David Austen roses

[roastedsaltedpeanut]

Any keen rose lovers here? Could do with some advices.

I am trying to create a rose border by a 1.5 meter tall brick wall with a staircase in the middle. Total wall length is about 30 meters.

East facing, extremely windy, plenty of sunshine and clay soil.
My plan is to work some grit and manures into the site this year. Then mulch over to get ready for planting next year.

Which roses would you choose? Bush? Climbing? Or a combination? Generous Gardner and get Gertrude Jekyll both look amazing. I love big complicated flowers as opposed to simple ones.

I was thinking of pink roses only as there are so many shades of pink. Would that be too boring? Husband wants deep red like Prince’s trust because pink could be rather underwhelming.
Any ideas welcome!!!!
Thanks

We had something similar and we sent photos and dimensions to David Austin roses and they did the design for us - mixed varieties, colours and scents. Probably had around 30 metres, south facing and windy, and it’s looking great.

There are some planting plans on the David Austin website that might give you some ideas. Your plan sounds wonderful!

I’d have a mixture of climbing , large shrub and small shrub roses.

I’d also add in some clematis on the wall and easy herbaceous under / between roses. Nepeta, geranium, geum for clumps. Hosta for big leaves. Some spikes like crocosmia and iris. And some spring bulbs.

It’s going to be a bit bare in Winter, but maybe thats not a concern for you.

What’s your plan for pest and disease control ?

Sounds really lovely, roses love clay soil, so they should do really well for you. Gertrude Jekyll is on my wish list, its fragrance is lovely too.

Thank you so much for the lovely ideas.

I don't have a solid plan for pest and disease control. In fact I haven't even considered the inevitable. I am not keen on using chemicals as I am planning on spending lots of time there and don't want to expose to any more chemicals than I already do. I will do a bit of research into it. I will report back to this thread if I find anything interesting.

Love the ideas of creating winter interest. Maybe I will throw in some ever greens in the background to fill things up. Little balls of buxus perhaps?

Thanks all! xx

I inherited a small rose garden. It is under-planted with succulents, which are mostly evergreen and have very shallow roots. I clear some away around the roses each year to feed them. Otherwise they are great for winter colour and keeping the weeds down.

There are also loads of daffodils underneath. They look lovely but unfortunately have got way too crowded in the 30ish years since they were planted. Bulbs are a pain to get out from under roses but look lovely in spring.

If ordering from David Austin very soon, the discount code EMILY will give you 15% off till Nov 17.

I like a variety of colours, personally. From DA, there are indeed a variety of beautiful pinks (IHarlow Carr, Gertrude Jekyll, Gabriel Oak.. ) but they will show up better if mixed in with whites and perhaps purples.

The Trevor White website has a truly beautiful selection of damask roses, bourbon roses, etc- really romantic old rosea from the nineteenth century. I would have a look there, too.

If you don’t want to spray your roses then you might want to look for varieties that are more disease resistant. There are organic methods for getting rid of aphids but fungal diseases are harder to deal with.

The Davis Austin website allows you to select for this.

Sounds lovely.

Try underplanting with garlic for pest and disease control.

@otamot Wow Trevor White website is fabulous. The blogs are highly informative. Looking forward to reading through them properly. Thanks for the code! I am tempted to buy some bareroot and stick them in pots for a while then plant then once the site is ready to go.

Garlic is such a good idea. I suppose I could throw in some purple alliums to add a bit of height and interested

Succulents and roses! 🤩 I’ve never seen that combination before

I need to research a bit more about colour combinations. Garden design doesn’t come to me naturally. I am so extremely indecisive. I must weigh up about every possibility before I make a move 😂