I have now kicked into garden planning mode. And so people I am chasing advice. I want to plant some roses around our bull nosed verandah. So you can get an idea, here is the verandah!
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| Homestead Verandah |
And a close up. (The garden bed is actually below that narrow brick space and is about 1 metre deep - probably can be seen better in the first photo.)
The kind of rose I am imagining is a pale, soft pink with an old style shape and a smell. (I love roses that smell!) Plus it has to be super tough and preferably disease resistant. Do you think that is too much to ask?? We have stacks of garden water now however our summers get very dry. I won't plant these roses for several months - I am just at the "thinking about" stage.
So any suggestions you have will be most welcome.
(Sorry about sporadic posting of late - so much going on behind the scenes. Super busy but hopefully things should settle down a tiny bit in the next few weeks...)
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| Peace |
19 comments:
I am guessing you mean in that narrow brick edged garden? peace is a good one, I managed to grow it, also any of the icebergs flower prolifically AND are the toughest one I know, but don't have that much scent (you might have to sacrifice some things off your list?!) I have to say I immediatley thought of a hedge of lavendar in that space....
Wow, that photo of the house looks like it's come straight from a real estate brochure!!
Thanks ladies.
Sharon - I love Peace. May well revert to that. I have amended the post - the garden bed is actually below the narrow brick space and is a decent sized bed. There is not much depth in that narrow brick space and I am reluctant to put anything in there that may interrupt the integrity of the wall. Think I will just get the paving extended over that space at some point in the future!
How much sunlight? It looks to have some shade, roses need over 6 hours of direct sunlight to flower. however there are some varieties that go ok in filtered light, and of course there are plenty that are now disease resistant. Iceberg is so tough and I wish I had replanted them next to the house along the driveway, instead of Mary rose, just so that I had flowers on them all the time!
HHmmn I may move them in winter and get some new icebergs in!
You could choose one of 2 types here, normal small bushes with nothing else or the short patio standards- I'd try not to block too much of the view and would do an uneven number of white or the pale pink icebergs -short/patio standards and put short lavender bushes and erigeron under them. As it is a raised bed there is fantastic drainage!! Do you have a colour scheme in your garden, I have always gone with white blue and pink, there is very little orange, red and yellow in my garden. BUT Red roses will give you the most fragrance and are usually thornier! Whatever you do, try to get ones with few thorns, being next to the verandah. I was at a party once where a little girl fell off the verandah into rose bushes and had awful cuts all over her and had to get many stitches, luckily not on her face. Don't get those carpet ones they are dreadfully thorny, I couldn't even prune mine! I've learned never to plant roses which may cut next to paths. my Icebergs have always had fewer thorns, so are my top choice!
Thanks Jodie. Have definitely considered the thorn issue as you could fall into the roses if you fell off the verandah... There is roughly about 6 hours of sunlight and the rest would be filtered. Our sun here is so harsh that at our other house I had Peace roses growing very well with about 4-5 hours of light. (They were against a white wall though so probably copped a bit of reflection.) No colour scheme as yet - there is a big wisteria further along the house and I would probably choose pinks and creams/whites to go with that. I have another garden bed out the back that I will put my "cutting garden" in and plant all the roses that don't match but that I love!!
I've had success with Heritage in Qdg. I got them from Melville Rose Farm in the Perth hills - they are a wealth of information and have successfully planned and planted roses all over the Wheatbelt. There's also Chicago Peace which is a bit brighter in colour.
I'm currently getting a LOT of roses and perfume from Fragrant Plum, it is darker pale plum colour around the outer bloom and slightly paler on the inside. I also have Peace, which I planted in memory of my Gran, always a stunner and the ever reliable Iceberg. good luck and happy to hear you are getting auto retic. Jane x
did I mention the 'fragrant plum' has a lovely perfume too.?
Jx
Hi Farmer's Wife,
I love Seduction. It's similar to Iceberg in it's hardiness, ability to grow anywhere, flowers prolifically like most of the floribundas and is the most gorgeous, delicate and pretty shade of pink. Easy to source in WA. It also looks much better in the flesh than most of the google pictures I found. I've often admired it in people's gardens but have yet to find somewhere to put it in ours. Only thing I'm not sure about is fragrance, but I'm sure Google would tell you. Good luck! The house is looking very gorgeous and spiffed up. Suzx
PS I think that narrow space would be perfect for Myrsine Africana (African box hedge). Very hardy, easy to source, looks gorgeous and would tidy up the view from the verandah side of the hedge and provide a boundary to stop kids falling off so easily...and I think your gorgeous house is formal enough to cope :) Sx
I don't know much about roses, but would so love to be sipping tea and having some cake there.
I have seduction in my yard too. Not a great picking rose as it grows flowers in clusters that open over time but very prolific and pretty. There is a picture of it on my blog in the post about Autumn (the first rose picture).
I would definitely go for bushes rather than standards so that you can keep them pruned low and not block the view. Remember roses love a good hard prune. As long as you water them and give them good mulch all the hot dry air will really help with the diseases. My roses look horrid after this cool rainy summer - the drought was much better for them!
I am not as fust on ocebergs as everyone else. I grow them but they aren't my faves.
I love Mr Lincoln, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margaret, Julia's rose, Peace (Do you know the story? How it was orginally called Gloria Dei? and invented/bred after WW2?) I love Chicago peace too, and freesia and gold bunny and Christian Dior Maria Callas and Zepherin Drouphin (search online- 100% worth it).
Good luck xxx
Also I think that heavy feeding is Key.
Julia's rose is very thorny, should have talk you that.
I like Pinkie too x
I have a Double Delight rose in my garden,has survived with no love, lots of heat and humidity. Has the most delicious smell and is a pale yellowish cream with pink tinging out to the edge of the petals, some are more cream (like the colour of your house) some are more pink. Did post a pic of one recently. melx
Thanks so much for all the suggestions. So many gorgeous roses to choose from. I definitely think a trip to Melville Rose Farm is in order to see all of these suggestions in the flesh (or should that be "the petal").
Duchess de Brabant and Robert Duncan are amongst my all time faves.
TDM xx
Jill - I would love to sit there and have tea and cake with you.
You can't go wrong with roses in my opinion and they are surprisingly easy to grow! I would suggest two varieties, planting two of each variety closer together than recomended which gives you the generous border look of english gardens. (and don't plant in straight rows, you want country garden freedom) Then you fill in with perennials for the perfect generous garden. Feed three times a year with Sudden Impact for roses. Varieties, any of the David Austen soft pinks (heritage, gertrude jekyll). They are hardy, generous and scented with fewer black spot problems than a lot of other varieties. You can order online as bare-rooted during winter. Sorry about the long de-lurking response but this is my passion...happy to provide advice via email if you need!
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