Hi. What size rose are you looking for? Here in zone 6 Maggie experiences die-back so would not reach a monster size. La Marne and CB max out at about 4' as can be seen in Jeffcat's HMF pictures.

I forgot to ask the most important question, if someone has not already. What is your budget?

I actually like the first pic with the rose border. It looks more unified.

Something about 4.5' would be ideal, which is the size of Olivia. I read somewhere that CB could get to 7' (I think on antique rose emporium).

Yes, I like the unified look, too, @jjpeace, especially since I have so many different perennials growing. This is why I'm having a hard time deciding! Since I do all the work myself and the only cost is the cost of plants and amendments, budget is not really an issue.

Olivia Austin is not just another pink rose. There's something about it that I can only describe as ...magical. The color of the flowers is pink, but they have a depth that gives them an extra dimension. They're not a flat pink, they're almost a luminous pink.

The bush stays so neatly shaped as well. I have three, and they have all stayed perfectly shaped and around 3-4 feet tall. What's great about this rose is after the first flush, when you deadhead, it does not put out another large flush of branches with flowers on top (like many Austins), it just puts out a nice flush of blooms. So, at the end of the season, they are still looking as neat and tidy as they did in the beginning!

As for the foliage, it's beautiful. It's a matte, deep green that stays flawless all season long. In fact my three Olivias still have ALL their foliage from last season and it has looked beautiful all through the (we had a mild one) winter. The bush is clothed in from the bottom to the top...no bare branches at the bottom.

Add to all this a really nice fragrance and the fact that it blooms in flushes until almost Christmas (in my climate) and you have an almost perfect pink rose.

I'm sorry I don't have a picture! I have no idea why I haven't taken any!

As for your design....I think I like the more simple color palette ones the best. I definitely love the boxwood edging! Your garden is absolutely beautiful...I love the design and the hardscaping.

I bet Olivia would look a lot better here than Souv de la Malmaison who looks wonderful for Ingrid in So California. My SdlM looks great by Fall but not in Spring.

What a beautiful recommendation for the Olivia Rose Austin, @Rosylady (PNW zone 8)! My heart goes pitter patter thinking about it. I feel like I need to order soon so they don't sell out (I'd prefer to buy bare root). I'd need 10 for the full hedge, 6 for the hedge mixed with Russian sage, or 4 for the hedge mixed with hydrangea and Russian sage.

I was leaning toward the mix of three, but now leaning toward all roses or roses with Russian sage, considering all the other colors going on with the perennials in that garden (and six azaleas and three hydrangeas). I need to remember that my purpose for putting in the secondary hedge behind the boxwoods is to bring more structure and cohesion to the garden and to fill out more space.

Dottie....if I were you I would plant a dense rose hedge to begin with. If you change your mind later and want more space in between the roses or to add the russian sage, you could always pop out every other rose and plant them in another spot.

Or.....you could do the rose hedge and then a lower growing perennial to plant under them with that same blue color, such as geranium 'Rozanne". It's a truly fabulous ever-blooming sky blue geranium.

Brilliant, Rosylady! Rozanne would set the soft pink off beautifully and tie in with any other blues in the garden.

Dottie, I have a feeling you really like the look of the long, lacy fronds of the taller perovskia, and would like to work it in. I'd buy a few and move the pots around until it looks right.

I'd caution against planting the Russian sage too close to the roses. It likes much leaner soil conditions and much less watering. An excess of both will lead to floppiness and more severe winter dieback.

FYI, Russian sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, has been reclassified and is now known as Salvia yangii. And shares similar growing conditions as most other salvia species.

Out West here, Russian Sage do fine with the roses. I wondered about how it would work too, but they look good. They look good all year round, which all fillers don't. Many fillers go blah in Winter.

Here, if the dry garden plants do not get irrigated, they don't make it. Of course, other areas would have different experiences.

Well, I had a couple glasses of wine and ordered a 10 rose hedging bundle of Olive Rose Austin. I think the cohesiveness will help pull together my garden, while the other plantings will keep it dynamic and not too formal for the surroundings. Also, pretty roses!

I'm not thrilled by the idea of planting 10 more bare root roses after planting 8 today all around my yard (a lot of work!), but hopefully it will be worth it. I plan to plant 5 on each side of my walkway, 3' apart rather than 18" as suggested on the DA site. Thanks so much for all the insight and ideas!

Doesn't it feel good to finally make a decision! It'll be so beautiful.

It sounds like it will be spectacular. You will have to post pictures this May/June.

Yes, I am looking forward to seeing pictures too!

I will post pictures this spring for sure! I'm excited to see how everything will look because this will be the first full season since starting my garden projects. For now, I'll share some rose pics from last summer. 🙂

I think these are:

Roald Dahl

Munstead Wood (much darker IRL)

Secret

Earth Angel

Le Petit Prince

Sophy's Rose

Secret, climbing Lady in Red, Margaret Merrill, At Last

You have a beautiful selection of roses....I especially like the roses with the Chanel no5 and the roses with chickens.

Secret is a really pretty hybrid tea...I've never seen it before. The bush is as pretty as the flowers.

Rosylady and I have the same taste. Love the two she mentioned and I love the soft look of At Last.

I follow an artist on IG that paints exquisite roses in Chanel bottles. Here is an example of her work and one in progress. If you paint, you've already got the props.

@rosylady - Secret has the most beautiful scent, too! I planted a second one in my backyard.

@flowersaremusic - what beautiful paintings! what is the artist's IG name? unfortunately, I don't paint at all.

flowersaremusic....I'd like to know the name of the artist as well

Dottie and Rosylady, here's the link to her IG gallery. https://www.instagram.com/carolina.elizabeth.art/

This artist's massive peonies are incredible.

http://www.marcellakasparart.com/gallery.html

Thanks again for all the advice and information! I ordered a 10-hedge bundle of Olivia Rose Austin 10-hedge bundle. They arrived a few days ago and we planted them on Saturday. I set each 3 feet apart and three feet from the Baby Jade boxwoods. I hope that's a good distance for a cohesive look while allowing for some airflow.

I had to move a lot of perennials and I have more to move still, so I'm going to wait until everything blooms to decide what else to do with the space. (I also hard pruned the hollies on the right side, which is why they look like sticks.)

Also, I'm not sure what evergreen I want to flank the front walk of the walkway; open to suggestions.

By the way, these are the amendments I used, plus 25 lbs of composted cow manure per bush. I never used the fungi before, but it came with my David Austin order.

This will be SO exciting to see flower. Please post progress shots! : ))

Wow, your roses will be loving life with all those wonderful amendments! I am looking forward to progress shots too!

I also grew Denim & Lace with roses and did not have issues. Denim & Lace is by far my favorite due to its coloring, growth habit, and stature.

Olivia was not stellar in my desert garden, but it is on my list for ATX.

You have received so many great suggestions! With all of the input and your choices, the front walk cannot help but be beautiful!!

Your garden is even more beautiful than I remember, Diane! Thank you for sharing the images.

What is D&L? I have to look that up... never heard of it before.

Denim & Lace

https://www.bluestoneperennials.com/PEDL.html

Thank you! I know that plant, but had never heard that name. It is exactly denim! : ))

I will post updates when the blooms start!

Update! The rose bushes are starting to leaf out, although still hard to see in photos. To flank the front of the walkway before the boxwood and roses begin, I chose gardenias "Frost proof." Perennials I planted last year are pushing up and some are starting to bloom, along with the azaleas. I transplanted lambs ear along the new path leaking to the arbor and the carrot New Dawn is also starting to leaf.

The area is still a bit of a jumble, but only one year ago it was an empty sea of mulch and the year before that a mix of grass and weeds.

That is just beautiful! If that is New Dawn on your cattle fence you might have to add a couple more panels on either side in the future! :-)

Oh goodness, I don't see a way to edit my comment. That should say "path leading" and "bare root New Dawn." Ignore the random peony picture.

Dottie, this is so impressive. You've gotten a lot of hard work done in a short time. I know you must be excited for those roses to start blooming. Looks like your spacing with all of it is just perfect. Love that pathway to the arbor and the perennials along the way. The gardenias look just right there and your tree is gorgeous. Beautiful results.

Really lovely! I look forward to seeing it in full bloom.

Everything looks beautiful! I love seeing the "before" and early pictures of gardens when they're newly planted. Your Olivias are leafing out really nicely. I look forward to more pictures!

Wow, your space is so generous and planning a new garden is so exciting! It does take a lot of "scope for the imagination" to picture what things will look like full-grown, doesn't it? I think that's part of the fun of gardening though. It's awesome that you put so much thought into into your new garden space--it's going to really pay off. And it's reassuring to think that if things don't turn out quite the way you want, you can always "edit" them later.

Kudos to your for the huge holes and amending you must have done for each baby rose! I need to go out and plant four today; it's been feeling like a lot of work until I saw how many you got done. Ooof.

Please do post more pictures as the season progresses!

The Olive Rose Austins are blooming now, so here is an update. Once the boxwoods and roses are mature size, there will be much more structure. Right now it still looks like a jumble, even more so in photos than in person. All the perennials I planted last summer are coming back, even bigger, plus reseeding - I need to figure out how to reorganize all of them. A work in progress!

The Olivia blossoms are very pretty!

This is the biggest of the ten Olivias.

And this is the smallest. It started leafing out late and then just stopped growing a few weeks ago. Wonder if/when I should contact David Austin about it. We've gotten tons of rain this month, so lack of water cannot be an issue.

Open to any advice!

And here is a view of my stepping stone path (perpendicular to the main walkway). The New Dawns are growing; time for me to start wrapping them on the arch.

I bought this lovely Campania rose bird bath and planted a Pinky Winky hydrangea behind it.

View from the other side.

A look at the rose garden in my circle drive, year 2. The anise hyssop shot up and almost completely obscure my fountain, so I've begun transplanting them elsewhere. On the left is a new bare root Apricot Candy rose that's still small. Le Petit Prince on the right is fabulous, so I'm considering buying a second and relocating the Apricot.

Earth Angel

Margaret Merril

Celestial Night

These knock-outs were the only roses when I bought the place and they looked awful. I pruned down to three canes almost to the ground in March and they are doing amazingly now.

One last update for now!

In the backyard, year 2 Colette climbing rose on the chicken yard fence.

And climbing Lady in Red. These are robust, despite constantly being pecked by the hens.

Thanks for letting me share! No one else has seen any of this other than the UPS guy.

Really lovely, Dottie! I have a new Colette and it is great to see your second year plant looking so good.

Dottie, you have done a masterful job. You must need to pinch yourself every time you walk out and see how your plans have come to fruition. I am especially in awe of your La Petit Prince. I've heard it's not an easy one to grow. Your lucky chickens got one of the loveliest roses i know of. My discards end up on my chicken pen.

Omg what a beautiful garden! We are on the same zone and my Olivia’s just started to show some buds! Excited to see your garden develop!

The OP put this in the roses forum too. Welcome to you Hyed!

Cl Lady in red is beautiful!

This is by far my favorite thread! I read each and every of the posts in this thread. What a nice community! @Dottie 7B Thank you for sharing the progress with us! I just planted three Bobos along my sidewalk with some purple flowers: cat mint and Sylvia. I ordered two earth angel to go with them. I'm also thinking of getting boxwood and more roses. Your posts give me such reassurance! Thank you and would love to see more pictures coming! I'll try to figure out how to follow this thread or your post. Wonderful!

yogi, if you go to advanced setting under your name, you can click 'notify me of new posts' and you'll receive an email of any new posts that you've commented on.

@vaporvac. Thank you so much! I love this community!