Andreajp, these are lovely photos and a beautiful look to aspire to. It's a good idea to choose from the roses at the cemetery - pretty much an opportunity to find guaranteed winners for your garden. The photos really excited me because my front garden is finally getting mature enough that Souv de la Malmaison and Mme Lombard are looking like one bush because ML is reaching out wide. I don't mind (yet), because I've long been an admirer of the thicket look. I tried to plant 6' on center (but sometimes not) which pretty much guarantees that teas will be overlapping some, so plan accordingly and be patient with the blank spaces for a few years. Like Jeri said, fill in with annuals. One word of advise if you use Purple Coneflowers (which I recommend). They are thugs root-wise so don't plant them under or even near the canopy of the rose. Since my roses are fairly disease resistant, I don't worry about air circulation, but being able to get to the roses for maintenance is important. Give yourself room to get to each rose from the front and the back. Make an alley behind the roses if you're planting against a fence. Then squeezing in to reach the sides, if they touch at maturity, isn't too bad unless you have a bad back and can't reach awkwardly. There are definite consequences to planting too close. And remember in Zone 9 they will get big and probably even huge. If those photos were taken in the spring flush, those bushes will be a mess by the end of the season. Can't wait to hear which ones you choose. Sherry Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Hi Chris, Boy that was quick I looked it up. And you're right that's what it is. Now that I know it's an annual I'll have to save some seeds for next year. Thanks Mary-Jane

I would love to grow that Maple but alas, no room. :o( The ground cover amongst your Violets is Wandering Jew...a weed. Can cause skin allergies on dogs. It is hard to get rid of because anything left will grow back. Vigilance is needed. The garage wall has Ficus pumila, creeping fig. It is pretty and useful but if not kept under strict control, can turn into a monster....you might want to Google information about it before the trouble begins. The small plant with the shiny leaves is Coprosma. Considered a weed in Melbourne. An untidy bush that is hard to keep to a decent shape and reseeds everywhere. I would pull it out now while it's small. Sorry to be so negative, just being honest. Dee.

The Poppy in the photo is definitely a perennial, probably an Orientale. If you want to transplant, be prepared to dig for a long taproot and transplant in moist soil quickly. Keep moist for a couple of weeks. The plant will sulk big time, but should recover. To help it you may want to cut the blooms/pods off so they don't take too much energy from the plant, and cut back some of the longer leaves. I take my chances at transplanting these and succeed about 7 out of 10 times. Well worth the effort to try. :O)