I think this will always be a conflict. The designer would want the larger swaths of same color for the most serene and sophisticated effect. The plant collector must try new plants and experiment. I share your desire to try plants and explore new passions, even though the effects are less certain.

I started out doing groups of 12-20 but now that I want to try so many new kinds, 3 seems to be the magic number to make a statement, plus still have some room for all of the others that I want to try.

I like bayarea's idea of planting the groups in front for drama. I didn't pay attention to foliage, only blooms, in the beginning and now there are some that I wish were in the back, LOL!

But Sheila really hit the nail on the head by saying that this will always be a conflict though! Your Honey Perfume sounds lovely.

I'm certain you already know that each of us have our own preferences. Many of us can't necessarily afford what we would really like. In general thou I garden in groups of the same color with blending colors or neutral colors near by. So I'm no help with any different styles.

My rule of thumb on this, which is a recently acquired action and appropriate for my climate, is if the rose in question has a stated height of 3-1/2 feet or less, or I can prune to keep it that way, then I will grow in a group of 3, as I can plant close together, 1-1/2 to 2 feet apart.... so not too much space given away... where the stated height is 4 feet or more, then I grow singly...

I have a couple of exceptions to this rule which I should consider amending from 1 plant to 3 as they don't coordinate very well, but I feel I've got enough going on right now...

No need to worry about design as far as I'm concerned, I'm not in it to win a competition.... so I just buy and plonk 'em in... but I've been guilty of buying roses that are too big for their allotted spaces and these tend to 'disappear' rather quickly, once that realisation takes place...

I have about 40 roses now; all of different varieties. I wanted to see what did well in my climate, what makes it through my winters, disease & pest resistance. And most importantly which roses pleased my tastes the most. It is very hard to be patient over a few seasons to figure these things out. I would hate to buy multiples of a rose that just didn't thrive for me. I also think in a small yard it would be very limiting to just choose 1 or 2 varieties to make groups of plantings. I do pay close attention to heights & sizes though to make decisions on plants.

Since your style is informal, why not do both.

Rose growing is a lot of trial and error. We are given a vast selection of not only well beloved older varieties of roses to try, but a steady supply of new introductions, year after year. It never ends. Isn't that what helps sustain our interest in roses...something new coming along all the time?

I would suggest that you acquire single specimens of any new variety (to you), and trial it in your garden. If it wows you, then you could plant a couple more around it, or elsewhere in your garden.

I think a combination of solitary rose bushes of a variety and groups of one variety placed informally throughout your garden among the perennials and non-rose shrubs is the most interesting kind of garden there is.

I have just one rose bed, a large one (to me). It is 18' long and 8' wide. It is not an island bed, which would indicate that the tallest roses would be growing in the center. It butts a fence, along and upon which the tallest roses/climbers go. Then, bush heights are graduated until the bed side, opposite the fence, is reached.

There are multiples of several bushes within the bed, some grouped together, others here and there.

Changes are made ad lib, all the time. Color schemes are ignored. Even a purple rose next to an orange one is OK with me.

The way it looks pleases me, and I believe it is successful style wise. I have a ball growing roses in it. It's just the right size for me as an older fellow (my name says it all). I'm not a slave to it, no pun intended.

I'm still experimenting to see what does well in my yard but if I eventually find favorites I'll add duplicates.

It's totally a matter of personal preference, of course. My garden has a lot of roses but isn't a rose garden: it has a great variety of other plants, trees, shrubs and little things. It's also rather wild-looking, because of the choice of plants and because it's groomed only in the most rudimentary fashion. My roses are mostly old kinds, not Hybrid Teas or modern shrubs, and they fit in with this atmosphere.

I grow singles. I like a variety of plants and my roses mostly get large enough that one will make a statement; if the rose is little, I put it where it can be looked at closely and where it won't get run over by other plants. I aim mainly at non-showy effects in a natural environment--the garden is located among fields and woods--and swathes of one variety of rose would look, I believe, too artificial there. If I want some consistency, I try to group roses of similar styles and habits, putting together colors that harmonize. In a more formal environment or with smaller varieties of roses, grouping multiples of one variety could be a good idea (though I personally still wouldn't do it).

I often buy doubles or triples of the ones I truly want or love in case one doesn't make it, because varieties are often going out of stock. I also buy multiples of my established favorites, to support demand of that plant and to add to the landscape. I have made buying mistakes- I have too many State of Grace (bought at the same time) and both my Surreal (Jackson Perkins one) died after 5 years- those blooms were gorgeous. My Heritage never made it & Heirloom discontinued it. It's always a surprise what I will love & what thrives in my garden, roses often don't look like their photo.

For years I never had more than 1 bush of any variety. At one time I had 170 varieties growing in my garden. You know what? I didn't like it. I couldn't put together a bouquet that I really liked. Slowly I started buying 2 and 3 of the varieties I liked. When I retired and moved to N.E. GA., my new garden consisted of multiples that really made me happy. Now I have anywhere from 2 to 8 bush's of the varieties that I truly enjoy. I can make big bouquets of the same variety. They make a statement. I still have single bush's of a few new varieties that might have caught my eye.

2 bush's of Charisma. The photo doesn't do them justice.

I definitely come at it from a collector's standpoint. I have a small garden and I use every available space to try different plants. I have multiples of some perennials that I really love, but roses take up too much room for me to consider repeating varieties.

I’ve always been a ”Go BIG or go home” girl. This year i planted 6 Distant Drums in a narrow bed all in a row under my living room window. I also planted 2 Quietness in an equally narrow bed on the other side of my doorway in the front yard. I used a few plants of Indigo Clematis to tie things together in both beds.

In the backyard, it’s ”Every Man for Himself”! That means a bed of 2 Quietness and a Prairie Sunrise. Another bed of Prairie Sunrise, Bathsheba and Crazy Love. Farther down the way is Cressida the Queen of my Roses!! I think you should pick your favorites and repeat where you feel like it. Repeating packs a bigger punch. I love it! But you should do what makes you happy!

Rebecca

Ken, there's a lot to be said for making bouquets, your Charisma is beautiful! Florentina puts out multiple bouquets with just 1 plant, but I love her so much I just bought 2 more. Hybrid teas I need multiples for bouquets. Magpie, I have a collector's mentality too.... I want to try them all and see what sticks. Rebecca... pics or it didn't happen! Lol. But I'd like to see your roses. A pic of some of my roses 2 days ago.

Roses in Clay, That photo is a beautiful bouquet right there in your garden! I did a total gut job on my flower beds this year except for the Quietness, so my beds won’t be photo worthy for at least 2 years. I live in the far North and never know what the weather is going to be in spite of the forecasts. Our normal high is 75F this time of year. In 2021 we had 101F. We are now having high 80’s for the past week and the forecast is for it to continue for another week,, which is stressing my new roses out no matter how much I water. I am shading the worst ones. BUT, I can show you a photo of the first round of blooms on the same bed with grafted Johann Strauss in it just for the effect. They bloomed their hearts out for 20 years until they started to fail, or so I thought. I took them out and recently realized it was my drip irrigation that had failed, so they weren’t getting water. Live and learn. :)

Rebecca

Rebecca, thank you ☺️ now that is a bouquet in your garden and a vote for multiples of one rose! It could make a ball bridal bouquet. I'm in zone 6b/7a and have had 80s F temps & no rain for a couple weeks. Not sure how people in Florida, Texas & Arizona, keep their roses from wilting but they do. At least they don't have Japanese beetles. Hope your roses come back better than ever on your gut job!

Thanks, Roses ICO. I found a photo of the August flush, which has added growth. These roses did the same thing again in October and had grown as high as the window, so I could see them from the living room. I had to harvest boquets from them before the hard frost every year. AH, If I could only get Johann Strauss GRAFTED again, I would do it in a heartbeat!

Rebecca

I was so disappointed because one of my newly planted Distant Drums didn’t make it, and one is not very vigorous... My roses winter kill to the ground every year, so if they aren’t really robust roses, there will be big gaps between them. I googled Distant Drums Grafted and got to Edmund’s Roses. I checked them last week and they didn’t have any DD. WELL… they had 5 of them today and I bought them all!! I got expedited shipping to beat the heat problems, and now I can fill in all the gaps and have a full bed much sooner. See the red arrows below for new rose placement.

We don’t get blackspot here and rarely mildew, so disease shouldn’t be a problem. Oh, and I got them for HALF PRICE! An answer to a prayer!!! Thank you, Lord.

Rebecca

And here’s the first bud of Distant Drums opening from the first batch from Edmund’s roses.

I LOVE IT!!

Rebecca

I have a 50x50 back garden and I use small evergreens and structures to provide cohesiveness. I do mostly singles or two of the same rose on either side of a path. I also do groupings of three complimentary colored roses in the border. I like to play with color combinations like they’re a bouquet and I find large swaths of one color less interesting to play with.

Rebecca, I like the planning photo of your garden, looking at your row I think multiples of one rose gives a uniform, landscaped look or that of one flowing plant while singles gives a wilder look. What a coincidence, my Distant Drums is struggling now after I transplanted it. Yours is beautiful! It must be tough to be at zone 4 with frigid winters & hot summers and require certain grafts. I didn't know grafted would give the best chance for their survival for cold weather, my grafted Honeybee haven grew a huge Dr Huey from under the bud union 😂

I see why you bought 5 DD- because it's smaller & needs more for an impact.

Ones I bought multiple after the first bc I loved it so much are- 3 more Florentina planted separately bc she's so big. 4 soul sisters but it's also kinda big but would look great together as a hedge.

I bought 4 state of grace at once, I should plant them together. And climbing roses on arches in pairs! I got 2 eden, 2 red eden, 2 honeymoon arborose...

Not the best rose or even a bought rose but here is my Dr. Huey I'm about to cut off! I let him bloom because he was blooming before everything else did.

Blue Mountain Girl, I would love to see photos of your yard in bloom! It sounds stunning!!!

Roses ICO, it is challenging to live in zone 4, but we have such amazing weather 6 months out of the year, that it helps put up with the cold stuff. You learn to work around it. Like I wanted to get State of Grace for my rose out front, but I didn’t want to try and keep a zone 6 rose going in a barely zone 4 garden. It’s a BEAUTY, and I completely understand how you got 4 of them. I wanted Soul Sister in the worst way, but declined for the same reason… too whimpy for my zone. I read that Distant Drums was an excellent rose for heat and cold and I loved the color, so he became my rose of choice for the planting.

I have never had Doc Huey sprout canes (he’s not a bad looking rose).. My poor grafts are buried so deep that they don’t have a chance of sprouting, although this time I’m gonna do 3 inches with Distant DRums instead of 4. I think it was just a little too deep for that plant. DD is too busy blooming it’s heart out. He doesn’t have the energy to grow long canes everywhere before he blasts out blossoms.

I measured the temps up next to the house yesterday beside DD with an oven thermometer. The temp said 140 degrees F!! Not a bud was drooping, except the rose on the end which is surrounded by concrete. I put up a shade cloth to cool it down. I have been lightly watering them every other day with water overhead. One more day of high 80’s and then we start to cool down a bit. It’s gonna be a challenge planting bare root roses in that heat.. That’s part of what makes it fun!

Rebecca