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When you enter a public rose garden laid out in neat patterns, it can be a thing of beauty. Have you ever wondered what a rose garden like that would look like in your own garden?
It can be done given the time and space. Yes, you can have a stunning rose garden filled with all the glamour and wonder of the formal gardens with thoughtful planning and care. I will be leading you through the steps to build a simple circle garden. Once you have read the basics you can build your own garden based on what ever shapes or design elements you choose.
The rose garden here will not be a true formal rose garden since it will not have only roses. This is a garden for roses and a few other select garden plants. You can plant a wonderful “rose only” garden if you fill the companion plant spots with mini roses or just move the roses a little closer together. Both ways this will be a wonderful garden that you will enjoy for years to come.
1. Find the Space: The first step to building a great formal rose garden is to find the space. I would build it no less than 48 feet across. You can build smaller but 20 feet is the minimum for the formal look. Find your space and make it work for you. Move things around if need be but make it a space you can enjoy. This space needs to be in full sun as roses must have full sun to thrive.
2. Start Your Layout: The first and foremost thing you need to get is a small stake and string. Armed with a little spray paint and a hammer, mark the middle of your area and take the string 18 inches out. Tie one end of the string to a marker in the very middle of the area you plan to use. Tie the other end to the small stake making sure you have kept 18 inches between the two. Move the stake around the center marker spray painting has you go to make your first circle. Take the string out 6 ½ feet now and repeat, then at 9 ½ feet, 14 ½ feet, 17 ½ feet, 22 ½ feet, and 25 ½ feet. This is the first step to your new garden! You will notice that some of the circles are narrower and some are wider. The narrower ones are for planting and the wider ones will be your paths.
3. Pathways: The basic pathways that wind around the flower beds are done -- but how are you going to reach them? You want to take some of your space and make strait paths that will radiate out from the center of the garden and take you to the outside edge. You want to find the best spot to enter your new garden and, from that spot, make a strait line through the whole garden. Then cross this line back the other way to form an “x” shape over the whole garden. Using a measuring tape, make a mark 2 1/4 feet on each side of the lines. These will be the foot paths you will travel to move through the space. Making all your paths smaller than five feet will be tempting but you will regret this later. For our purposes, we will be building our garden here with grass pathways. You can use all sorts of things for your pathways but I prefer grass.
4. The Big Dig: Alright---so after all this work it is time to start digging. This is the fun part, at least for the first 30 or so shovels full. Then comes the tiring part. You need to dig out the middle circle and then every other circle shown in green in our diagram. Dig at least 6 inches deep, maybe more if you have poor soil. Really work and get rid of the soil you dig out. I love to add this soil, once pulled free of weeds, to my compost pile if I have the room.
5. Add Ons: Have your soil tested well before you do anything else. Once you get that information back, really spend some money on your soil. Add bone meal and compost filled to at least 2 to 3 inches above the path ways. Double and triple dig everything into the soil, then dig it again. This will be the foundation of your new garden. Once you think you have it perfect, go get it tested again. Spending time here will pay high dividends later giving you years of bountiful flowers.
6.Hardscape: Now is the time to start looking for hardscape. You need to really think about what you want in the center of the garden. In the garden we are working on here, the center will have a fountain. I would also add arbors over each of the entries to the garden. The four arbors and the fountain will be stunning when you get them all in place. Spend some time and get pieces that you really want to have in your garden. These will be with you for a long, long time so get what you love --- or save a little while until you can
About M Fitzgerald
I am a pentecostal preacher, gardener,husband, and a father. I love natives, daylilies, iris, and roses. I love teaching others, be they children or adults, about the garden and plants.
Posted by sue60 (from Cocoa, FL) on September 23, 2007 at 8:09 AM:
Last spring I dug up to rose bushes Peace, and Don Juan climber, planted them into pots with miracle grow potting soil for roses, fed them m.g. rose food and they took off producing many roses, but now they look dead ...Is there a dormant stage for roses?, or are they in fact dead??? I live in central florida, so if anything what can I expect??
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on September 23, 2007 at 9:36 AM:
There is a dormant time for roses. What color are the canes - they should still be green. If they are not green they might have passed on.
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Posted by sue60 (from Cocoa, FL) on September 24, 2007 at 7:37 AM:
nope..everthing is brown..I wonder how I killed them?? I was watching them(like a hawk) then they started dropping leaves and ( stems?)canes got woody and dead looking... maybe too much water??
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on September 24, 2007 at 7:41 AM:
You never know - Out of ever 2 or 3 I move one dies... after a lot of pratice.
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Subject: Thanks so much for this article!
Posted by cyra (from Central Valley, CA) on September 22, 2007 at 7:04 PM:
I love roses, heirlooms in particular, but know little to nothing about them, and have resorted to planting in tubs. My rugosas, planted by a fence, turned from green plants, to pale green plants with white new growth, to dead plants, in short order. (I suspect the neighbor behind that fence sprayed Round-up herbicide next to the fence to kill off grass, not realizing/or caring, that this poison would leach over to my side of the fence, too!)
I've never known what type of growing conditions roses need, and was always intimidated a bit by the thought of growing them. Thanks to your articles, I am going to yank out a dead hedge here on the property, use your soil amendment tips, replace the soil in the hedge area, and plant a few roses...not a formal garden by a long shot, but a quiet little "beauty-spot", just to cheer up the people that walk through here....
Including myself:)
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Subject: Rose Garden
Posted by drapelady (from Denham Springs, LA) on September 17, 2007 at 1:42 PM:
Thankyou so much Mitch. I have been walking around my property, wanting to create a beautiful, full,shapely garden. But I had no idea how to start. How do I get my soil tested? Looking forward to part 2.
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Subject: Fantastic idea, Mitch!
Posted by gessiegail (from Taft, TX) on September 17, 2007 at 9:51 AM:
I would like to copy exactly what you have done........Thanks for sharing such a wonderful idea of beauty.
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on September 17, 2007 at 6:24 PM:
Thanks - it is just a very basic and classic garden
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Posted by gessiegail (from Taft, TX) on September 17, 2007 at 7:04 PM:
No, it is much more creative than anything I have seen with roses...............keep writing!!!!!!!!!!!
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Subject: Makes me want to dig up DH's lawn...
Posted by critterologist (from Frederick, MD) on September 15, 2007 at 9:58 AM:
Thanks for a clearly written and inspiring article, Mitch! You made excellent points about soil preparation... you almost can't do too much to prepare a bed for planting, especially for plants such as roses that have a reputation as heavy feeders.
My MIL has a beautiful formal rose garden in her back yard, filled with lovely hybrid tea roses. She didn't have the space for a full circle garden, so hers is more of a very elongated oval. She does have a wide path through the center of it (along the short axis) that leads to a focal point sculpture at the rear, and there's a less defined path along the long axis so she can get to all the plants. She spaced her plants quite widely, which adds to the formality of the planting, I think (since each plant is a different variety, and there's a wide range of colors), and which also gives excellent circulation to help keep plants healthy.
I don't think I really have the discipline for a "formal" planting... I would clutter my new garden up in no time with a crazy quilt of "filler" plants... so I think DH's lawn is probably safe. At least from roses. ;-)
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Posted by Islandshari (from Kwajalein
(Marshall Islands)) on September 15, 2007 at 4:16 PM:
Mitch, I just noticed some comments about formal gardens yesterday! What timing! You made this so clear and interesting that anyone could follow your guidlines to lay out a beautiful garden....well done!
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Posted by frostweed (from Arlington, TX) on September 15, 2007 at 5:02 PM:
Beautiful roses Mitch, I love rose gardens. Good job my friend.
Josephine.
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Posted by paulgrow (from Allen Park, MI) on September 15, 2007 at 6:09 PM:
I dug up a perfectly good perennial bed and planted it with roses.
I now have between 75 and 80. Its addicting.
Great article.
Paul
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on September 15, 2007 at 9:28 PM:
Wondeful!! I love to add great gardens to our world.
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Posted by grampapa (from Wheatfield, NY) on September 15, 2007 at 11:53 PM:
Mitch, what a great article! I just built a new rose garden this spring and did very much what you described. I would recommend your advice to anyone contemplating building a formal rose garden.I've been planning it for at least 5 years and have garden planning software. Even bought a great gated arbor on sale 2 years ago and kept it in the garage until I was ready for it. We had a landscaper build a raised bed with a good soil mix (manure/compost) and a rock wall edge.
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Posted by McGlory (from Southeast, NE) on September 16, 2007 at 11:39 PM:
Oh, wow! I think my planning is already into 2009, but I need one of these! I have plenty of space. Your article makes me think that even I could do a formal rose garden. Even though I have a few roses that are doing well, the idea of a formal garden seemed a little out of reach. Your diagrams were MOST helpful!! I'm sure I could do this. Thank you for explicit directions and indirect encouragement. :-) Super, duper article. I anxiously await Part II.
Lori
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on September 17, 2007 at 7:27 AM:
Thank you - I have just done one just about like this in my own yard this year... it was a blast to get in there and get to work on.
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Posted by roisemaire (from Vincentown, NJ) on September 17, 2007 at 7:26 PM:
Mitch....Great article. Proper siting and preparation of the beds prior to planting anything is essential and especially so for Roses. Those basics go a long way towards any successful garden, whether formal or "laid-back & easy."
Could you tell us the names of the David Austin Roses (the two close-ups that accompanied this article)? They are just beautiful!
Rose Mary
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Posted by Brightfire (from Peoria, IL) on September 18, 2007 at 1:43 PM:
Mitch,
I tried and failed miserable at roses three summers past. I put in 9 hybrid teas and lost all of them! It was a drought year of yellow lawns, which didn't dampen my love for roses, but brought a whole new respect for them.
This Spring I put in a single climber, A candyland rose with variegated petals of hot pink with swirls of white and really rich green leaves. I wanted to have a one on one total focus to learn from.
She has bloomed clusters of 4 and 5 on every shoot four times this her first season, while I studied Roses and got a better eye and feel for their needs, care and ills through her and learned what types of roses held appeal for me and what colors and traits I was attracted to.
I am now in the process of planning and look forward to seeing the choices you make in terms of types and combinations and the basics on structuring it all and the only thing I know for sure at this point is I want to be able to sit inside it and to have visitors drawn to do the same- so I really like the direction your layout is taking with the arbors and paths.
Great article!!!
This message was edited Sep 18, 2007 11:48 AM
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Posted by MitchF (from Oklahoma City, OK) on September 18, 2007 at 6:00 PM:
