Her graceful beauty captivates the viewer. She is considered the symbol of love and is revered as the queen of flowers. Despite the profusion of enchanting flowers that Mother Nature has to offer, the rose reigns supreme in any garden in which it appears. Anyone who wants to create a rose garden therefore dares to take on the ultimate challenge in garden design. Because the masterpiece can only succeed if the balancing act between imaginative design and color harmony on the basis of well-founded knowledge of the different varieties and their botanical requirements is successful. Admiration and respect are then certain for the hobby gardener, who in turn is amazed at how easy and uncomplicated garden design with roses can be.
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Sleeping Beauty may be a fairy tale. However, there is a grain of truth about the roses that twine around the castle: roses really can grow very old provided the following factors are in place:
- The location must be sunny and airy.
- Roses do not tolerate drafts.
- A humic sand-loam-lime mixture is ideal.
- Waterlogging must not occur.
- Every rose feels at home in loose, well-rooted soil.
- Sufficient irrigation water and nutrients from rose fertilizer are available.
- Regular pruning promotes flowering.
It follows that roses, despite their sublime appearance, are quite modest in their claims.
Garden design with roses
Once the most important premises have been clarified, in principle only the available space and the available budget limit the realization of your own rose garden. The following recommendations serve as inspiration and would like to support the creative garden lover in making the most of the existing resources in terms of individual aesthetics.
Romantic rose garden
The predominant design component here is a lush, if not exuberant abundance of flowers. This is achieved through a multifaceted variety of roses that grow up rose arches, trellis, fences and poles. A pergola leading to a cozy seating area or a dreamy sculpture creates a romantic ambience. Wooden pergolas can be bought ready-made or, with a little skill, you can build them yourself. It is important that only pressure-treated wood is processed, which resists rot, fungal attack and insects for years. In addition, care should be taken during construction to ensure that the upper areas are easily accessible for horticultural care work. Rose arches are usually forged from iron and are correspondingly more expensive to purchase; but durable for generations. Climbing rose varieties are particularly suitable for planting:
- Amadeus with dark red flowers.
- Aloha with apricot and pink flowers.
- Alchymist, very double apricot flowers.
- Filipes Kiftsgate, the one with the creamy white, small flowers.
- Harlequin with creamy white flowers edged with pink.
- Golden Gate, the golden yellow fragrant rose.
As enchanting as the roses appear, a little variety is certainly good for the appearance. So there is nothing wrong with planting the climbing roses together with a particularly robust clematis variety.
Garden path to the gazebo
A pavilion entwined with roses conveyed an idyll that magically attracts every visitor. If the way there is also lined with roses, the harmony of the rose garden is perfect. Beautiful pavilions in a wide range of sizes and shapes are available from specialist retailers, garden centers and hardware stores. A wrought-iron version is ideal for the rose garden, because it not only offers the roses enough support, but also withstands the effects of the weather over a long period of time. The garden path should be slightly curved, covered with decorative pebbles or grass. Only when the path has been laid out can roses be planted. If the roses are planned to line the path to the pavilion like a ribbon, the creative garden lover chooses a lawn for the background. This creates an impressive contrast to the rich colors of the roses and at the same time ensures a soothing reverberation in the visual effect. Some beautiful roses along the garden path and in the beds are:
- Airbrush: orange-yellow and creamy-white up to 70 cm high
- Black Forest: deep red flowers, bushy growth
- Cherry Girl: cherry red flowers, harmonious shape
- Garden of Roses: flower color cream pastel pink
- Friesia: golden-yellow flowers spread a mysterious scent
- Fun in the garden: yellow flowers with a subtle red edge
The formal garden look
The representative, linear, slightly puristic, formal garden style was frowned upon and monotonous for a long time, as it was one of the status symbols of the upper class well into the 20th century. In recent years, however, the formal garden has experienced a comeback, which is based not least on the creative combination with the design element roses. The basic idea of the clearly structured garden through the introduction of geometric, precisely cut hedges, conical and spherical box trees and symmetrical natural stone walls has been preserved. The decisive impetus for the renaissance of the formal garden is the integration of rose plants in all shapes and colors:
- Ground cover roses for the areas along and on the walls.
- Bed roses loosen up strictly structured path axes.
- Standard roses set decorative accents.
- Dwarf roses in tubs soothe overly strict formations.
- Water roses soften the austere effect of square-edged ponds.
Today it is up to the hobby gardener to decide whether to stick to the strictly ordered symmetry of the formal garden modeled on the 17th century or whether to use the powerful effect of the roses and create an individual combination of clarity and opulence. Garden lovers who aim for this goal when creating their rose garden should consider a rose cabinet. It is based on the philosophy of the formal garden with its basic architectural forms. Different varieties of roses gather in a spot surrounded by either a pretty fence or a neatly trimmed boxwood hedge. The naturalness recedes behind the presentation of the variety of hybrid tea roses. An artistic garden sculpture offers the eye of the beholder a visual haven of peace.
Create rose garden tone-in-tone
They testify to elegance and a sure sense of style, the tone-on-tone rose gardens. The White Garden of Sissinghurst in England is one of the most well-known models. This garden is far from boring the viewer with monotonous white. Rather, in addition to the most diverse nuances of white, green, gray and silver elements also predominate here, in the most varied of forms. The roses are supported in the typical Sissinghurst way. This means that each rose bush is supported by a carefully selected sprig of hazelnut, which underlines the naturalness of the garden. Popular varieties of roses for a white garden include:
- Climbing Rose ‘Princess de Nassau’
- Polyantharose ‚Yvonne Rabier‘
- Bourbonrose ‘Snowball’
- Musk rose ‘Trier’
- Beetrose ‚Innocencia‘
- Beetrose ‚Petticoat‘
- Small shrub rose ‘Diamond’
- Floribunda ‘Snow White’
Since the main flowering of the roses is in summer, the rose garden is finally decorated with early-flowering, white perennials in spring:
- Frühlings-Anemone ‚White Splendour‘
- Bergflockenblume ‚Alba’
- lily of the valley
- Small heart flower in white
- Bleeding Heart ‘Alba’
- Lenzrose ‚White Lady‘
- Wald-Phlox ‚White Perfume‘
The splendor of white flowers is complemented by evergreen trees and shrubs, such as boxwood, yew, cherry laurel or privet.
Garden design with roses in pots
Whichever style the garden lover tends towards with his rose garden, he will not want to do without the decorative effect of potted plants. The miniature roses are best suited for this. With a maximum growth height of 40 cm, they almost call for being cultivated in beautiful pots, bowls or flower boxes. In this way, the balcony and terrace are also included in the rose garden. Some nice varieties are:
- Charming: double, pure pink flowers
- Coco: salmon colored and flowers more often
- Flirt 2011: delicate pink double flowers
- Little Sunset: yellow flowers edged in red
- Lupo: dark purple umbels
- Mandy: flower color bright red, semi-double
- Pepita: Lush, double pink flowers
- Sun child: bright yellow and flowers more often
You can grow a miniature stem from almost every dwarf rose, which looks enchanting in a beautiful pot when cushion flowers, such as bluebells or blue cushions, spread out at its feet. Incidentally, the small shrub roses and ground covers are not only able to form fantastically beautiful carpets of flowers in the bed; they are also effective traffic light plants for balconies and terraces.
Nice companion plants
Since roses do not bloom all year round, the forward-thinking garden lover when designing the garden with roses considers that by planting suitable accompanying plants, the flowering period can be extended for a much longer period. It should be noted, however, that not every garden flower is suitable as a companion plant for the rose, because the neighborhood only makes sense if the requirements in terms of location and soil quality match. The following plants have proven to be decorative companions without stealing the show from the roses:
- Pennisetum grass
- Perennial Mallow ‘Alba’
- Tall Bellflower
- Cranesbill ‘Ballerina’
- ornamental sage ‘blue hill’
- Blaunessel
- American Bleeding Heart
- prairie mallow
- candytuft
- lavender
- delphinium
- Hornkraut
- catchfly
The main task of the accompanying plants in the rose garden is to fill any gaps that may appear, because especially under the high-growing hybrid tea roses, unintentionally free bed areas are created.
Integrate the house wall into the rose garden
A successful garden design with roses requires a lot of creative ideas and considerations. What a pity when the harmonious design ends abruptly at the sober house or garden wall. Therefore, experienced hobby gardeners also include the boundaries of the site in their planning. With the help of climbing aids such as trellises and lattices, a barren wall is transformed into a picturesque part of the rose garden. In garden centers, DIY stores and online shops, there are climbing aids in a wide variety of silhouettes to choose from. Gardening enthusiasts with a talent for crafts can also make their own individual trellis. Sunny corners of the house are filled with tubs in which an obelisk or a small pyramid has been placed. Below are some popular climbing roses,
Rambler
The climbing roses with particularly long and flexible shoots are called ramblers. They usually bloom only once per season, but in thick clusters over a period of several weeks. Well-known Rambler varieties are:
- Apple Blossom: white inside and pink outside
- Bobbie James: white flowers with a yellow eye
- Bonny: soft pink, double flowers
- New Dawn: a creamy pink dream
- Robber Knight: pink flowers, spherical and filled
In addition to the fast-growing ramblers, which – depending on the subsoil – can even do without a climbing aid, the breeders have produced other varieties in the most wonderful colors that make garden lovers spoiled for choice.
