Hi Adrian, I LOVE my raised beds. I took river rock and designed my beds and then filled them full with roses, lilies and perennials. My only thought is that I did not make them tall enough and this spring I will need to add another layer of rock. With adding manure and compost and mulch on top it is spilling over the edges. I am sure others with more experience will give you great leadership. Good Luck...Lesley

The soil here is inhospitable clay, so I grow about 75 roses in raised beds with walls of pavestone blocks, three or four blocks high. There is a certain "stockade" look to this design, BUT the roses like it. And even more important, it is rapidly becoming clear that I'll be able to garden for a lot more years, God willing, if I don't have to get all the way up or down to ground level in order to work with the plants. Not a concept that would have crossed my mind a decade ago, but now, oh yes. It is very pleasant to sit on the side of a raised bed rather than in itchy grass with fireants, too.

Are you willing to make a committment to irrigating your roses forever?
The hotter the climate, the more water they'll need. In raised beds, they'll need even more water than if they were 'in the ground'.
You'll also have more potential for fireants to move in.

OTOH, your back and knees will be most grateful.

Thanks for the advice!

anntn6b: I have a sprinkler system that is set to go off every other day or so and have spot spitters (drip like) attached to the system watering the roses. My hope is that, given the crappy soil (about half a foot of topsoil followed by a foot and a half of white rock followed by compacted brown clay), I would give the roses a better start on establishing roots all-the-while making it easier for me to deal with weeds.

I'll take on the task of watering more often if I can accomplish the afformentioned goals.

Do you think mulch will help with the moisture loss?

OK This is what worked for me in Port St Lucie. I had hard pack gray clay and orange sand. It drained slowly, but it did drain. I laid out my backyard garden with 4x12 treated wood planks. Then went out and got a bunch of black nursery pots. 25 gal for large roses and 15 gal. for small roses. I set the pots in the ground to where the top of the pots were just below the top of the wood. Put down weed block cloth in the bed and packed the bed with cheep cyprus mulch. Then I planted my rose in their pots using Walmarts expert potting soi(orange and yellow? bags). Then I covered EVERYTHING with a good layer of pine needles. BINGO!!! Raised beds with controled watering and feeding and very few weeds. I will be doing almost the same thing up here in GA.

Ken, that's an ingenious, practical way to build an elevated rosebed. Wish I'd thought of it.

Ken, I love the idea! Have a question - what happens when the roses outgrow their pots - is it hard to remove the bigger pots? Do the roses ever get so big they need to be in the ground? I love the idea - do you have any photos you can share?

I personally love raised beds. Ideally, I do 3 landscape timbers high. If I am doing the metal edging, I use roundup to kill grass, then start piling on composted horse manure [I raise horses], chopped leaves, bagged soil from Walmart and mushroom compost. I top dress fall and spring [sometimes I miss doing this] and my soil is just wonderful - it gets better every year. My landscape timber beds need more water than my metal edging/lasagna beds but I enjoy watering so this isnt a problem - I just mulch really well.
Judith

The idea of using nursery pots came from Florada Southern Collage in Lakeland ,FL, years ago when I lived 12 miles from the school (Winter Haven). Dr. Manners had a fantastic rose garden spred across the campus using a lot of OGR's and found roses. He used big nursery pots in case the roses needed to be moved for any reason. MANY of these roses were never moved. They became HUGE!!!! Being in pots never bothered them. At one point they had a bed of 32 Double Delights planted in pots(burried in the ground) in front of the gymnasium. The school colors are red and white, so this was very popular with everyone. These where the roses he used for his "rose virus" studies. When I planted my garden I enlarged the drain holes double size, added 3 more in the bottom of the pot and added 4 more about 6" above the bottom of the pot in the side. This allowed for any root movement into the ground and plenty of drainage. I used mostly roses on fortuniana root stock, but also had several roses on Dr. Huey that grew and bloomed just as well as my fortuniana roses. When I planted a Dr. Huey rose I always put a good layer of pine bark nuggets in the bottom of the pot to keep the nematodes away from them. Moving the roses was never a major problem because the soil was always a "light" soil. If the roots came out the drain holes I just cut them off at the pot and moved the rose. Most of the root ball was still in the pot and I never lost a rose to moving. I just waited untill February or early March after pruning to move anything. As far as pictures, well I have a few from my old trusty 35mm but I'm still VERY computer limited. I'm just tickeled to death I've learned how to not loose the different sites I use. Maybe someday I'll take the time to learn how to do pictures. As a side note, my wife and I exhibit our roses in different shows all over the S.E., so our roses have to be "all they can be". No wimpy, non-growers for us. And we grow a little bit of every type that will grow in our area.

Ken, you mentioned "big" nursery pots. Do you know exactly what size these pots were? I am thinking of trying this with some of my roses.......Thanks!
Judith

You can get many of the same benefits of a raised bed without much structure. My roses are planted in mounds about 2 feet high, in various shapes, within the garden. The effect adds interest in the garden. If I need to plant near a walkway or other garden infrastructure, I can retain a portion of the mound with fieldstone.

Ken,

What an interesting idea. At one time I tried to grow roses on Dr. Huey rootstock by placing the roses in 5-10 gallon nursery pots and planting them directly in the ground. Inside the pots I placed good potting soil.

The experiment ended poorly when I found that there was a vast difference amongst the irregation of the roses. Some were drowning in their pots while others dried out quickly (the first being the bigger of the two problems). The difference between your method and my experiment is that you dealt with raised beds where I planted the pots directly in the ground. Which leads me to wonder, didn't you have a problem with watering your roses more often than usual?

I used 4 different sizes of nursery pots. 25gal, 20 gal squat, 15 gal and a couple of 5 gal for a few minis that liked having their roots packed in. Almost everything that was on an understock was put in the 20, and 25 gal pots. Everything on it's own roots (98% minis and mini-floras) went into the 15 gal pots AFTER I got their root system established in a 3 gal pot. As far as watering went, Port St. Lucie was on tight water restrictions for years. I could water twice (2) a week. Monday and Friday. My sprinklers came on very early in the morning and in the evenings I would hand water each pot a little more. This entire system worked out beautiful for me. I didn't mind the little bit of extra work. After a hard day at work (I was a drywall man. Frame, hang, finish, texture) I enjoyed being out in the garden. It was a lot better then being a couch potatoe, or a drunk.

Berndoodle---rose berms!! What a pretty image! You and Ken have each given us some excellent ideas to think about. I think I will go out and buy some more roses!

prairielaura, I don't have a rose garden but rather a garden with lots of roses. Every berm has roses and other plants. The overall effect is of a landscape with a little contouring. Since I've been landscaping a new garden from scratch, adding a bit of contour makes the job oh-so-much-easier. It defines spaces and opens up perspectives from which mounds can be viewed (i.e. from several sides). It opens up valleys for more water loving plants and provides perfect drainage with drainage channels in the valleys. Here's one vista of the garden newly planted a couple of years ago. The swaths of grasses are drainage channels planted with native Carex. Carex loves being flooded, is drought tolerant, and requires no mowing, other than once a year cleanup.
http://www.rosefog.us/TemporaryImages/BennettValley1.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: Mediterranean mounds at Sierra Azul

Bern, I just came back from buying more roses, as advertised, and found your post describing berm culture. I'm going to print it out and study it. Is that your nursery, or a place near you? Thank you!!

We must plant most of our roses in very big pots, because of gophers.
We've used pots from 15-G to 25-G size.
Over the years, we've learned that the roses do best with A LOT of extra holes drilled it them, for the roots to get out, and I think for drainage.
DH drills 3/4-in to 1-in holes all over the bottom, and maybe 6 inches up from the bottom.
We DO NOT THINK THIS IS IDEAL. It stretches out the time needed for a plant to mature. But it is a necessary response to local conditions.

Pots are sunk into the ground, leaving a lip of only perhaps 4-5 inches above ground level.

As to raised beds.
I read something the other day that made sense.
Make raised beds where rain is plentiful, for they facilitate drainage.
In areas (like mine) afflicted with chronic drought, plants are better set in a slightly SUNKEN bed, so that runoff water goes to the plants.

Wish I'd thought of that a few decades ago!

Jeri

prairielaura, the Sierra Azul nursery is not mine. It's located several counties south of me. It has the most wonderful plant inventory and beautiful display gardens.

Kathy, your backyard is simply beautiful! I have a couple of questions. I am making a round bed of the same type of stones that you use. I need to cut one in half and dont know how. I am sure you had to cut some of yours and was wondering how you did it. Also......what is that fabulous bright red rose at the bottom left of the photo? And the gorgeous pink climber? Your yard is an inspiration!
Judith

Thank you, Judith. We really didn't have to cut any of the bricks. As for the red rose, it is a standard Black Cherry, not very black but a wonderful bloomer that does well in heat. The "pink" climber is actually Joseph's Coat. It is more red, orange, and yellow but fades to a rosy red color.

Kathy,

If it's not too much of a bother, would you mind telling us what varieties we're seeing in the picture. You could work clockwise starting at Joseph's Coat if you'd like.

I know that every time I look at your picture (the bricks gave me a great idea on how to remedy the pitch of my planned beds btw) I tune into another aspect that strikes my curiosity.

Thanks either way,

Adrian.

Adrian, I'd nix the idea of the rocks. I had them in a bed and put a healthy rose in it. It was doing great till the warm weather hit. I then read that the rocks hold the heat and burn the roots in a hot climate. I struggled to get the darn things out. Once I did, the rose got healthy again. I have two raised beds bordered by landscape timbers, 2 high. These keep out the grass and weeds and the roses do really well there. I lay a thick layer of mulch down.
Nancy