When it comes to designing your perfect rose garden, the first question you should ask yourself is what kind of garden do you dream of: grand and orderly – like at the Palace of Versailles in France – or a natural, casual country cottage garden?
Formal gardens, with their geometric and symmetrical plantings, complement traditional homes beautifully.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
For a more informal look, plant landscape roses in casual hedges and drifts.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Small planting spaces, like this entry planter, are ideal for a few tree roses. A hedge border makes a nice frame for the roses planted inside.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/Charles Nucci
No matter what your vision, be sure to take the style of your house into consideration. In fact, your home might make your rose garden decision for you already. If you have a contemporary home adjacent to your garden site, a formal layout is recommended. Ditto for English Tudors, Queen Anne Victorians or Dutch Colonials. An American Southern home with a formal colonnade begs for a formal treatment in its surrounding landscape as well. These homes cry out for gardens that have squares, rectangles, diamonds and interwoven circles for planting beds and paths.
Informal gardens, on the other hand, fit in beautifully with rustic homes, Craftsman-style bungalows and traditional suburban neighborhoods of picket fences, lawns and curving walkways. Yet despite their apparent casual nature, informal gardens are typically designed as carefully as their formal brothers and sisters – using ovals, circles and gentle curves to create masses of color and texture, both on the layout plan and in vertical space above the ground. These gardens are ideal spots to include gazebos, arbors and other romantic touches.
But you really don’t need a sweeping space to include a pretty rose garden in your yard. Another option is to simply group container roses together. This style is especially suited to the balconies, patios and rooftop gardens of apartments, townhouses, lofts, condominiums and other urban spaces. Containers are flexible and mobile, and roses adapt easily to them. Container roses also look great in entryways. Think in terms of using paired containers if your home is classic and formal, or choose unusual or “found” pots if your home has more of a casual feel.
If you have limited space, consider roses as your flowering shrub of choice for use in compact garden plantings and for container groups. Where space is at a premium, miniature and small-stature roses meet the challenge.
Also pick roses that tolerate dry conditions and are disease-free. Choose healthy plants that are well-suited to your region’s climate, and remember to use climbers for vertical space. Full-sun locations suit nearly every rose. If your garden receives only partial sun (at least 4 hours per day), pick shade-tolerant rose varieties that typically thrive on balconies, rooftops, decks and patios.
Remember, too, that small-space container gardens require somewhat greater care than do inground plantings, so take extra care to find them a sunny spot with good air circulation to display them at their best. Roses prefer deep-rooted plantings, and they’ll quickly fill even the largest pots. (So when planting in containers, always choose the largest and deepest containers available.)
Once you’ve got some basic ideas for your rose garden, the next step in the planning process is putting your ideas on paper: First spend some time measuring your site, and then sit down with some colored pencils to create a scaled sketch of the garden on paper. It’s a process that takes some trial and effort, but it’s also practical and easy. Getting the plan right on paper saves work by avoiding the need to move planted roses from place to place, as well as provides you with a guide for plant and material shopping. A paper plan also helps you decide whether to build any garden structures (benches, arbors and planters, for example) and where to place them to create a stunning focal point.
Planning your rose garden is a fun exercise that will pay real rewards when it comes time to installing your beds and plants. A little preparation helps you explore your options, map your site, plan for care needs, and create a plant and materials list. To create your own garden sketch, just follow the simple process shown in the following pictures and described in their captions. Soon you’ll be one step closer to growing that rose garden of your dreams.
Rose Garden Design
Rose Garden Design - Step 1
It’s important to sketch your garden plan before putting trowel to soil. Using a sketch pad, draw a rough diagram of your planting bed or border, using blocks and bubbles to indicate major areas.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Rose Garden Design - Step 2
Measure and mark your proposed garden carefully, noting all the dimensions on your sketch.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Rose Garden Design - Step 3
Using graph paper, create a precise scale drawing of the area, noting all the existing structures and placement of underground utility lines and pipes.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Rose Garden Design - Step 4
On a tracing paper overlay, add the rose beds to the drawing in their proper location. Note any irrigation and electrical installations you want to add.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
Rose Garden Design - Step 5
Use colored pencils to depict bloom color. Indicate the placement of each rose plant, and arrange groupings within the design.
Photo Credit: ©2001 Dolezal Publishing/John M. Rickard
