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...

I've started to look at the Double Knockouts around town with a closer eye. Many of the plants have widely spaced, single flowers per stem, but many plants have clustered flowers, typically seven flowers per cluster but as many as seventeen and the clusters are as tight as those on any polyantha. I suspect this difference is connected to how the plant is pruned, or maybe how it's sheared, and also on the stage of growth following pruning. At any rate, I wouldn't bet the farm that Jem's roses are Double Knockouts but that's still my best guess.

I think it looks like this climbing Floribunda Iceberg. Check the link. The picture there kinda resembles your photo. BTW, I think the old rose look suits it well. ;) Here is a link that might be useful: Cl. Iceberg

I was also going to guess 'Shailer's Provence'. While many different pass-along roses have been given the name 'Seven Sisters', the real thing is a large climbing Multiflora. :-) ~Christopher