My garden was "pre-planned" in that it consisted of five areas of various shapes and sizes surrounded by paved walkways and in the front of the house a very large concrete area meant for parking for visitors. All the areas were planted with grass. The garden has a long, sharp dropoff on one side that had a wooden fence, a wooden deck that jutted out and then more fencing along one long side of the house. My husband took out all the fencing up to the deck (and a fenced dog run) and I planted a row of tea roses in that area. I planted columnar junipers and crape myrtles along that side of the house (too close to the house, unfortunately) and in front of that roses, sea lavender, irises and pelargoniums. My main focus was roses and these were planted in all the formerly grassy areas, with tall ones like Mutabilis (now gone) in the back and shorter varieties toward the front. At that time I chose lots of different companion plants but the only ones that did reasonably well are the above-mentioned ones and marjoram, the latter growing huge, and beloved by bees. There is a stone wall bordering a hilly area behind the concrete pad and I planted rosemary there after trials with other plants, including natives, had failed due to the poor soil and intense radiant heat. I had no real plan except to have as many roses as possible while at the same time interplanting with perennials because roses by themselves are rather boring. I stuck to soft colors, avoiding red and orange (which I don't care for anyway) so that the garden would blend in with the wild background of this garden in the hills. I've had many failures, made wrong choices, have gone through a five-year drought, and in general it's been a challenge to have a garden of blooming things in this very hot area. The fact that there have been successes, and my (mostly) enjoyment in the process of creating and re-creating, have kept me going and always given me something to look forward to. There's always the hope that the next spring flush will be the best ever....

I an a collector, not a designer. So, I find roses I like, or old roses in my garden which I have rooted, and then I try to squeeze them in where ever they will fit and get enough sun. I use our house and the tall trees for large climbers; I put the mid 20th century HT family heirlooms (planted by my DH's ancestors) which are prone to disease on the patio in large pots where I can keep an eye on them; and I try to keep alive or reproduce all of the very old tea and china rose which are also family heirlooms (planted by an even older generation of my DH's ancestors). The roses, as I said, get planted where every they will fit, and sometimes where they almost don't fit. No thought of color at all, except that the old ones tend to be soft pastels, so they go with each other OK without me worrying about a color chart. One time, I did try to "design" the roses for a new bed - it is oval, and right in front of our front stairs. My theory was to put a standard rose in the middle, and surround it with small (say 12-18 inches) polyanthas, with lots of bulbs. Ha! One of the polyanthas decided to grow TALLER than the standard rose; the polyanthas sported to more plants with different colors so I had to accommodate them, and last year they also played around and had a baby seedling which is re blooming, and has gorgeous flowers, but which is also growing 3-4 feet tall. Since I am a collector I was thrilled with all of the new roses, and of course I left them to see what they would do. Hopeless, that's me, but I like it.

Jackie

No plan or even a clue as to what I was doing. I have no fences other than deer fencing, but it's not close enough to the garden to define the area. So, there were no perimeters, but there were many, many tall pines. I started small and made a flower bed from one tree to the next. Then, from that tree to the next one, leaving a path between. I kept doing that, either extending beds or adding new beds until I have all I can take care of now. I would love to add more, but unless I can hire a staff, I am about at my limit. A few years ago, for the sake of safety because of the strong wind we get, we had 40+ tall pines felled. That opened up the garden to a lot more sun but the beds didn't have any rhyme or reason without the trees anchoring each bed. That was hard to get used to. Pathways connect the beds, some with arbors.

I stick to pink, peach and lavender with a few deeper colors for interest. As for companion plants - anything blue - campanulas, veronica, delphinium and salvia. I also use irises, lilies, and tall phlox and plant clematis with every climbing rose. I stick pots of annuals here and there where I need something. All the pots are blue. My garden does not have a professionally landscaped look, but I live in the country where a more causal look is acceptable.

This is a fun and useful thread. I'm looking forward to reading more and collecting ideas.

My situation is particular; I'm making a garden on a piece of wooded land here in Tuscany, Italy, which is about a 20 minute drive from my home and has no running water. Very challenging in all respects, including that of planning and designing; there's no house to use as an anchoring point, for example. Mature oak trees help define the space; some years ago I had several removed ,and, with hind-sight, I think I went over-board and should have left some of them alone,since now I find I have more space to fill than I can really handle.On the other hand some of them at least were blocking the morning light,which is pretty precious in my SW-facing garden; so now one goal is to put in new,fast-growing trees , but positioned so they will provide AFTERNOON shade,which is what we really need. So, you could say that trees are still defining the space,it's just that I have to use my imagination to "see" how they'll look in ,say, 10 years. With this goal in mind-that of providing shade in the afternoon- I've begun planting some cypress trees in amongst the roses. I'm not sure how this'll work out; opinion seems pretty divided as to how close you can have cypress trees and roses, but I've tried to place the trees with care to allow enough space for all. Also put the trees near ramblers, for the most part. In one case I planted a tree as a support for a rambler, too: my Louis Mon Ami has become far too big for any structure, so last fall I planted a Paulownia tomentosa nearby,hoping that the rose can support itself on the tree! but don't know if this'll work, of course. Hope it does: the Paulownia would also provide some much-needed afternoon shade to some baby magnolia trees.

The paths, too, define, the spaces; my original idea was to have them all lined with climbing roses, but this is changing; for example in one area I've found the soil is just too shallow for roses. So discovery of the actual nature of the ground and soil of the various areas of my garden is another factor which is shaping the design; for example, on this path with the bad soil I've now put another 2 cypress trees.They ought to be able to handle the poor soil and I love them, plus their shape works so well with the rounded shape of roses. A future project will be that of companion plants,mainly in the shape of evergreen ground-covers,which I hope will work as a living mulch. Again however my choice of plants will be decided by Nature - in other words, what can survive and thrive in these conditions? I hope to focus on this next fall, and ease up on the roses a bit,since I think I've reached a point where it's time to add only roses that I really want.

" - How do you coordinate different bloom times to ensure that there is
always something blooming with your roses and when roses go dormant?" Good question! I'm working on this, too,but this is tough. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this for me, at present, is trying to be sure that I mix early-blooming roses amongst the later-bloomers. This is hard because only experience seems to teach when in rose season a given rose will bloom,and this is causing me a lot of headaches. I also want to pair up climbing roses so that when an early-bloomer has finished it's main flush, a later-bloomer will take over,as it were. For example, Souvenir de Mme Leonie Viennot is in a prominent position,and is a pretty sorry sight when the blooms have faded but havent' yet dropped, so I'd like to stick a later-bloomer nearby to cover for SMLV when it's looking shabby.

My first thought at seeing this title was "Plan...hmm, I think I've heard the word somewhere...". I may plan other aspects of my life but rose gardening is my seat-of-the pants activity. I keep good records of what roses I have (mostly) and at least picka quadrant of my yard for a given rose after I've bought it, except when I (frequently) change my mind, but I'm absolutely a plopper and collector. It's reassuring to hear that someone with roses as exquisite as Jacqueline is also a non-designer, but in her case the effect looks good enough for House Beautiful even without planning aforethought. Me not so much, but I totally relate to the notion that wherever the roses are planted that's where they'll make do unless they seriously annoy me for some reason (and I'm pretty durned patient, i.e. lazy, after planting is done). I agree with flowersaremusic that a casual style suits my garden and it had better since I'll never achieve sculpted elegance.

in my zone, roses have a tendency to die if they're not happy so it's surprisingly easy to work past most "oops" moments in the garden. Even potentially ghastly color combinations have a way of working out in many cases. The contrast between Night Sky at right (redder blooms) and Bad Worishofen below grates on my teeth when it looks like the photo below, which I hadn't expected since both roses are supposed to be "crimson" (neither is in my world):

However, this literally only lasts a few days in the first part of spring. Once the weather heats up, the blooms on Night Sky fade to the colors of the bloom at the lower right corner which I think complement BW just fine.

In my case, this kind of "oops" highlights why planning doesn't really work for me, since even when I do plan things like complementary colors it doesn't work out like I'd planned. I just resolve to be happy with surprises and as a consequence I usually am.

Cynthia

This collector says that planning a rose garden is an interesting concept.

I have two entirely different, and to some extent, opposed, goals in gardening. On the one hand, like everyone who has written in so far, I'm a collector: my garden is a place to grow my plants. On the other, I'm interested in garden design: I get plants to fulfill my aesthetic goals. There are also the urgent practical and ecological considerations. A lot of the collectors have beautiful gardens, so it's not that, but perhaps there's something to be said for design. It's a stimulating challenge fitting in all the plants I want to grow and making them work as part of a project. It's a further stimulating challenge to identify plants that will grow well in my conditions, and find the right places for those plants in the range of conditions in the garden.

I have currently something more than three hundred varieties of roses, and perhaps five or six hundred plants, but I don't think of mine as a rose garden. Roses by themselves bore me, and also I like a lot of other kinds of plants, so I get as good a variety of others as I can. Lilacs, peonies, violets, and daphnes are favorites, but in lesser variety there are endless others: epimediums, irises, narcissus, cyclamen, mock orange, sarcococcas, hellebores, phlomis. Then I need plants for a variety of practical purposes: to provide shade, act as windbreaks, supply organic matter, hold the soil, cool and moisten the air; small plants keep the soil from drying out. Aesthetically, many of these plants form masses and give height. They provide variety of bloom and texture and extend the flowering season. They provide food for wildlife.

Design considerations: the context of the garden. Mine is out in the middle of the country, on steep ground with views, large, and is irregularly shaped. A large yard in a suburb would be different, and a tiny urban rectangle would be different again.

What you can grow. This is determined by soil, climate, light, availability of water, plants, animals, and pests already present, and how hard you're willing to work to alter conditions.

What you like. Some compromise may be necessary if, for example, you adore Teas and live in Minnesota. You look for the intersection between what you love and what your conditions permit. I wrote off fragrant deciduous azaleas and blueberries a long time ago, but spend time plotting where I might be able to get a magnolia to flourish.

This is by no means everything, but I need to do laundry.

As if my plans mean anything. About the only plan I execute without too much variation is to plant something. I do have a couple rules based on sorry experience. 1) Plant things that you never want to have to move first, i.e. trees, shrubs, big nasty climbers, etc. It's much easier to work around them than to try to fit them in later or worse- try to move them around. 2) Plant things where they'll grow. Seems simple. It isn't. My gardens are gardens with roses in them rather than rose gardens. I look to attract pollinators and discourage deer, although a starving deer will eat almost anything. I plant a lot of natives and herbs with that in mind. I try to keep the big things in the back and the small things in the front. I don't always succeed.

These are all fascinating comments and there is so much to learn from you all, even if our gardening circumstances are not always the same (as from bart's "the paths, too, define, the spaces" and many other thoughts from each of you). Some of you also post the photos of your gardens that are true inspirations and always put me in awe at how beautifully your roses are integrated into your property. To hear that even you experience 'failures' and unpredictabilities gives much encouragement to this less seasoned gardener.

Although I’m not much of a planner, I nonetheless do like to think of a few things when deciding on what to plant and where. Mine is a smaller urban setting, but our back and front yards are larger than usual for a residential area, giving us the opportunity for different gardening ideas. Since it seems that the previous house owners reduced their gardening desires to regular grass mowing, it's a largely undefined gardening space. Instead of doing it all at once, we've been gradually carving out the grass area for raised beds and borders as we learn more about many of the factors here that Melissa mentions. It’s the process in garden-making that gives me so much joy that I’ve (admittedly) become an obsessed gardener in the last four years. It’s not a "rose garden" by any means, but, as my favorites, roses are surely the highlights, along with other perennials and a few shrubs.

All the same, I started this thread when I saw for the nth time how my attempts at ‘cascading’ effect often end up with taller plants covering shorter ones behind them or when, in my desire to have a continual bloom in our short season, the blooming sequence doesn’t always turn out as ‘planned’. Or when accomplishing one goal just ruins the other. The other day I was enthused to see how blue colors of varied delphiniums so beautifully go with my recently planted nearby roses, only to discover that they also throw a long shadow over the roses while I just found the perfect —and alas rare in my garden— spot with full sun for them. Ah, gardening travails! but still none of this can take anything away from blissful scents, colors and shapes that roses and other plants offer us - of course, unless there is a late snow storm or endless and untimely rainfall that postpones it all for the next year :-) But, as Ingrid says, there is always the hope that the next season will be the best…

I want to thank you all very much for sharing your thoughts and experiences, and I’m sure others will learn from them as well.

I have moved toward becoming a collector of roses due to my belief in the need to preserve so many of them. However, I am very visual. Overlooking how colors and other ways that roses impact garden aesthetics would lead to plants being moved. I do have a preferred color palette and then a box of Crayola crayons section, but even then, color theory, growth habits, visual interest is considered.

Great to read about all these different experiences and to learn about so many ways to approach gardening.

This could be embarrassing, but I wonder what the difference is between a rose 'collector' and a rose 'gardener'. A few have mentioned it but it's a new distinction for me...

A really great question, JBP, and one I've wondered about, too. This is how I see the distinction. A collector acquires roses based on some factor such as rarity or only French roses or roses introduced before (or after) a certain date, much as a collector of china might concentrate only on Haviland-Limoges or Bavarian china for instance. Or, the collection could be any rose that catches his fancy - one of everything, so to speak.

Where a gardener would only chose roses that accent and highlight the structure of their home or use roses as tools in the design of the landscape where they might need 20 of the same variety to accomplish a certain look.

Those of you who know, what is the correct definition of a collector vs. gardener?

I am not an authority on this topic, but my thought is the following, for example:

I have a handful of roses that I consider collectibles. These roses could be French imports that are not widely available in the U.S., or Europe for that matter, and in the scheme of things would be considered kind of rare. Some are Old Garden roses that have not been in commerce, were considered lost, and are now growing in my garden and a few other's (relatively). I have also purchased roses that are historically significant or are kind of rare.

I am coming out of lurking mode to reply to this. I am a collector, not a designer. I can't "see" things on paper, or even in my mind's eye. What usually ends up happening is I plonk something where I think it will look decent and I have the room. Then, I notice a problem and have to move it later. For instance, I have Caldwell Pink and Duchesse de Brabant next to each other. DdeB is a warm pink, and CP is very cool. I am moving CP this fall. Eventually stuff ends up looking sort of planned, but it is by slow trial and error, not a grand master strategy.

I live in the middle of a family ranch, and have a lot of space, but few defining features and no hardscape. That is my biggest challenge.

I have two main beds right now. The front yard bed is next to a Montezuma cypress. I try keep it a bit more subdued and soothing with roses in shades of white, pink, and red with blue perennials and gray foliage (lots of salvias, plumbago, rosemary, catmint, etc). This bed has Mrs. B.R. Cant, Blush Noisette, Archduke Charles, SDLM, Cramoisi Superieur, Ducher, etc. I plan to add Niles Cochet, and perhaps a few Austins this fall.

The bed in the backyard is wilder in color with lots of hummingbird and butterfly plants: oranges, reds, yellows, magenta, purples, some blue to cool it down. The only thing that really doesn't go in this bed is white. I have some of my brighter modern roses (mostly Kordes) in this bed, plus anything old that leans apricot. Felicia, Crepuscule, Mutabilis, Lafter, Westerland, Vincent Godsif, Lady of Shalott, etc. - I plan to add Safrano, Lady Emma Hamilton, Young Lycidas this fall. This bed is LOUD - I love to watch the butterflies and hummers while I'm washing dishes.

needmoremulch, whether you consider yourself a collector or designer,-- either way, your garden sounds like a paradise. It would be wonderful to see some photos if you are inclined to post them in the future. (I used to live in Texas.)

Because of the limited space, I can't have too many roses, eventually about 30 or so, and I've started slowly building my rose 'collection' to have at least a couple from each OGR class, a few repeated bloomers (HPs, portlands, and bourbons), and am still hopeful to have one 'zone pushing' noisette. Also would love to add a couple of ramblers to other two or three climbers. This might qualify me as a ‘collector’ in a loose sense of the word, but I suppose that's wrong because I also think of other plants and shrubs that limit how many, where, and what roses I can plant. I imagine that a rose collector's focus would be reverse. I guess I’m also somewhat confused about this distinction between a collector and a gardener/designer but surely there must be some difference.

Although I have a master's degree in Landscape Architecture, I am first a plant collector. This makes for a constant internal dialogue between the collector side and the design side. My collections tend to have a design element and my designs usually end up having a large variety of plants even though I have a modernist bent. At my first house, I had about 200 species on my 0.15 acre lot. At my current house, I spent two years designing the garden but when installation occurred, I discovered that some of my first roses did not do well. Then, under the excuse of finding out which roses and other plants would do well, the collector kicked in. There is a constant push and pull, and the garden evolves over time as I learn more about what plants do well in my microclimates, and as my interests change. I tend to go through mad phases of collection, then mad phases of editing. My gardens started out solely violet, blue and white (using color to create cohesiveness to my collections), but morphed to include pink in one area since the white roses were not as successful as the pink.

I started by collecting images of things I liked. My Pinterest garden boards have over a thousand pins, which as the numbers became unwieldy, I divided into groups of styles as I noticed themes in what I liked. I then I set up another board which I limited to 25 of the top ideas that I thought had ideas that would work for my garden. From this limited number of ideas, I created several dozen iterations of the gardens in Photoshop or other design programs. Settling on one, I then planted. I didn't plan for a dedicated area for the roses, but as my experience developed, the design evolved as I realized various nuances of my space.

I could go on for a while about your questions, but rather than boring you, I'll answer just one, regarding bloom time. I've done extensive spreadsheets with perennials/shrubs/trees/bulbs/annuals and their bloom times, to ensure a season-long garden of color, and this was fun in an obsessive sort of way. But I've also read advice to plant for only one season as you are starting, to choose one season where you are most in the garden, then after you have some years of experience with that season, to add to this if you want to extend the season of color. I've also read comments where only immature gardeners plant for flowers, and sophisticated gardeners plant for foliage. There is some value in these approaches as well and you can choose an approach (or others, or none) as you wish. Personally, I started by chosing one color scheme and one season, which determined a palette of plants that suited my environment and then planted according to how their foliage and plant forms complemented each other. I could see where garden designers spend decades as an apprentice, especially after seeing the incredible complexity of the gardens in Japan, and the dedication to training trees for generations.

vesfl - thanks for the encouraging words. My garden is a pretty measly work in progress, plus for various reasons I let it get overgrown last year and am having to redo and re-tame it. The best thing we ever did was plant that Montezuma cypress, though! I don't have any great whole garden photos. I am hoping to take some this fall when the roses perk back up. Here is one of the cypress, from the vantage point of hubby in the hammock under the elm, lol. The bed has since been expanded some. Ignore the prunings and the kiddie pool (for the dog to cool off in, so she won't dig in my cypress roots - hah).

My take on the distinction between a rose collector and rose gardener is that collectors want one of EVERYTHING that takes their fancy and pine after unusual varieties to the point of babying them more than other roses. Hence why collectors like me grow teas in zone 5 (not a good idea, but i can collect SOME teas), delicate oddball growers like Uncle Tom, Brownie or Grey Pearl, or otherwise chase after the unusual, unobtainable or 5th and 6th tries at a given rose in their rose plantings.

Rose gardeners have a stronger tendency to grow what makes a maximum impact in their garden for whatever qualities they're looking for (color, frequency, hardiness, scent, etc.). It's less important to have lots of different roses or to be a zone pusher than to have trouble-free impact in the garden. Sensible rose gardeners in zone 5 for instance advocate for a lot of once bloomers, shrubs, and polyanthas among other rose types. Strong rose gardeners can be perfectly content with a high impact hedge of 30 of the same rose, where collectors might want to put in 30 different bushes in the same space.

Obviously most of us have some of both types of gardening in us, as well as percentages of rose designer. For my part, I'd give myself roughly half each rose collector and rose gardener, since at least half of my (surviving) roses are relatively low care and high impact and the rest are the fussy pants that warm my collector's heart (at least in the short term). A small percent is left for rose designer, since I'm not TOTALLY Random. I'd estimate myself at 45% rose collector, 45% rose gardener, and 10% rose designer. These are totally arbitrary terms and there probably are many other designations we would apply to ourselves, with more splits of %s.

Your percent of emphasis has to also match your percent of tolerance. If you're particular about color, form or any number of issues, you should be a high percentage rose gardener and designer for a minimum of grief. If you're a rose collector, plan to have extensive supplies of patience for the multitudes of roses that don't work out for you in your yard. This past year was unusual in that I lost almost exactly as many roses over the winter as those I planted in the spring (and I plant a LOT of roses yearly). This was a total coincidence, since I'd long since ordered the roses for spring before I knew about winter losses, so it wasn't a matter of planning to specifically replace the ones lost (totally not part of my rose buying process). This is a sign of my high rose collector percentage as well as the fact that once I've grieved over the roses lost I'm actually excited to have more spaces open up in my fussy pants beds for next year (yes, I know - hopeless).

This might not apply to anyone but me, but I can see this mix describing me pretty well so far. I may evolve to different percentages as I mature particularly as rose gardener means less effort in the yard as I age. Our priorities change so our patterns of roses and other plants vary. Oh and yes, I totally agree with Melissa about lots of companion plants and not just roses, since however nice they are they can get monotonous by themselves. During most of the heat of July, you can barely see the roses in many areas of the gardens because of the phlox, daylilies, clematis, lilies, salvia, russian sage, iris, hostas, anemones, and upcoming mums, asters and monkshood for fall, not to mention annuals here and there. A garden should ultimately be a garden, whatever it is composed of.

Cynthia

I love the original question (how do you plan your garden?).

How you go about answering the question depends...I think that first you, the gardener, need to know what YOU want. That takes time spent on being observant, practice growing and killing plants, and lots of mistakes. Like Cynthia above, I do think that gardeners have different priorities, loosely divided into three categories:

gardeners (growers) -- these folks try to grow a plant/all their plants to the very best of that plant's capabilities. Every year, they try to get the most possible out a plant by paying attention to the plants particular needs and schedules, and they strictly deliver. These folks create records: most number of blooms, longest blooming period, largest plant for your area...

Designers -- these folks think about creating a space outside that meets their practical and aesthetic needs. They think about design precepts: what is already in place (what is the frame)? What do you want to emphasize/contrast/repeat/balance...and they play with subtle contrast ideas like shade/light, big leaves/fine leaves, upright/sprawling...these folks create pictures that please.

Collectors -- these folks think about getting more, they want more plants. At our best, we preserve a group of rare plants and their companions. At our worst, we might have an overstuffed garden of sickly plants; quantity yes, but quality, no. These folks push boundaries of what is possible, and so keep a record of nature's vast creativity.

I think for ourselves, our plants, and our gardens we need to be a bit of a gardener and a bit of a collector, and for added polish and to increase our garden's appeal to aesthetics, a bit of design. How we divide up our focus is up to us; as we get more experience, we get better at balancing all three elements.

Sunny

Another part of garden planning: get the large-scale plan figured out, plant it, and then concern yourself with medium-scale details, then last with all the little things. I moved from about 1/6 acre (fair-sized neighborhood yard) to three or four acres, and in the largest area have still not gotten much beyond the first step: laying out the paths, including tractor access, the main beds, and the plantings of trees, protective hedges, and major rose beds. Oh, yes: and taking views and sightlines into account. I didn't even plan it out all at once, but did work out the basic outlines of a big enough chunk of garden at a time that I wouldn't trip over my own feet, so to speak, for example, plant a major tree in exactly the wrong spot (DH has done this, though). Scale is important. Even smallish gardens can contain trees, though perhaps not much else, but a large garden needs some large plants. (I'm repeating Henry Mitchell here) gardens need height, and the bigger the garden, the taller the trees and the greater the plant volume required. Our intransigent soil and lack of summer irrigation make for extremely slow growth, but in time--a few decades--the scrawny field we started with will be filled with a good many trees and a lot of tall shrubs. It will have a considerably more settled look then. Even now, twelve years into the development of the sunny garden, it's at least full of shrubs and young trees. We also had the smarts to plant a lot of Italian cypresses, which luckily grow very well here, and which provide a lot of height, and drama, with a minimum of shade, and which fit equally well in a rustic garden (ours) and in an aristocratic one (not ours).

I used to be more of a plant collector. I would become entranced by a certain plant and collect many cultivars (mainly perennials) and weave them all into large beds in informal drifts. This was very hard for me to maintain and keep visually pleasing over the entire growing season. Each plant had slightly different cultural requirements and I was constantly in the beds deadheading, pruning, watering, cutting things back. It was very much the style of the book The Well Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy Disabato.

The problem was, I actually wanted to relax and enjoy my garden, and all those perennials were a lot of work. Also, the look of so many sizes, textures, colors, and shapes was not restful to the eye, and I realized I wanted to feel relaxed in my garden.

Around this time, I discovered an amazing blog written by a Detroit garden designer named Deborah Silver. Her style is much more restrained, yet bold. She uses lots of trees and shrubs planted in hedges, pleached, espaliered, and grouped together. She wouldn't use one hydrangea, for instance, she would plant a hedge of 20 plants. She really focuses on the bones of a garden. Her work looks cohesive, architectural, and quietly dramatic.

I began implementing what I learned from her into my own garden. I began planting hedges (boxwood, hydrangea, lavender, hardy fuschia for example) and small trees. I focused on paths and drives and stone walls and edgings. I figured that if the bones were good, the actual plants would be set off, and I could use less perennials yet achieve more of an impact.

My garden is still very much in progress. I am currently turning an old lawn into a rose garden. I've tried growing roses in mixed borders and it was too difficult for me to give them the care and attention they need (and the water!) when I had to wade through a sea of mixed perennials. I wish I were a better gardener in that respect! But I'm just not. The new rose garden will be extremely simple with a very restricted plant palette.

The bones of the garden are made up of yew hedges, box hedges, and stone edgings. It is nothing original...this is the classic rose garden look. But I realized, it's a classic for a reason: it works. It's much easier to take care of the roses when I can step around them easily. And I can water each plant individually.

Here is a pic of the before garden...lots of perennials and mixed plantings and a small decorative vegetable garden:

Here is a pic of a more Deborah Silver- inspired part of the garden. Still beautiful, but the emphasis on hardscaping and shrubs, with a few flowers:

Here is a pic of the new rose garden, in progress:

I absolutely LOVE the lush mixed border plantings look....it's just too much work for me to keep it looking good. My hat's off to those of you who pull it off!!

I really admire Tracy Disabato ( I saw her in person and she was a great speaker) but I agree, that perennial grooming and maintenance is a huge job. I am really behind as we speak. Her books are great. Not going to happen here either.

Rosylady, you have created a gorgeous framework for your roses, the result of following a plan and knowing what you want. I so wish I had done exactly what you're talking about. The tall pines were the backbone of my garden, but now that they're gone, I am left with roses and perennials. I have some very large, shruby roses, but I wish I had more green. Your lattice structure is the stuff gardener's dreams are made of.

One of the things I try to do is have year round interest. I have found that no one space can be at peak flowering all year, here anyway. So the peak, such as it is, shifts from one garden area to another as the season progresses. Yet I try to have at least something of interest in each garden area all the time. For example, the driveway garden peaks from Spring to early Summer with daffodils, siberian iris, brunnera, clematis 'Elsa Spaeth' (recommended by someone on this forum), bluebells, wisteria, lilac and camassia. It hits another high point in Fall when the white Japanese anemone 'Honorine Jobert blooms for months. In between the foliage of Brunnera 'Jack Frost', ferns (Christmas and male - both somewhat drought tolerant), the siberian iris, boxwood and the Japanese anemone create a backdrop for a few (very few) rose blooms. This year I have added dahlias and alstroemerias for more color. We'll see. I use yew and boxwood for green throughout the different garden areas and supplement these with hellebores, Vinca minor, ivy or Magnolia grandiflora depending on the garden area. I used to have hollies but those few that survived the two hard winters are still a sorry sight. Another example; the woodland garden is intended to peak in winter with the early Winter Sweet (Chimonanthus), Winter Jasmine (Jasmina nudiflorum) and Helleborus 'Joseph Lemper' blooming on and off from December 1st on and joined later with other Helleborus niger and its hybrids, as well as snowdrops (Galanthus), (a G. plicata is my earliest bloomer so far), and Winter Aconite (Eranthis heimalis). This peak season lingers into Spring with the daffodils and white bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis). A secondary peak occurs in early Fall with Lycoris squamigera (other Lycoris are planted but do not yet have visual impact), Colchicum and cyclamen. In the in between times Hydrangea 'Annabelle' blooms and the scented, old, white flowered August Lily (Hosta plantaginea) but the deer keep eating it. I am also trying some lilies and roses; Darlow's Enigma (slow but successful in deep shade), Mme Alfred Carriere, Rosa alba maxima, Paul's Himalayan Musk (no blooms after three years - too much shade) and 'Long John Silver' (transplanted into a less shady spot where it is happier. Let's hope it is happy enough).

Cath

I have so enjoyed reading these! I would say I am more designer than anything else. My mind is generally buzzing with images that I would like to imitate or riff on. I choose roses and other plants largely for growth habit, color and foliage and unlike a strict "gardener" I am fairly tolerant of bs or mildew if the rose is magnificent some of the time and can be eclipsed by some other design element the rest of the season.

i always have a design crush so currently I'm reading a lot of Arne Maynard whose Welsh home Allt y bela is pretty much exactly what I want for my garden and Ken Druse (though he loves natives and I'm suspicious of them to a certain degree.)

The reality is that I have small children and a garden that possessed strong bones when we arrived. I see the wisdom of taking on big design elements ahead of ephemeral things like perennial bed but there are often times when I change one small element at a time. This is my second summer on this property and I can see that this here and there approach is never going to produce the subtlety of atmosphere that I admire in Meynard's designs. The house was landscaped professionally about twenty years ago and well maintained so it looks pleasant but dull to my eye.

Thank you flowersaremusic....I think I love garden ornaments and structures almost as much as the actual plants and flowers!

That little lath house was a last minute addition to the garden after I landscaped the back garden but forgot to include a place for the garbage cans! We have an old house with no garage, so I came up with that as a place to feature climbing roses yet hide the trash cans.

I still need to plant the roses on it, but I can't make up my mind on which ones!

Cassandra....I looked up Arne Maynard and WOW! I absolutely love his work. Thanks for mentioning him.

You can be sure I won't tell my garbage cans about yours and their special lath house. Mine would be soooo jealous!

Covered in climbing roses would be so English, and so secret gardenish, and fairy tale like. But, it is beautiful just as it is. I hope you will continue to post photos and keep us posted if you plant climbing roses around it. I won't ask if your husband built it. :) It is truly enchanting.

Oh my goodness flowersaremusic!! I laughed at loud when I read your post! Ironically, my husband was sitting next to me and asked what was so funny :)

The lath house was built by my wonderful landscaper. My husband thought it was completely unnecessary, and didn't understand why it should bother me at all to gaze at the garbage cans out the kitchen window as I do the dishes three times a day.

Very, very beautiful, Mariannese!!!

Looks like heaven, Mariannese!

It IS beautiful, a place I want to be. I think that that is the ultimate purpose of a garden to be a place one wants be.

Cath

P.S. I know there are collectors (I am one) and plant breeders out there yet still I think all gardeners have a desire to be IN the garden. It is filling that desire that makes it a garden.... I hope this doesn't come across as circular reasoning.

Simply too beautiful for words.

Mariannese - I love that colour palette of roses you grow in your garden! Could you tell me what are some of the roses you grow in the 2nd last photo? And the tall red/magenta rose in the top photo please?

Mariannese...that's exactly the way I love to see roses grown, and the type of roses I love as well, and the colors I love too!

Absolutely beautiful!

Tangies Long, the tall magenta in the first photo is the centifolia Tour de Malakoff, It's a smoky grey-purple.

The roses in the 4th photo are from the left in front: Assemblage des Beautés (or bought as such, because I've just seen differing pictures on HMF) , with Duchesse de Montebello and Léda behind but they're not visible. In the opposite row from the back are Ispahan, the hardy white Finnish rambler Polstjärnan (Pole Star), maroon Tuscany and last, the pink once-blooming bourbon Heroïne de Vaucluse.

Thank you all for your kind comments! Now is the height of our short old rose season so we grow modern roses too to extend the season. I've shown this photo many times over the years but here it is again. This planting is meant to look best from upstairs.

There are so many thoughtful and inspiring ideas from you all, and reading about your different gardening approaches is very much enjoyable and educational.

Needmoremulch, your Montemuzza cypress is a stunning view with a sense of tranquility in the midday sun. Rosylady, I hope you'll share the photos of your lovely lath house with the climbing roses once they're planted.

Mariannese, your garden is absolutely beautiful. So many gorgeous nooks with enchanting pathways and beds (that one with the arches in the 3rd photo is amazing and the box hedges in your last photo are most perfect), ... Walking through your garden must be a magical experience. I'm glad that Tangles Long asked you about your roses and, if you don't mind one more question, could you please tell us what the rose is to the left in the third photo?

Your boxwood and rose circle has turned out amazingly well, Marianne. My sweet husband bought me a new laptop for my birthday with a larger screen and superb resolution, and when I magnify the boxwood picture I feel as though I'm standing in your garden. It really is sublime.

Love that boxwood circle. I hesitate to plan structural elements like boxwood because I fear they won't turn out this well but roses hedged with low box is such a perfect marriage or growth habit, texture and color. Lovely.

There's also always a little war going on for me between naturalistic planting and sort of old Italian style formality. I love both but it takes a lot of skill to combine them well.

The rose to the left is La Ville de Bruxelles, a tall damask.

Cassandra, I understand your little war. The largest part of the garden is quite informal, and we've kept a narrow strip of unimproved native wood to the west. The formality is close to the house, back and front.

I too understand, Cassandra. I inherited paved paths that separate the different areas of plantings, have added more cypresses to those already there and a small faux Roman column to anchor the front garden, and it just occurred to me that a statue or two (lions rampant?) might be an idea. These things can easily be overdone, especially with my wild hills background. I'll think about it in another four months or so when I can venture out during the day.