Excellent!! A new rose bed! Do you have the your rose layout? I used a big piece of cardboard and small pics of the roses I had (soaking bareroot) and moved the roses around like I knew what I was doing. :-) It was fun. How big is the bed going to be?
Thanks for the heads up on Ashdown sale!
Allison

It is really really big. I am going to bring the measuring wheel home from my office this pm, and get an actual size. It is roughly triangular. It has two long straight legs, formed by the driveway and the deck, and the long curved edge that follows the line of granite slabs that make up the steady rise to my door. The slabs are separated by grass - they look sort of like ledges. Anyway, the plan is to have a curving retaining wall a little more than half way up the slope, with at last two meandering stone walkways to make it easier to negotiate between the roses.

My roses are all in pots, a dozen new this year, another dozen plus that range in age from six being bands last year, now 18" or more tall in gallon pots, to a few that are giants in pots that I salvaged from a nearly twenty year old bed.
I have been collecting cclor photos of all my roses, but the variables of recurrent or not, and size, are complicating things for me. I figured I would make little cardboard squares to scale, representing the probable hunk of real estate that each rose could eventually demand, glue the pics on the cardboard, and start with that on a poster board scale of the slope, with the stone wall drawn in and the stepping stones.
I may not actually get things in the ground until the end of June, and I expect that collecting the underplantings will be the next step. I have tons of chives, various geraniums, nepeta which I will move in. Also a wonderful spreading oregano which escaped from an herb garden over fifteen years ago and is growing wild on the hill in back of the house. What I need to watch out for is the invasive anemone sylvestris, which spreads everywhere it seems. (I started with a gift clump in a gallon pot twenty years ago - it has naturalized itself.)

If you need a measuring wheel then yes it is big! Gee darn you might have to buy some more roses! I wrote the size on the pics, I couldn't get my head around scaling them. Been out of the trade to long and haven't used the math for awhile. (I was never really good at piping layout anyways. ..one reason I got into the controls part of the trade :-) ) I haven't planted anything else in my beds yet... I can't yet visualize what I want. Plus, the roses haven't all bloomed and I would like that to happen first.
You should draw a pic of the bed(s) and post it. Are you going to have all different types of roses? Antiques to HTs?
Allison

:::Hope to be planting by Father's Day - and depending on the bill for the hardscaping, I may have money left for MORE ROSES....::::

Absolutely! You need more roses!

Not only is the shipping free for three roses....from what I read you can get a fourth for 1/2 price. Perfect for a new rose bed!

Carole

Thanks for the information

Florence

Just got the email today..

FREE SHIPPING ON ALL ORDERS OF THREE ROSES OR MORE
SALE ENDS JUNE 22

You have all been terrific in supporting us over the last year while we recovered from the bank mess and this as our way of saying
Thank You For Being There For Us
We have some nice roses on the website and have included every rose* in this offer instead of only a select few.
*with the exception of The Grayson Rose which is a rose for charity.
Here are the details.

* Every rose on the website is included.
* You have to order three or more roses to get free shipping. Orders less than that will be charged shipping in the office.
* The 4th rose is half price discount applies
* Discount Accounts can be used.
* You must select a ship date no later than Sept 30, 2009
* All roses shipped USPS Priority Mail
* There is no limit on how many you can buy.

Thanks again for all your support and happy roseing

Website link

Here is a link that might be useful: recovered from the bank mess

I asked on another thread but think I get it. Order now, and they won't ship until September 1. And free shipping for 3 and 1/2 price for a fourth. Do I have that much right?

So I guess I had better order now. I have two picked out and don't even have my arbor put back up.

I'll see if there are a couple others I can put somewhere; I'm really out of room.

My question is the pots are pretty small. If I put them in a gallon or 2 gallon pot, I can hold them in my sunroom over the winter if I have to, would rather get them in the ground. How long can you keep a larger rose in a pot? Many of you have pot ghettos and sounds like you've had them awhile. But I don't know the kinds of roses you've got in those pots, plus some of you can keep them in your driveway over the winter.

I can't do that.

We'll ship them now if you like. We are giving people the option of holding them until September because some customers in hot areas prefer to get them then. But if you want them now, we'll ship them now.