Super-Informal English Rose Garden

Years ago, I planted easily over two dozen roses in the ground in my back yard. I took great pride in having a rose garden. I carefully selected each one and knew where each would be planted. However, gophers devoured the tender roots of nearly all of them, leaving me quite heartbroken. Among the roses that perished were several David Austin English roses. I love English roses more than any other type of rose for their outstanding fragrance, the generous size of many of their varieties, and multitudes of petals. One day, I thought, I would have a rose garden again.

This weekend, I took a chance and visited the local nursery up the street and saw that they were having a clearance sale on their roses – out with the old inventory to make way for the new. Perfect timing because the roses were half-price! These were my selections:

Climbing roses: Crown Princess Margareta, The Wedgwood Rose (pictured, exquisite pink) – up against the wall of my house

Non-climbing, shrub roses: Grace, Lady of Megginch, Mary Rose, Munstead Wood, Teasing Georgia

Instead of in-ground, I will be leaving the roses in containers, above ground. They will remain smaller plants and flower not as vigorously because of this, but I will at least have a chance to enjoy English roses again in my very own back yard and not have to worry about finding fallen rose canes the next day. It will take some time but I know that with some care, this can be a reasonably lower-maintenance English rose garden for me to enjoy for many years. Just because you do not have land or cannot use land to plant roses in-ground does not mean you cannot have a perfectly lovely English rose garden of your own!

It looks rather spare for the moment, but several of the plants are actively in bud (including all of the Wedgwood Rose plants). If the Wedgwood rose is any indication (the fragrance is heavenly), I am going to be over the moon ecstatic with the roses that will be coming in the next several months. This garden will be outside of my kitchen and is the entrance to the rest of my garden. What a sweet and gracious welcome!

I am contemplating possibly adding more of these rose plants before the weekend ends (?!) but am also thinking of adding large containers in the currently available space for food plants. Either way, my back yard garden finally feels at peace. I’ll have to check this nursery each November!

More information about these truly exquisite roses (along with photos of mature flowers) can be found here:

http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Advanced.asp?PageId=1988