and it is about to collapse any time under the weight of ND..I have done every thing to contain new dawn, never fertilize it and deliberately left it out of the irrigation system and when the arbor fell over last fall, I poured extra concrete all around the posts and some around the roots, but nothing will stop this beast. It is just too big for an arbor..I am going to replace it with something more orderly..maybe one of the new kordes climbers, but taking ND down first will be an ordeal, something that I am not really looking forwards to

Thank you both very much for the compliment. Lilyfinch I don't remember when I planted most of my roses. I have 23 antique roses and some knockouts, but the oldest I have is Mrs BR Cant which I planted 8 years ago in the spring, I can't remember if Lamarque and Climbing Pinkie were planted the same year or the next. Once I planted my first 2-3 roses I was addicted and bought usually 3-4 roses every year, I haven't planted any new ones in the past 3 years as I just don't have the time to spend in my garden like I did. I have found my climate here (can't speak for anywhere else as this is the only place I have ever gardened before, but Noisettes (which originated here in Charleston), regular tea roses, China roses and hybrid musk roses tend to thrive quite well and can get quite large fairly quickly for some. Peggy Martin (I did a post on the antique rose forum about this fantastic rose) is a found rose so I don't know what background she has but she seriously thrives on neglect and I do very very little to her. She is believe it or not the youngest rose I have! I have a lot of heavy clay soil so working with it is back breaking and slow which is why I haven't added anymore roses as of recently. I have some roses that grow quicker than others and in my garden here are some of my slow growers; Madame Alfred Carrier is one that is always touch and go, Mrs Dudley Cross, Maggie (I threaten to dig her up every year but she is looking for promising this year so we shall see), Cornelia (another touch and go rose that I have threatened to shovel prune but keep giving her a chance and she too looks better this spring)...While Lamarque, The Charlestonian, Peggy Martin, Belinda (not to be confused with Belinda's Dream), Duchesse de Brabant are among the fastest growing then there's Mrs BR Cant who hardly did a thing the first three years and then took off into one monster of a rose. The rest seem to grow at a fairly normal rate. I had to laugh a bit at your saying hoping to stay long enough, I have wanted to move to a bigger home for awhile but my garden keeps me from doing so, I just can't leave her and anytime I tell someone we were thinking of moving they would gasp and say you can't leave your garden what about all the hard work you have done. My daughter laughes at me because in the winter I'm all about moving, that is till spring comes and I'm like I can never leave. Haha I think she right! But I would say in general it will take about 4 years to have them really start filling out again though it just all depends really in end on a particular rose. ;) So I didn't intend for this to be so long lol, but I hope that helps you some. What roses did you plant if you don't mind my asking? I would love to know! All the best of luck and happy gardening to you!~Meghan