Hi Lily, I don't have roses in my front yard, so I don't have any pics to share, but I'm glad you asked this question. I was thinking of doing the same this year by adding a few roses including Julia Child, next to my purple delphiniums. Also, I've been wanting a deep red rose, maybe Lavaglut, in the front yard. Winter time is dangerous. My rose wishlist keeps growing! BTW, just a quick question, which I may have asked before, how are the roses from Edmunds? I've heard mixed reviews.

Hey Bella !! This is my first order from edmunds . I hope they are great ! Eeek I didn't know they had mixed reviews .

In winter I plan all this stuff .. " oh a new bed here , should only take me one afternoon " then it takes 6 weeks and tears .. lots of tears . Haha ! It sure is fun to dream though.

I thought maybe if I had enough perrenials deer don't like , maybe they would leave them alone .

I think Julia would look amazing with delphiniums! Do you buy them or winter sow them

edit ; just was in winter sowing forum and saw you were going to try them. Good luck!

Lily, if your deer are like my deer, eventually they will get around to sampling your roses. They are browsers, so it will be random and totally unpredictable when they strike. Yours probably have lots to choose from for eating, so they won't be really hungry, just noshing. They will probably find favorites, and those roses will suffer more than your others. Repellents (I've tried a lot of them) are just partially effective, some are more effective than others. Deer are wasteful and damaging to what they do sample. They yank blooms off, leaving part of the bloom sometimes, while dropping others on the ground. If you use repellent faithfully and more often than the directions state, the deer probably won't do much damage to your roses. I only spray buds and blooms, otherwise I'd go through gallons of the stuff every time I sprayed. Deer love hosta, too, among other plants. Even though your deer could probably jump your backyard fence easily, they are lazy and probably won't because there is so many easier pickins. I grow lots of perennials deer don't like, but that doesn't keep them away from the roses--only repellent will sometimes. I agree that delphiniums would look great with Julia, and deer won't touch them (or any other animal; they are poisonous).

Here are some front yard photos which I've posted before here and there. I hope they are repetitious for you. I emphasize yellow and purple right in front on either side of the sidewalk leading to the porch. Diane

I grow about 30 roses in the front & I think I'm on some ancient deer trail that goes into a ravine, they've been coming this way for centuries, I'm sure.I agree with Diane re only spray being effective; that being said I've experimented the last year with no spray with mixed results. They are very inexpert pruners, some roses(esp Marie Pavie) repeatedly chomped on & others ignored like Darlow's Enigma, Mme Plantier & David Austin's Snow Goose. All in all the damage isn't that bad, but perhaps next year they're planning a full-on assault, I've noticed that they always come in threes, 1 doe & 2 fawns or juveniles. I'm trying to peacefully co-exist with them, not always easy.

Surrounding the roses with perennials deer don't like was useless for me. I tried encircling my roses with lavender, but it didn't faze them at all. They ignored the lavender and ate the roses. Deer repellents didn't work unless I sprayed every night. Only Liquid Fence had any effect at all. I bought the concentrated form and mixed it strong. I couldn't get rid of that horrible smell. It permeated my clothes and skin. It also left a white film on the foliage, so the roses always looked as if they were covered in powdery mildew. After a while, spraying every night wasn't keeping them away. They get used to anything. Most disappointing and expensive failure was buying 6 or 7 ScareCrow Sprinklers. Walking the perimeter of the garden to turn them off before I went in the garden, then turning them back on when I went inside several times a day was time consuming and the deer ended up loving the cool shower during our hot summers. My deer would show up for their lunch when I went inside for mine. When I was in the garden, they lay on the lawn and watched until I went inside. They're tenacious and know what they want and how to get it.

Diane, as always, jaw dropping, mind blowing roses. You are an artist with color.

Lilyfinch,

Don't tempt fate, don't do it! Planting roses where deer have easy access to them is like opening your front door, and inviting a vampire in.

Deer repellant stinks to the deer, as well as us. Spray it on fragrant roses and guess what you do with flowers you want to cut and bring in? Leave them be. Repellant must be sprayed again after every rain. It is lots of work in a rainy climate, and expensive, too.

The rose garden at Renziehausen Park, in McKeesport, PA, had such a severe deer problem they enclosed the entire rose garden, a huge place of about 1.5 acres, within a black, 9' chain link fence. An 8' fence, a mature doe or buck can jump, as hard as that is to believe!

I am surprised your back garden roses have not yet been deer damaged. They can easily jump a 4' fence. A 6', solid barrier that a deer cannot see through or over, they will not jump, since they cannot see where they will land.

If you start getting deer damage in the back, extending the fence top with 3-4' of deer netting all around should work. It's hard for them to see the netting at night when most eating/jumping takes place. They will try to jump over the top rail of your 4' fence which they can easily see, not over the top of the netting, and hit the netting not seeing it. One or two foiled jump attempts will usually stop further attempts. Deer can scoot through post and rail fence, even scoot under the bottom rail, especially immature deer.

Put out strong smelling deodorant soap to repel them; they will eat the soap and the roses both. Plant a decoy crop; they eat the crop and your roses.

I have seen deer eat yucca leaves and Blue Girl Holly leaves!

You're living in paradise with your happy family, beautiful home, and exquisite roses and gardens, keep it that way!

Moses

Diane,

Your roses are almost too magnificent to be real. What a feast for the eyes!

Your flower color choices and design layout are award winning.

What do you do for an encore? Are you a gourmet chef? a concert pianist?

O.T. Is that Osmanthus h. var., growing in the bottom of the third photo down? I can't grow it here, too cold. I wish I could.

Moses

Lily, I have three delphiniums that I purchased a few years ago, growing in my front yard and was hoping to winter sow some for my back garden. Good luck with your front garden and don't forget to post pics. Maybe if you add perennials and/or annuals that are poisonous, your deer will wise up and go to your neighbor's yard! lol

Diane, your roses are simply stunning!! What's the name of the rose in the third pic? Thanks!

I made a rose bed at one side of the front of my yard, and I’m out in front frequently tending to them. I did it because it was the only place left where I had good sunlight. It’s turned out to be a very fun social activity...I’ve become quite friendly with several neighbors who walk their dogs and are also enthusiastic gardeners. I enjoy chatting with them and otherwise would not have had the opportunity to get to know them. I get many compliments on the roses, too.

That said , I don’t have a deer issue. We have tons of rabbits, they eat the grass but never touch the roses. I think they smell the BBQ in the backyard and they know that if they touch my roses, they’ll be Shish Kebab.

Moses, I will answer for Diane, because she's too modest to tell you that, yes, she is a wonderful cook and an accomplished pianist. I believe she sings, too. And, we've read her poetry here on the forums.

Lilyfinch, in looking back at my reply to your question, I sounded soooo negative. Not all deer are as persistent as mine. Mine will eat all the things said to be repulsive to them - foxglove, delphinium, peonies, poppies, iris, etc. I have friends with gardens and no fence where the deer just pass through and nibble here and there, but do not destroy. I've noticed, around here, they are much more active in a wooded area than on meadowland or plains or pastureland. Good luck!!

Aww, Moses, you are so nice. Flowers will tell that I read a lot. Is Osmanthus just holly? Because that's the only thing I see at the bottom of the photo. The rest is just Ascot the rose.

Flowers, thank you. I think you have the highest deer pressure of anyone I know, plus a lot of ground to defend. I'm so glad you got a fence.

It sounds to me like your deer pressure is pretty low, Lily. I think you can grow roses in your front yard--so I'll be more optimistic than Moses or Flowers. My front yard is unprotected and very small with no fence. I use repellent at normal strength, and there is no residue, plus the odor fades away fast. Strong soap does nothing to the deer here. Our deer are the large Western mule deer found in high desert/hills, not white tail. I would say our deer pressure is moderate from end of August till early spring when a lot of them go up to higher elevations. During summer, it's sporadic and unpredictable. The repellent I've settled on is Deer Out, which seems to work best for my garden. Good luck however you handle the deer situation. Diane

Oh gosh thanks everyone! I kinda knew in my mind it may be a bad idea . I kept putting off roses in the front yard but then you get inspired and think what the hay , why not ? But I do not want deer in the back yard . I had no idea the repellants would be so awful smelling and ineffective. So i think I'll just shelve the idea as long as possible. I forgot that my home shades the bed after 2 anyway so the roses may not have been happy there.

Diane as always those photos are amazing!!! I'm saving them just for pure eye candy. I would for sure wreck my car or drive into a ditch if I drove by your home! ( I actually almost did that once! Saw an amazing spring hellebore garden that was almost a fender bender ;)

Flowers you did not sound so negative at all !! I asked for opinions and wanted them all , good or bad . I'm so glad to hear your experience but sorry you have to deal with them !! They sound way too at home in your garden .

Smithdale , I bet 30 roses look amazing up front. I hope the deer continue to be respectful munchers and move along quickly for you . Our deer also seem to be 3, and they always head toward the lake. They graze in the field brush next door . I only have seen them in person maybe 3 times a year. But have seen their prints in soft soil .

Ben, I love the idea that your front garden brought you closer to your neighbors! That's wonderful. When I lived in Pa , I had a lot of garden the front and there was a man who would wheel his mamas wheelchair down 7 or 8 homes to see it. It was the compliment of all compliments to me ! Now we are in the country so I have two neighbors on our street and occasionally someone on a power walk . Or a looky loo who ignores the multiple dead end signs and drives down . But I still want to be the house known for all the flowers !

Moses thank you for your wisdom!! I will rethink the roses and carry on in the back yard. I have visited that garden in McKeesport once ! I can't remember if it was fenced then. I did really enjoy it !

Well I'll just think on some other shrubs and perrenials to enjoy. Plus I'm more in the back yard anyway. Thank you everyone!!

Bella, thank you. The rose you ask about is Ascot. I took the photo looking down from the porch.

Flowers, you are just too darn complimentary. I cannot sing. I shatter glass when I sing. But the rest of my family are wonderful singers, and most of them sing in choirs and other groups. It's been a long time since I played the piano, too. My hands are shot from abuse and age. Diane

Lilyfinch - I watched a t.v. show called Growing a Greener World...and here's an article about controlling deer. He says it works.

This one has a chemical....

https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/controlling-deer-in-my-garden/

This one has a physical barrier system. Don't use the electricity, of course. :)

https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/controlling-deer-and-other-critters/

Diane - your roses are incredible. I never tire of looking at your front yard pictures. They are beyond belief!!! Incredible and fabulous!!!!

Carol

Lilyfinch,

You can continue to beautify the front of your house with so many flower options other than roses: hydrangeas and a myriad of perennials. As much as you love roses, a break from their inclusion in a bed design can be a welcome diversion.

Moses

Flowers Are Music,

I just pulled Gourmet Chef and Concert Pianist out of the air, in inquiring about Diane's additional gifts! Remarkable! Some people have special gifts for every letter of the alphabet. They inspire me.

Moses

We have a lot of deer here. I've found that you don't need to make roses in your yard an all or nothing proposition. I would experiment with only one or two, placed in the middle of beds planted with other things that deer in your area find loathsome: nicotiana, columbine, hellebores, salvia, agastache, alliums, artemesia, rosemary, marjoram, lavender, mint and other herbs, etc. Ask other local gardeners what deer ignore in their own yard, as it may be different from one place to another. You might want to add a decorative barricade around the rose itself. Sometimes, making it easy for deer to bypass your garden will work in your favor.

Just realize that if a deer is starving, they'll do whatever they have to do to find food. What works now may not always work in the future. YMMV

An added thought- If you're only going to have a handful of roses in your front yard, use fast growing climbers that get some size and have thick canes. Deer prefer tender new growth and something like this would not have much to offer them at nose height.

When I had a handful of roses in my front garden, the deer would occasionally visit. Now that I have over 200 roses in a dedicated rose garden, my garden is an all you can eat deer buffet and they make a beeline to it. Haha!

I will be installing fencing, which I was hoping I could avoid. But hopefully I can take it down in a few years when the roses are bigger. I don't mind sharing some nibbles with the deer....but at this point the roses are so small they're being decimated.

I think if you have a garden bed with a mixture of plants and a few roses, it will be fine!

And...this practically goes without saying....we will needs lots of pictures! :)

Put up adequate fencing, maintain it and don't ever take it down. Black plastic deer netting stapled to peeler poles isn't very visible (except for the poles) or very expensive.

Thanks! Kes thanks for the plant list .. I was going to research that later today ! Moses you are right, there sure are other plants that will give me just as much enjoyment. Rosylady , good luck with your fence !! I hope it helps. I will post photos for sure. I'm sure I'll sneak at least one rose there. I thought a yellow would look so charming there by the bench .

Embothrium, a fence in the front yard would be my last resort . I'm sure my husband would want the roses removed before he would pay for more fence materials! Lol but that type of fence could be doable . I do have plenty of space in the back yard so I'll just keep them back there .

You all are so nice. But no one has mentioned the two legged dears (sic) who take red roses because .....red roses. (This I learned from my front yard rose garden in New Orleans.) If you have a sidewalk where people walk or a road where joggers walk (or jog if they think someone is watching), some colors other than red are less collectible.

Now about deer: our place has at least two herds that come at us from across the river: one from the east, the other from the south. And I have a kind hearted neighbor who is currently naming the sixteen she feeds and waters.

Of her herd, they have shown a major preference for strong fragrant reds. All the rose sepals have to do is fold back, and ;bon apetite. This year I'm adding Pope JP II so I'll be able to report if they find that tasty as well. So far Crocus Roses haven't been eaten and I have had blooms on Tess of the d'urb. in the vicinity of the buffet.

Also, FWIW wild turkeys are too heavy for non-woody rose canes before the canes start putting on bark.

I am lucky to live in a village out in the hills, so only neighbors are jogging/walking by. No one has taken a single rose out of my front yard that I know of, but I get a lot of wonderful feedback and friendship from the people going by. It's a big positive for me. I hope no one around here is feeding the deer. They aren't helping the deer, and certainly not helping the neighbors. Deer do like to raid bird feeders but have little luck with the kind I use, so they eventually give up. I do have a barricade of lattices that help protect the feeders from one side, and keep deer from entering the yard at their favorite spot.

I grow the following that deer seem to hate and never bother: boxwood (smells a bit like cat pee); butterfly bush; nine bark; Black Lace elderberry; spirea; lavender; artemisia; Russian sage; penstemon; coneflower; all rudbeckia; peonies; snapdragon; morning glory; poppies; four o'clock; Jupiter's beard; daffodils; alyssum; dusty miller; Shasta Daisy; coreopsis--there are plenty more. They should leave foxglove and delphinium alone, too. Diane

Lily- Have you considered a spot light? We used to have deer come torment our penned outdoor dogs in the middle of the night. They would always bark around midnight or later and were driving us crazy. One night my husband snuck out and chased the mystery animal through the woods not knowing what it was until he heard it "snorting". We kept our outdoor lights on and the deer never came back. Maybe motion sensor path lights could work? We don't see deer too often though so this might have just been luck. We back onto hundreds of acres of woods so maybe the deer find plenty else to eat.

I've also read that surrounding your flowers with loosely crushed chicken wire will keep them from going near the garden since it doesn't offer secure footing.

The VOLES on the other hand have driven me crazy. All my new roses have been planted surrounded by a moat of seashells. Once spring comes I'll see how well that worked as a deterrent.

Sharon

Ann, I just had to reply. I thought about what color the deer here prefer and realized that the reason none of them seem to prefer reds is that I hardly had any. I have one red out of 50 +/- roses! Instead, the deer here prefer purples and they'll go to great lengths to find and eat them. They'll wait till the rose has almost fully opened, then walk through a bed to find it. I don't know how they know. Maybe smell. But they will often bypass (step on) more fragrant roses to get to the purple one. Deer have done more damage walking through my garden than they have grazing.

Lilyfinch, I feel like I should mention a couple things. Some of the plants I mentioned are poison to people as well as avoided by deer. Hellebores are one. Foxgloves are another. Also larkspur, I believe. You'll want to check out everything you plant, because some poisonous plants are surprisingly common. You may want to wait till your daughter is older before you add them to your garden. Another thing- western deer and eastern deer are a different species and have different habitats. What works in one place won't necessarily work in the other. We lived in Utah 8 yrs and rarely had problems with deer eating our vegetable garden. The deer lived in the mountains and came down to the valley looking for food after snow covered their graze. In spring/summer they went back to the mountains. Western mule deer are huge compared to the eastern whitetails but whitetails seem to have become more accustomed to humans. People have moved into the wildlife habitat in the east and humans and animals find themselves in competition. It will take some experimentation to find what works best.

Ann that is kind of hilarious that people would sneak and steal your roses. Did you ever yell WHAT YOU DOING to watch them run? That would be really annoying. One more reason I'm happy to be in the middle of nowhere. lol

That's stunning!! I would stop by for a bouquet too. :-)

Maggie, all your roses are mind blowing, but what knocked my socks off was your Abe Darby. I can only hope my little new Abe will someday grow into a rose like yours. I think we forum members should charter a bus and pay you a visit for a tour of your rose garden. Wow. Diane

Oops, erasmus. Why did I think your name was Maggie?? That's the rose. Forgive me. But what I said about your garden still stands. Diane

Diane & erasmus, your gardens are so beautiful!!! I have to order Maggie one more time. I tried twice they didn’t make it here in zone 6a. May be I need a protected spot for this pretty rose.

Diane, I think your head was exploding after seeing that picture of her Maggie! Wowza!!! It's hard to remember anything after that picture. I think I'm going to see how hardy my new roses are after multiple nights of -3 f.

Oh my gosh is right!!!!!!! What great photos. Thanks for sharing!!

I had never thought about a spotlight and we do have one. I guess I thought it would just light the way for them ( candle lit dinner?) . I don't want to give them reason to explore the back so I'll probably stick with perennials, and maybe one rose.

kes thank you for mentioning the poisoned plants!! I do try to be careful about them. Amazing how many there are!

I need cl pinkie now! What a stunner

Erasmus - Stunning!!! I can't in my wildest dreams ever imagine having that many blooms!! Staggering!!

Carol

You know, Erasmus is a she, and she owns a small rose business, Long Ago Roses. And she's a lovely person (just had a little email conversation with her). She posts more on the Antique Roses forum. Diane

Stunning photos Diane and Maggie!

Well, thank you! It's a very small one- person rose business. I do enjoy it. My Maggie plant was hit by a truck or car and lost a lot of its size. Someone's vehicle drove right into it and was going fast enough that they hit my mailbox and sent it flying down the street.

Aw Erasmus , I am so glad to know you own long ago roses! We need to support small businesses, they are a pouring out of ones heart and soul and not easy I'm sure. I'm bookmarking the site to make sure when it's time to order I do. Your photos are great , and I'm sorry about Maggie but I imagine the driver was so distracted by all the beauty! Lol . Hope she recovers ! I'm glad no one was hurt and hope the damage was not too bad.

Lily, I'll throw my hat in the ring here and say I have a couple of small groups of deer that come through my property which borders U.S. Forest Service land. They love the roses, and not just the blooms. No, they strip the canes bare. They work around my flimsy attempts at caging. Over time, they have worn me down and I won't plant anything that they can munch on in unprotected areas. I'm just done. I'm tired of the roses/flowers looking like heck compared to my dreams of them being beautiful. I keep unprotected areas around my house more native landscaping and crushed granite. This also conserves water resources. I understand the desire to have wonderful blooms at the front of a home, but if you have an inkling that deer might be a problem, either be ready to do a constant battle or don't do it at all. (I say this in good humor and coming from experience, not in a negative way. :-))

Thanks towanda ! I imagine I don't want to battle them , and my front yard has been pretty pleasing so far so I'll let it be. I really appreciate your advice too! Honestly I don't spend much time up front. If I go in the front yard , Lucia wants to go for a walk to see the cows or the neighbors or ride her car around so I can't spend as much time out there in the garden. If we are in the back , she entertains herself pretty well and can't wander off .

Thanks again everyone! :)

summers- I couldn't agree more. Right now we are in blizzard mode with 14 inches of snow.... then tomorrow temps plunge below zero with wind chills of -17 to -26. Saturday has a low of -12 which we haven't seen in a while. Fingers crossed that my baby roses survive. At least the snow will add some insulation if it doesn't all get blown away.

Keep warm!

Sharon

Oh Sharon, that’s really cold!!! You too keep warm!!! Pray for all our roses!!!

summer - what a mess!! Did you get any money from the driver to pay for the lost roses?

Sharon - wow! Yes, with temps like that, let's be grateful for the snow. Be careful driving.

Carol

Wow, what stories and great advice! When my wife and I moved to our current home almost 5 years ago our goal was to find the perfect, large yard and the house secondary. Somehow we ended up in a great house, in a great area on a rocky, clay ridden slope surrounded by trees. I began purchasing roses right away to start a rose garden again. The thought of deer munching on my roses kept me up at night initially. Not anymore. I have learned deer are only one of the many things we battle as gardeners and I’m not going to let the ruin what should bring so much pleasure. It’s going to be great whatever you decide :)

Lilyfinch, I appreciate it. I don't know if the driver was hurt or not. I have no idea who it was but kind of suspect it was a garbage truck, so would imagine they didn't get hurt. Some of the garbage truck drivers here seem to have fun driving them and sometimes go too fast especially on turns.

Summersrythm, that sounds like a terrible trauma to have a car mow down a bunch of your roses. The cold is pretty bad right now too. I'm pretty worried about how it's going to affect the roses but worrying won't do any good. Good luck to everyone who is dealing with the awful cold.

Thanks. It's one of the many things in life I have to deal with. Will plant some new roses in the spring. Anyone has Viral URI? My goodness, it's awful. I can't wait to get better. I have been drinking honey and apple cider vinegar water everyday, but I still got the cold! We have about 1' of snow on the ground, it should help to protect the roses from sub zero temp. I hope everyone's roses are Ok too and stay away from the cold.

I hope you get better summers !! I was just thinking tonite I may skip church and watch online as schools have been closed for the flu and I don't need my LO picking up the flu from nursery school. Get lots of rest and look at cheerful summer pics and feel good soon !!

Thanks Lily. That’s a good idea to stay home. Flu is no joking. Be safe everyone.