Rose Gardens for the Amateur

However, even if you are new to gardening, flowers, landscaping, or any combination of the three, you can have a lovely garden with six simple decisions.

1. Cutting Garden (flowers for the house) or a Color Garden (landscaping): Cutting will require large blooms and long stems, while Color will mean shrubs, miniatures, and climbers.

You want to choose a Cutting Garden when your main aim is to have flowers to place in vases in your home and/or to give as gifts. If you mainly want to beautify the outside of your home, then you want a Color Garden.

You might even want to combine the two uses and create a Color Garden with some roses for cutting. Or, you could have a Cutting Garden that adds color and beauty to a specific spot outside.

2. Color: Yes, even if your plan is for a Cutting Garden, you must still pay attention to color. Do you want a wash of color or a more variegated look? One good idea is to mix yellow, white, and/or pastels with darker roses so that each stands out in a striking manner.

If the color outside doesn’t matter to you or isn’t your main focus, you can simply choose the colors you find most appealing. For a Color Garden, though, you will want to decide what your color scheme is and how it will blend with the elements already in place.

3. Antique or New: Older roses are usually hardier and more disease resistant, so they are good for the amateur or just someone who wants easier care. Older roses are also generally bushier and more rambling and so will fill out large spaces easier.

You may, of course, opt to go for a mixture, regardless of whether a particular rose is hardy or not. In this case, be aware that you will need to devote more time – and potentially more money in replacing lost plants – than you would with the hardier varieties.

4. Scent: And, of course, even with Color Gardens, you must pay attention to scent. Do you want Sweet? Spicy? Fruity? Whichever roses you choose will fill your home with their special fragrance, as well as saturate whatever part of the landscape they inhabit outside.

Want to surround an entryway or gazebo with splashes of color? Don’t forget to think about the fragrance that will come with it.

5. Placement: If you don’t want gaps, try placing the plants in a zigzag manner. If you have a small space, you can stagger plants of different sizes and types.

Even if you only want a more lavish appearance, filling in the in-between spots with plantings will increase the mass and give the illusion of more plants.

6. Enhancing: Coordinate. Enhance. Cover. Have an ugly spot or building? Arrange your garden to hide the drab or unattractive. Or simply draw attention to a more appealing section of the grounds.

Want to coordinate your landscaping or buildings? Use your garden to link two landscape elements or buildings together. Looking to enhance what you already have? Try outlining a specific spot (say a hot tub or gazebo) with climbers and/or shrubs.

Thinking about these six aspects will ensure you have a garden to be proud of. The only other real choice you need to make is what specific roses you want.

Some types of roses are Earth Kind, Antique, Climber, Miniature, Floribunda, Polyantha, Hybrid Tea, Grandiflora, and Shrub.

Hybrid Tea roses are like those you would get from a florist. So, if you want some good cutting flowers, look for that kind. Shrub roses, meanwhile, are great for large landscaping projects. And Miniatures, Polyanthas, and Floribundas are perfect for small-scale and borders.

The Miniatures, especially, are good for smaller spaces. The Polyanthas and Floribundas are best for bordering, although the Polyanthas are lower to the ground than Floribundas.

The Antiques and Earth Kind are the hardiest choices, while Climbers need something to hang on and Grandiflora (a hybrid of Hybrid Tea and Floribunda) are tall slender plants.

For roses with a scent that permeates and spreads, choose one or more of these: Angel Face (lavender), Crimson Delight (crimson), Double Delight (ruby surrounding cream), Fragrant Cloud (coral red), Granada (scarlet, red, & lemon yellow), Intrigue (plum), Perfume Delight (bright pink), Tiffany (pink tinged with yellow at base).

Every rose enthusiast has favorite breeds of roses. So there is generally some disagreement over what breeds are better examples of whichever type you look at (climbers, hybrid tea, and so on). For the amateur, though, making the six above decisions and keeping the types of roses in mind will help you create something you will treasure.

With a little planning and forethought, you’re well on your way to having a rose garden your friends will swear you had professionally planted. And don’t forget to sit back, relax, and enjoy these wonderful flowers!