Roses in the Cottage Garden

I'm wondering how other people use roses in their cottage gardens.

It's hard to believe that I scrupulously avoided roses until 3 years ago. I didn't know about all the varieties that are quite hardy and disease resistant. And they provide a great cover for wildlife in a cottage garden, the main reason I decided to go whole hog into adding them.

They've come into their own now this year (3rd year - Leap!) and I'm ecstatic with the results. The ones I'm twining around the porch posts and along wire between the posts are giving my house the romantic cottage look I'd intended for them.

And the scent outside is unbelievable. I chose mostly older roses so that the heavenly scent would be overwhelming. I just wish I knew how to bottle it.

Here's a collage of the ones now blooming.

Edited to say, Please forgive me for no longer participating in this thread but the forum is now for subscribers only and I am only a "member."

This message was edited Jun 15, 2007 7:41 AM

And here are 2 recent robin hatchlings living among the humongous thorns of 'WIlliam Baffin.'

Wow,you have a lot of beautiful roses mickgene. I only have a few.That is a wonderful shot of the babies. The Autumn Sunset on the arbor also is holding a robins nest. They must like to nest in roses.

sempervirens
lovely effect on the arbor. I'm still waiting for mine to get that large and bushy on top of the arbors. It looks like you have loads of buds on that one, too. Is the Clematis also just starting to bloom. Please show that rose again in a few days when those buds burst!

mickgene,
It's very hot here, a week or more of 80's, so none of the roses are looking good for long. The clematis is blooming well though and the Autumn Sunset is opening more of the new buds.
Here is the photo per your request.

Here's a closer look at the Autumn Sunset roses. They start out with a deep coral bud. The seem very disease resistant, in my garden they have to be. I won't spray or baby them.

Thanks, sempervirens. Beautiful rose and combo with the clematis. Your foliage doesn't even look bug-bitten, the way mine does. That's my only complaint with my roses that are disease resistant - they're still susceptible to the rose slugs. I have seen wasps taking bugs off the Fourth of July rose this week; now if I can just keep DH from killing the wasps!

Wow Mickgene, You really did go whole hog! Do you find the old fashioned roses only bloom once per year? I would love to have that many roses, and I would love to have climbing roses, too.

I have holes in my roses that are unbelievable, but as long as they (whatever is eating them) don't eat the flowers, like Japanese Beetles, I'm okay with it.

My problem with roses is that I prefer bright colors and they aren't looking very cottagey. I saw a picture in the perenials forum with a pale pink achillea, a plain purple (purplish) cone flower and a blowsy pale blue Russian Sage that was to die for. I could easily add a pink 'Heritage' to that or even 'The Fairy', but I never seem to go for pale pinks and blues....always reds, yellows and oranges and a bright blue.

Here's a link to the photo http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3544489

Suzy

mickgene, what is the name of the rose 4th row down, 2nd to the left? Looks lavender and white or is it pink and white? Very pretty.

Illoquin, as much as I'm not a "pink" person, it's surprising how much pink I have in the garden. I've been trying more for some complementary color combos (I love royal blue and dark apricot or peach) but with the lack of really good blues, I have more purplish/lavender than the blue. And then the lighter peaches next to that show up more as peachey-pinks. Your combo with the Fairy or Heritage sounds great. Go for it!

Most of the roses I've selected are rebloomers or "continuous" bloomers. I hate to give over so much real estate to something that is in bloom for only a couple of weeks. We'll see how it pans out as they mature.

lincolnitess, that's Variegata di Bologna. The blooms never open any more than that and are a heavenly scent. It's only drawback to me is the fact that it blooms only once. The coloration is a creamy white with purplish pink/light magenta.

Hi mickgene, I love roses and love the carefree cottage style of gardening where I let lots of things reseed. I use the roses as my blooming background for larkspur, poppies, lilies, and hollyhocks.

edited to say that I also love the fragrance and picked some of mine just for that! I have visitors come to my gate and then detour from the path to the door because the smell is so wonderful-love when that happens.

This message was edited Jun 5, 2007 2:56 PM

This is a favorite place to sit

I love to let climbers spill over walls.

cactuspatch, those are some lovely roses; and the first pic with your stucco color in the background makes a nice color echo. Is that a miniature rose in the center foreground of the first pic? If so, which one?

I love that stucco color too. I think it is partly because it echos the color of terra cotta pots and as gardeners we love it? The rose is a mini. The tag said "Sunrise" I have misplaced the tag, it is about 4 years old and is a nice reblooming rose for me. I love the color, it is kind of pink, peach, and yellow mix. Here is a closeup of it this spring.

mickgene, could you suggest some of your best performers? I am so new to the south east that dealing with the humidity is going to take some time (after coming from the desert in AZ). Can I piggyback off of some of your research?

I'm also thinking of underplanting my rail fence with some lower growing roses to keep the grass off of the electric wiring. Any suggestions there? I'd love to do the old fashioned climbers on it, but that's as bad as the grass, I'm afraid. I'm not awfully particular about color, but the more scent, the better.

Love that, cactuspatch.

Pagancat, my best performers are Darlow's Enigma, Bonica, Greetings, Fourth of July, Westerland, John Cabot, William Baffin, Dortmund, and High Hopes. The only one of those that's ever had any noticeable disease in my garden is Bonica; but it's such an everbloomer I can forgive it. The amount it had was still not enough to cause me more than a little perturbation. All of those bloom all summer. Westerland has the strongest scent, but Darlow's Enigma smells good, too. How low is low-growing? I've had some potted miniatures that are lovely, but they're very small. The best of them is Millie Walters.

Low growing .... probably less than 3' high. The electric wire runs about 4', but that will give me a little room to miss a sprout.

Do you have a favorite source for these or are you getting them all locally? I've gotten an Angel Face here, but haven't tried anything else as of yet. The previous owner put a pink in that has bloomed half-browned out blooms, so far.... grrrr.... besides being about the thorniest rose I've ever seen.

Mickgene, the shot of the two baby roses in your William Baffin climbing rose is adorable!

Seandor :-)

What amazing pictures :) The first one was a must click on thread to see more!! Those Robins are adorable!! Whats three down four accross?

I'm really going nuts over roses this year and know it will be a good three years before they really come into their full beauty. :)

Cactus, I too love minis and that one is a beauty :) Here is sun sprinkles.
:)
Susan

I LOVE autumn Sunset with that clematis! WOW what a combo Semp!

My roses don't seem to want to bloom all this summer. It is so hot and I'm not watering enough, I know that. My ORG's really just like to bloom in spring and fall and the Westerland and Cl. Autumn Sunset (side by side) are frying. They are also very close to a neighbors fence line and she will spray for weeds, often killing my lovely things. It is really annoying!

GGG

That is so annoying that a neighbor would spray for weeds and not be considerate enough--or have enough common sense to watch for the overspray.

My roses slow a bit in the hotter part of the summer but not now. It must be the humidity? Good luck with that neighbor!