I don't know enough to be of any help but it sounds like it is going to be lovely.

That’s a great looking space you created, looks like you both did your homework and put in the work. Tilling an entire bed and adding compost is much superior to only putting amendments into the planting hole. I think you’ve done everything right, but if your soil is alkaline I’d also spread some sulfur over the whole bed. I planted beds with all mixed colors, and I think similar colors should not be right next to each other (In other words, Queen Liz, Touch of Class and Chicago Peace should not be all in a row. `It’d be a big grouping of non-matched pinks, which you’d want to avoid). Just let the mixed colors be really mixed. Since your garden is out front, I’d plant Fragrant Cloud and/or Double Delight at the very front, since they are super scented and will make you many friends.

Personally, I would put Fragrant Cloud in the center with yellows on either side and Double Delight farthest away on the street curb, although you may have flower thieves helping themselves lol

Nepta and Mystic Spired salvia are great between plants and I toss alysum in the front. It is going to be beautiful . You have a fabous selection of roses

Thank you all for the suggestions. I'm in suburban Baltimore, zone 7A. It has hot humid summers.

I want to do my rose bed right. Aside from tilling in some good topsoil mixed with wood shavings and leaf shavings to improve the solid red clay soil that's here, do I need to mix in some Plant Tone while tilling? My roses are peach, yellow, deep and medium pink. How would a deep pink or purple gomphrena look scattered between bushes, with maybe some short variety of shasta daisies, dwarf marigolds and dwarf snapdragons?

I think the Plant Tone is a good idea, I added a bunch of organic fertilizer myself when I started some new beds this year. It’s wholly organic, so once your soil cools, there won’t be microbial activity that would create available nitrogen to induce a growth spurt at the wrong time.

Love to see pictures when you have it planted. One thing that might be useful is to create a planting plan with colored circles that match the colors of the roses. Then you can move them around until you have a color order that you like.

I was thinking about your lay out( I tend to over plan ) and am wondering about different heights of your roses. I know that Fragrant Cloud is a tall one and Double Delight is shorter.

I have tall Fiji next to short Rosematic fuschia and it looks weird

Do make sure to cover that soil with something for mulch to avoid weeds moving into that lovely tilled soil. Early in my gardening career i did all the work of double digging a bed but stalled for two weeks or so before planting in it and I had the most spectacular waist high collection of weeds by that point.

Sounds like you have great ideas and it'll be fun to see how it turns out!

Cynthia