Okay all you rose gardeners, I need your advice. I want to plant a rose garden in front of my porch. The area?

ia 5 1/2 ' x 12'. My home is a white country house with black shutters, my front door is painted a merlot color. My questions? Should I keep all the roses the same color or mix it up? How many rose shrubs can I plant in an area this size without it becoming over-crowded. Should I keep them all shrubs or should I get a couple of climbers to travel along the porch rail. My fear there is that it will make painting difficult. One last question; I was planning to turn over the soil and mix in some composted manure, then I wanted to use one of those weed barriers over that, plant the roses and use a mulch to cover the barrier. Is that wise or will it cause problems. This is my first rose garden. My mom was an avid rose gardener and she passed away, I want to make it a memory garden. Thanks for any help you can give.

Okay all you rose gardeners, I need your advice. I want to plant a rose garden in front of my porch. The area?
First, what kind of rose bushes do you want to end up with? If you want large ones that sprawl all over and put out lots of relatively small blooms, you wouldn't prune them much in winter. But, if you want fairly small bushes that put out very few huge, perfect roses, you'll want to prune them back to 3 or 4 1-foot canes each winter.





This will also determine the placement density. An unattended rose bush can get several feet across. But, if you are growing them small to get the bigger blooms, you can plant them about 3 feet apart.





And, do get the climbing roses for the rail. It's really a very cool look. Even if you have to remove them for painting, you might be able to salvage the length of the trailing stems. If not, you can just cut it back and let it start trailing again.





Regarding the weed barrier, that is ideal. You can cover it with medium cedar bark chips, and it will be ideal for weed protection as well as moisture retention (and protection from cold winters in harsher areas).





Regarding colors ... that's pretty much a personal taste issue. Having the same color (even the bushes having the same color as the climbers) can be a stiking effect, especially if you got something like red roses the color of your door. I once had roses all around my yard and put in different colors. The house itself was bluish gray and the colors looked nice ringing the green lawn. Since this is a tribute garden, I guess I would ask, "What did your mother have?" and go with that.





One good idea is to have a soaker hose winding through the rose garden for watering. You want to avoid getting water on the leaves when watering. This reduces the risk of fungus or mildew problems. Feed with a systemic rose food (granules you sprinkle around the base of each plant). This provides the nutrients for spectacular colors and also makes the leaves toxic to pests, especially aphids.





One of the best resources for roses is the Sunset Western Garden Book. They have a great section on growing and pruning roses for the best blooms. It also contains great information about just about any house or garden plant that you can grow in the western US. And, this is appicable to many other parts of the country, because of the variety of climates in the west.
Reply:read this article


http://www.supermarketguru.com/page.cfm/...
Reply:I have a rose garden a little bit larger than the one you have. I have one climber and one Queen Elizabeth. They were already here when we moved in but where not doing very well. We put some fresh Miracle Gro soil down, covered the ground with gardening cloth and put white river rocks on top of the cloth. Now my roses are shooting up and blooming like crazy! I counted the buds on my red climber and there were like 46! In conclusion, I would say 2 large rose bushes and then a couple that don't grow very big.


My mom is also an avid gardener and I know the pressure of trying to follow in her foot steps. I think what you are doing with the memory garden is a wonderful tribute.
Reply:Since this is your first rose garden, you might want to start with the Knock-out roses. They are pretty carefree and everblooming, which is nice for the front of a house. The range of colors increases every year. They have doubles now, and a better range of colors every year. My favorite is the light pink "Blush", but the new "Red Knockout" double sounds nice too.
Reply:Roses should be spaced according to the type and growth habit. You could plant a couple or three climbers towards the back and three or four in between and more towards the front.





See source for information on all types of roses you can grow
Reply:I have a path lined with roses as well as a pose bed next to the house. Being in zone 3/4 its hard to get tea roses to do well. What I have ended up with is Canadian shrub roses. If you select carefully you can get them with a nice sent and repeat bloomers and also some that dint get so tall and bushy.


go on line and look up HIGH COUNTRY ROSES they list a lot of different kinds and I'm sure you will find just what you are looking for.