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Something to go with roses
I've decided to try planting a small rose garden. The soil is not very deep but I can get plenty of manure to build it up. On the mild but wet west coast of Scotland I'm looking for suggestions for roses that will be resistant to the various problems roses attract, give me lots of colour and scent (in that order!) As there will be long periods when there ain't much going on, and it is near the house so will be the first thing you see when you look out of the window, could you suggest something else I could put with them to give the bed some winter and early season interest?
She who wants miracles!
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I have made a similar sounding rosebed this year, still a work in progress but I have been pleased with the result so far.
I planted lavender as a border to the bed, that has looked lovely and it overspilled onto the little path so everytime your legs brushed against it the scent wafted over you. On the opposite side I had some Nepata and that has spread nicely along the edge and with the occasional trim has kept going nicely. I also planted some Sedum, Autumn Joy, which is just about ready flower now and will hopefully last into the autumn. In spring I had lots of tulips and some alium and next year I am aiming for some geranium Rozanne, I think it is called, a lovely small blue one. Finally I am going to put in some primroses and pansies to get through the winter. Nothing terribly adventurous but has been pretty all the same with lots of fragrances.
Pansyface, we have had weeks and weeks of drought here, not sure which is worse.
Wow! Thank you everyone for these encouraging suggestions. I was worried they would go all soggy and rot but it sounds as though they can tolerate rain better than I thought. I've never had much luck with roses but my Mum loved them and she died last month so I'm really keen to do this in her memory. She was always taking cuttings that grew into lovely bushes and we used them on the floral spray at her funeral. (Hope you don't think that's morbid) The ideas for mixed planting are great and I'll play safe with the new varieties to start with, and some spring bulbs, then I may have to expand the bed! Thanks again everyone.
Not morbid at all, will be perfect
Another good doer for me is the DA rose Wisley 2008 - pale pink, well scented old fasioned flower heads - mine has been smothered in blooms since May & has lots to come.
My roses are underplanted with the usual suspects of bulbs, pulmonaria, hardy geraniums, nepeta and alchemilla mollis (spelling ?). I quite like the geraniums such as Anne Folkard which scrambles up through the lower parts of the roses. Rozanne does a smilar thing (not quite as much) & both have long flowering periods. I also quite like penstemons for some later season colour.
If you are thinking about a border majoring in roses may I suggest you think about having a few nice posts put in and training one or two lower growing (abt 2m) climbers. Some of the shrub roses such as Gertrude Jekyll can be trained this way & you can also put a clematis with each one.
Enjoy planning!
On the plain, dull, practical side, too much planting up to the roses makes it hard to apply the annual mulch of manure/compost that the roses need to flourish!