I'm not even close to you at 120 plus about 80 seedlings. I can't keep up with mine so I have no idea how you do it!

I still wonder at how anyone can possibly take care of more than 100 roses, or more than 60, for that matter. I have somewhere around in the mid 60s, and have trouble keeping up with that number. I wish I could cut my roses down to 45-50, but I can't find any roses out there I'm willing to get rid of.

Or if I get rid of an RRD rose, for example, what does Austin do but put out a beauty like Munstead Wood. Now how I am to be expected to resist such an offer, I ask you?

Tell me, Dan--do you have all those roses as part of the landscaping or specially designed areas? Or are they more like an agricultural field with straight row after straight row, etc? I'm trying to visualize how 600 roses would look out in my yard. : )

Kate

It's incredible how many roses some forum members grow (Beth, are you listening?) I think the max is about 2000 (The Dark Lady). There is another SW Idaho gardener on HMF (Dianne with two "n's") that grows 1090, here in the desert! She must have multiple private wells. That's insane. I would like to meet her, though, and stroll through her garden.
As for me, I simply don't have the space, the water budget (irrigation with house water), and the youth to take on more roses, so currently I have between 50 and 60. I still feel guilty about my water usage. I could not, in good conscience, grow 1000 in this desert environment no matter how many wells I had. Diane

Seil,
I don't know how I keep up with them either? The biggest hassle is in our drought, keeping them watered!!
As far as feeding them I have a 8 gal battery sprayer. I use liquid Monty's Joy Juice and I can have them fed in 1 /2 hour using their feeder.
With this many roses it gives me good choices for the Shows!!
I grow all of my roses in beds by themselves and that really helps.

An acre is defined to be 43,560 square feet, which is slightly smaller than an american foot ball field. Soooo, if we allow 5 ' x 5' of space for the rose plant and 1' of space around the rose for a walkway (2 feet actually since it shares the walkway around the adjoining roses. The total space amounts to 7' x 7' = 49 sq feet. Dividing that into the 43,560 space we have in an acre you could plant 888 plants. Looks like Dan has just about 3/4 of an acre of roses. Or around the 30 Yd line of the opposing team. That's a lot of roses and yet someone else takes it into the standsâ¦â¦. Just looking at that many roses would make me tired, let alone taking care of themâ¦â¦

One person I mentioned has five acres, I believe, but has many shrubs and perennials (as do I), and that changes square footage allowances a lot. Most people want companion plants to make a garden with roses rather than a rose garden. Some just want roses. Diane

I grow 55-60 roses mixed in with drought tolerant plants/shrubs. I have no lawn at all, and used drip line irrigation with emitters that work off of a timer.

Lynn

This post was edited by desertgarden561 on Mon, Dec 23, 13 at 19:33

I grow 67. I am very nerdy and have them all listed in a Bento database with ultra-nerdy notes about how they all look at various times, with all my beds named for various nerdy things.

I grow 50 hybrid tea roses in big Costco pots. They're all in my triple car garage right now along with 2 cars. We're pretty tight in there!!

I'm getting about 14 more roses this spring. We're thinking of getting really strong shelves and a scissors lifting machine (or something else - not sure what my hubby has in mind). Whenever I don't like a certain rose, I have a friend of a friend who takes them all. So it's a symbiotic relationship. I get more room - she gets more roses. :)
Carol

I don`t have a complete count at this time...still deciding what I will order for spring! I grow 120-130 roses. I can still manage to care for them, although I often have no idea what I am doing!!!! I never seem to have the glorious bloom filled bushes I see in everyone else's photos, but it is a true joy to me to grow roses. Lesley

I was up to 150 a couple of years ago but now about 120 now & that's about where it will stay. I moved several years back & when I purchased this house I intentionally looked for something with a smaller lot so it would place limits on how big my garden could grow. A garden friend with a country lot of several acres says he wishes he had done the same because his garden always seems to be expanding "cause he's got room to plant something new, to plant someone's extras, etc."

Cut down to about 200. I'll replace underperformers with xeric and native plants to conserve water. A few roses are becoming real favorites so I'll keep those as long as I can.

About 66, down from about 96. More heat, scantier winter rains, and the knowledge that it will get worse every year in my area have prompted me to cut down, and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with 40-50 roses at the most. They'll be the most beautiful and the toughest (the two don't always go together) because I simply cannot imagine a garden without roses.

Lesley, what a gorgeous picture of a lovely striped rose.

Ingrid

Right now I have around 70. Of course I want more, but not more than I can manage to care for. Lesley - I think your roses look like they are doing great!. Every picture you've shown has been gorgeous. I definitely think you know what you are doing! There has been more than one occasion when I wished I could stroll through your beautiful rose garden.

I'm a newbie and live in the city so don't have a lot of space. Currently I have only 8 plants in the ground and 14 more on order for the spring. My wishlist is much longer than that, of course! Already I'm trying to come up with ways to reconfigure my yard to make more room!

DrPekeMom, I'm nerdy too. Been developing a database for all my garden plants this winter. I'm not familiar with Bento, though!

I have just 9 of them. I don't have a lot space in the city you see. I don't even have a yard. XD I'm planning on getting 1 more for a complete ten.

Last time I counted, I had 140 rose bushes total, including multiples of Betty Prior and Blushing Knock.

Right now I have 63 in the ground, 18 in pots waiting for planting in the spring. Total so far 83. Will be ordering about 20 more this spring to finish everything up. Trying to keep everything around 100 bush's.

I grow 18 roses & find that's enough to satisfy me...well, for the most part. hehe There are sooo many other roses that I admire!! I'll always love roses and just have to see what roses you all are growing. And then there are the rose photos you guys share... :-)

My roses are:

California Dreamin'
Moonstone
Elizabeth Taylor
Signature
Gold Medal
Peace
Neptune
Typhoo Tea
David Austin's Eglantyne
DA's Belle Story
Darlow's Enigma
Veteran's Honor
Tiffany
Brigadoon
Hacienda aka Firefighter
Double Delight
Koko Loco
Barbra Streisand

This post was edited by dove_song on Thu, Dec 26, 13 at 18:08

dovesong - do you have a favorite? I used to have Elizabeth Taylor in one of my other yards. I really liked it. Tons of blooms. Very Pretty.
Carol

Counting my spring orders, 124 different varieties, 156 plants in total. Lots of people wonder how anyone can manage such a horde. HereâÂÂs the secret - back when I had only about a dozen or so roses, I pampered them excessively. Part of that was because I was trying to grow roses that were unsuited for my cold climate or were simply prone to be wretched. Eventually I figured out how to select for lower maintenance. More significant though, was that as the collection increased and I didnâÂÂt have time to fuss over each one, I discovered that roses (like children) really do flourish under a system of benign neglect.

Lesley, I love your striped rose! Is it Cabana? I would love to add it to my stripes!

I have about 70. I am pretty much maxed out for space since we have a small in-town yard. I added two small corner beds last spring in the front corners with 4 roses each. My main bed is a fence line row and last summer I added a second half row running parallel with the fence row.

Here you can see the fence line row, just before I added the second that runs parallel from the plum tree north. My little ones were using sparklers for the 4th of July and could not wait until it got dark :)
{{gwi:347960}}

Here is Francis Meilland in one of the new front corner beds with our house in the background.
{{gwi:347962}}

Andrea

Carol, I really like my Elizabeth Taylor a lot! Lol, I LOVE them all so it's hard to pick just one. California Dreamin', Moonstone, and Barbra Streisand could be my top 3 favorites--at least at this moment. But my garden is semi-arid so they like it here without having to spray anything. You amaze me with all the beautiful roses that you grow in your climate! :-)

This post was edited by dove_song on Fri, Dec 27, 13 at 18:53

Andrea - I can remember my grandkids excitement on the 4th of July too. I have to comment on your Francis Meilland rose, it is gorgeous! How long have you had yours, and how do you like it? Mine only had one bloom during the season, but it was really lovely!

I just started growing roses 3 months ago. I live in the Amazon (30ð; 70% humidity) and currently have 30+ roses in my garden. It has been raining almost every day for the last 4 weeks :(

Don't even come close to what you guys have. I did have 19 but I lost three so I'm down to 16. Which is more then I ever thought I would grow, though I would love to get more.

Thanks for your kind words dove_song!
A passion is a passion - no matter where you live. :)
Carol

I currently have atleast between 80-100 and that's not counting what I'm ordering next year. My order's next year will probably be my last unless an old favorite dies or something! Their are just alot more that I want! Roses are sure addictive! I love them all, most are new and haven't had time to spread their wings, but I'm sure looking forward to them all! I will be underplanting some, but mostly roses are in my beds. I have a bed that runs along the front of my house with nothing but bulbs, otherwise I'll forget it's their or the kids will step on it, so I have to keep everything somewhat separate! I do so love all the picture's of the roses with all the annuals and perennials though! Roses are so relaxing and anytime I'm stressing, I'll just take a walk in my roses and my problems are forgot!...until I go back inside that is lol!

I have somewhere between 750 and 800 roses. Since I don't spray and we have more or less adequate rain most years, I don't find they're that much work except at planting and pruning time. At least, the time it takes is manageable and fun around a more than full time job, family, and church. I never know exactly how many roses are alive at any given time, though - given my zone pushing tendencies I usually have a dozen or so hovering at the edge of deciding to survive.

Thanks to Toolbox68 for doing us the rose calculations by acres, and if you look at it an acre isn't nearly as big as I used to think it was. Your average suburban lot usually isn't too far below an acre, and mine is a little bigger than most so I'll call it an acre. However, half of that is house footprint, so if I used Toolbox's dimensions I'd have roses hanging out every window and then some. Fortunately, I love rose chaos and can't imagine leaving a 1' walkway around each plant, and in zone 5 most of my roses don't even come close to 5' in width. I figure if Beth can fit 1700 into a 1/3 acre space, I'm still a long way from full (though it may not look like it at first glance).

Cynthia

Wow some of you really floored me by growing so very many roses. after my spring order arrives I will have a total of 20. I live in a condo and they must all be in pots. Most of mine are Floribundas. There are a few Austins; but they have more thorns then I want. I just ordered 2 miniatures , so I will see what I do with them. It is funny but when we lived on a large property I only grew about 10 roses; but over 40 trees. Now that we are in the condo with 2 porches, I am growing 2 Japenese maples and 20 roses! I am also like a geek when it comes to lists. I have the roses all listed, size, name color etc.
I like to check all of the books and suppliers to see and then list their differences. I guess this is what being retired is all about. along with the growing, pruning, watering the little sweeties. Along with this I am also a mosaic artist and grandmother to 6. How did I ever find the time to work without having all of this fun? Have great week everyone. Judith

I have perhaps only 15-20 of them -- they are my late grandfather's, and most of their identities are a mystery to me. I'm dipping my hand into hybridizing now though, so that number is bound to grow.

Looks like my calculations were way off so I'm going to recalculate (that's what my GPS is always telling me) and only use a 3 x 3 = 9 square feet of space. No walkways so don't blame me if you get stuck getting to that bush in the center of your bed!!! lol

43,560 square feet divided by 9 = 4,840 rose bushes. Sooooo, I'd say a few of you have a lot of planting to do (not all because there are a whole lot of you who are addicted -- and you know who you are. LOL ) .

Still holds true; 'Just looking at that many roses would make me tired, let alone taking care of themâ¦â¦'

A month ago I had somewhere between 125 and 150. A number of duplicates in there makes the numbers fuzzy. I am in the process of cutting back. I'd like to have something more in the neighborhood of 75 to 80. This year I am removing about two dozen. I'll try to do close to the same next year, or maybe over the next couple of years. Some of my roses are young enough that I want to give them time to show what they can do before I make any decisions on their fate.

My goal - less work, less water required, and more enjoyment.

Rosefolly

Nine square feet is a small rose. Most of mine are old or older varieties, and few of my mature specimens would fit in that space. That doesn't even include the climbers and ramblers: 'Jaune Desprez', which goes about 15' up but is 8'-10' wide; 'Treasure Trove' which climbed 30' up a tree, then the tree blew down and 'Treasure Trove' had to be relocated on a long pergola. Many mature Teas are 7'-8' wide; the Spinosissima hybrid 'Fruehlingsgold' is about 10' wide; and there are many, many more that get this big. I'm not being deliberately snarky, just would hate to see some innocent out there think that 3'x3' is adequate for a shrub rose or even a good robust Hybrid Tea.
I currently have around 375-400 varieties and perhaps 500 plants or possibly more. They're spread out over about two and a half acres and are planted together with trees (too few and especially too small), shrubs, subshrubs, vines, perennials, bulbs, native herbaceous plants in the greatest variety I can manage. I love roses but not rose gardens, and there are far too many other beautiful plants in the world to ignore them. I'm all for horticultural harems.
Much of my garden is in poor difficult soil, and my husband and I planted far too many roses without adequate soil preparation before we realized that we needed to do a better job. So probably the majority of our roses are either puny because they're growing in unsatisfactory conditions, or are not yet mature (we started the garden in 2002 and have planted roses every year). They grow slowly because we don't water in summer nor fertilize beyond mulching them; but after four to seven years in the ground those that started with decent planting holes have turned into healthy plants.
The roses get watered their first year, get a hay mulch if necessary, and receive an annual pruning, which I'm doing now. I also clean up about once a year, usually in fall or at pruning time. The roses are fine with this schedule and amount of maintenance. The biggest job is digging a good planting hole, and we're still working on that. I also propagate a fair number of roses, taking cuttings from my own roses and getting them from other gardeners in swaps.
Melissa

Okay, let's split the numbers. I first used 7x7 then 3x3. How about 5x5 which = 25 so 43,560 square feet divided by 25 = 1742 rose bushes. Now don't go out and dig up any, this is only a guide line I was trying to come up with. We will par-lay about it some more, I'm sure.... lol

Wow! 1700 roses!!!!!!!! I thought I had problems :-) Rose growing is truly addictive. I currently have 70 on a 8100 sq ft lot. Hoping to acquire 10 more in a gradual lawn replacement project. Would list them all if I were not on my lunch break.

Toolbelt - those calculations sound about right for my zone and yard. Considering that my house takes up a good half of my presumed acre, that would leave me room for slightly less than 900 roses in the remaining spaces. Subtract some more roses for the green lawn still remaining (hey, we have kids and neighbor's kids playing all the time), and you arrive at my current 750 or 800 roses. If all of them survived to maturity my yard would be "full", particularly given the diversity of other plantings in my yard that Melissa talks about and I fully agree. I guess I'm "fortunate" that winter still does some involuntary culling of roses and so I can get away with new plantings every year. One of these days, though, I'm going to have to sit on my hands at planting times and NOT order more roses

Fortunately, that time is not yet

Cynthia

mmmmm, I had about 100-120 at home and on the allotment but am thinking about 40 would be really just right in the woods.....but huge ones. I guess size matters because I want giants........for tiny little treasures, I can have primula, snowdrops, violets, bluebells..............

I have 25 planted in the ground and about 19 in pots. Not all of these will be staying and a couple may not make it through the winter. I hope to keep the eventual total under 60.

I have been to peoples gardens and I have seen the roses very crowded. The plants were doing great! So I went home and did the same thing. My plants are doing great also. Where I have plants 3' apart and lined up in a row, they are not doing as well
I think it's the combined energy of all the roots together might be the secret!

Yah know what, I agree, Dan. I have also noticed how harmonious some plants are - the whole rhizosphere is sort of interconnected with bacteria, fungi, micro-fauna in a mini eco-system. Plants support each other above the soil level too. Mind, it can work the other way where some plants (often bulbs or corms) just do not want to play with others despite having similar climatic and nutritional needs - dierama is a bit notorious, needing a clear root run and open air - any root disturbance and it sulks.

I'm on a suburban lot and I always plant mine too close so I can squeeze more in, lol! They really don't seem to mind at all. And I like the way they grow into each other and make pretty combos!

Interesting support of crowding here. I grow a lot of plants together, believing up to a point, like Suzy, that they support each other. But my heart faints at the thought of getting in among big thorny crowded roses to do any kind of maintenance.

They're the ones that can do without - things like sweetbriars and such - if you never lifted a pair of secateurs near them again, it wouldn't matter at all. I have quite a few which I simply allow to rampage (Shoener's Nutkana, Meg, helenae)....and I haven't a clue what is happening at ground level. I find weather to be a handy pruner.

For those of you who grow crowded roses you may want to look into getting you an extendable pruner tool. I have one that extends out to almost 10 feet. At one end is the squeeze thingie and at the center is a sliding handhold. The sliding handhold makes it very easy to direct the cutting blade. On one side of the cutting bade is a grab bar that holds anything on that side of the cutter until you release the squeeze thingie. It allows you to pull what you cut off out of the bush. (Cut-an-Hold) You can adjust the length of the tool by pressing a release button. Mine adjusts in about 6 inch increments. Ain't cheap but worth it's weight in gold!!! (Well maybe not at today's prices..... lol

Part of my garden is like square foot gardening. Perhaps this is one of the better ways to grow HTs & floribundas 30-35 or so. Shrub & Old timey roses are a plenty with what passes for climbers in our zone, all together about 120 plants. They are kinda plunked down & sprawl around our 1\3rd of an acre.
I ordered a few more & I will shovel prune what I need to. At age 70 I am not looking for any more work.
Foghorn Leghorn
International Anti Grass League

"International Anti Grass League" LOL, Iowa Jade. Love it! You crack me up! I'm not looking for any more work at this time in my life either. But in the past I've grown oodles of roses, and I'm thankful for all the joy they have given me!

I have 32 plants and am getting so excited that spring is approaching! Munstead Wood and Lady of Shalott definitely are on the top of my "additions" list!

dan_keil_cr Keil How is your rose garden going?