Gorgeous photos of your roses. Thank you.
Lana

Well, since theres not much going on today here I will just add another picture taken today. This one is mostly Easy Going with Topsey Turvey peeking out there on the left in front of Cherry Parfeit.

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Your roses are beautiful Rita, I am really enjoying all of your pictures. How close do you plant them next to each other?

Mostly very close, 18 inches, or less but in groups so that there are ways to get in there were something is not as close. Difficult to explain. I will also set up a bed with access on all sides so you can walk around it and then plant three rows of roses but not exactly in rows maybe 18 inches apart so that it makes a thicket of roses. It works because I can reach the middle row from either side.

The shrub row section that hangs over the curved terrace wall is crammed in there. Again, it works because there is accress from in front of the wall and a path in back. Its only two deep but those two rows can't be more than a foot apart. They all cross canes into each other and you will see two different roses blooming together or three. I love the way that looks but thats only my prefference.

In florabundaville, front accress is standing on the sidewalk. Raised bed about 18 inches with a row of roses spaced 18 inches apart. Raised one foot up next row of roses are about 12 inches apart and not even 12 inches from the row in front. Only works because the second row is raised. Then there are other groupings of roses going uphill filling out the rest of floribundaville.

That picture above is only one Easy Going shrub but it is at the end so nothing is in front of it, at least not from this angle.

Wow! Beautiful, Rita. Thanks for sharing. We're still "in bud" here in the North.

I love the "all crammed together" look. Right now and probably for another year or two I have everything in the pot ghetto, but I have always planned to have everything growing like that. Until I can do it, I am going to learn about other plants so that I can mix some in with the roses. On the other hand, even though I had never considered doing only all roses all the time everywhere, I am really liking the way yours look.
By the way, do you love Easygoing? I was thinking of either that one or Golden Celebration to mix with Lady Emma Hamilton and Pat Austin, plus maybe Livin' Easy as well.

Well, its all roses in those two rose beds but the rose beds are separated by garden beds with other things. Like in the front yard, there is a daylily section between the shrub roses and floribundaville. But there are lilies in the back of floribundaville, further up the hill.

No, I don't have Easygoing. If it blooms as much and is as wonderful as Living Easy then it must be a great rose.

Oh, boy, I should read what I write before I hit send. I mean that I don't have Living Easy. And yes, I absolutely love Easy Going.

I saw it potted blooming at the nursery and could not grab it fast enough. I thought it was so beautiful. Now I am trying to remember if I bought it last year or the year before. Can't remember right now.

Thanks Rita for the info on the spacing of your roses. I like the way you have them close together, they look great like that. I have my roses about 3 feet apart and I have more roses that are in pots but I think I might just try and fit them in with the others. Thanks again!

Since they are in pots you can just set the pots down and play with the spacing. Remember that they can not ALL be like this as you need access. I forgot to mention that there is a path into the back of Florabundaville to get to the rear roses.

Now, things are personal preferrence but I have gardened all my life. So when I got into roses I couldn't figgure out why the expert advice was plenty of room between roses for air to prevent desease. On the east coast at least, they blackspot if you plant then 12 inches apart. They blackspot if you plant them 100 feet apart. Makes no difference. So you have to spray. Since you have to spray to prevent blackspot anyway, the idea of lots of space to prevent whats going to happen anyway, never made ANY sense to me.

I must also add that I have seen rose gardens were the roses are mantained at 5 feet or higher. That would be for Old garden roses, which I have never had, Austins which many tend to sprawl and do not work in my spacing arrangements and larger shrub roses which are rarely prunned. My roses are the smaller type shrub roses (all listed to get less than 6 feet) and floribundas. I cut back EVERYTHING severly each spring to about 18 inches to 2 feet including my so called shrub roses. This way they all stay under 5 feet for me. Some of the HTs grow taller. Its a lot of prunning but it makes for nice thick strong canes and a nice full look instead of lankey canes. Does take longer if you want a tall rose but its stronger in the long run.

This spacing will not work if you do not want to prune back each spring. It also will not work with roses that insist on throwing long canes or need pegging or are naturally floppey in habit. I got rid of some roses that didn't fit my plans. This is what works for me, everyones garden is different.