“We learn from our gardens to deal with the most urgent question of the time: How much is enough?”

The words ‘How much’ are often on the lips of gardeners, whether it is water, fertiliser, compost, mulch or seaweed? Plant lovers all over the world ponder how much sun and shade plants need? Where should I plant this? How much rain have we had? How many plants are enough or How many roses are enough?

But, the main question – Is there room for one more? There is only one answer- there is always room for more!

It is fitting to mention how many roses are enough because it is the time of year to order bare root roses. They are as tempting for rose lovers as a child entering a sweet shop.

The colours, the perfumes, and the names are enticing, and one can’t help but think there is plenty of room for more. It is the same with perennials- always room for one more.

As I pore over the captivating roses on the rose grower’s websites, I’m deciding which ones will join the crowd. Old-fashioned roses are a temptation with their exotic names, and their history is so appealing. However, some only flower once per year in Spring, which is disappointing, while others take a few seasons to bloom or are heavily thorny and unmanageable because they are so wild and large.

Before inviting new roses into the garden, I consider whether the rose is hardy, repeat-flowering, and disease-resistant to avoid the use of sprays other than eco-rose or eco-seaweed. I also look for strong, upright roses that are well-behaved and form a well-rounded, attractive shrub or a climber to tame.

And then there is that allusive, intangible aspect of charm. Each rose in the garden is unique in shape or colour, has a fascinating history, or is distinctive in some way. It has piqued my interest enough to care for it despite the thorns.

The last count of the various rose varieties in the rural garden ( not actual rose plants) was approximately 300. I have recently read of home gardeners (not growers) with close to 2000 different roses and many with counts in between. Even now, with less space and a better climate, the town garden supports 100 roses in this first year. How Much is enough? According to James Joyce, many more.

“I’d love to have the whole place swimming in roses”
James Joyce

One needs a vast number of roses to create the spilling-over abundance of roses that one could call ” the whole place swimming in roses.”
To have roses continuously in bloom for the entirety of the season requires many different varieties and styles: bush roses, standard roses, climbers, old garden roses, hybrid teas, and Grandiflora roses. Roses that can climb through fences and up walls, over arches and obelisks, along borders, and sit perfectly as outstanding specimens in a garden bed are needed.

“To garden, you open your personal space to admit a few, a great many, or thousands of plants”.
Tom Clothier

A good trick to give the illusion of a forever flowering large rose bush is to plant two to three of the same rose in a cluster so they appear like one shrub and should flower continuously. Diana Sargeant from Silkies Rose Farm describes this method in her book All About Roses, available here.

How rare to see a real cottage garden. It is far more difficult to achieve than a
contrived garden.
It requires intuition, a genius for letting things have their head.
Mirabel Osler

How do you decide which roses to grow? Are your choices based on colour, habit or rose shape?

Colour and perfume are alluring features to look for and are always ready to tempt. It is worth the time to research plants before you bring them home. Or at the very least to read the plant label thoroughly. Not all plants or roses are care-free, some are overly prickly, wayward and obstinate and do not always grow the way we want.

In her delightful book A Gentle Plea for Chaos, Mirabel Osler speaks of recalcitrant roses with long arching canes and bad attitudes that make gardening difficult. Unless, of course, it is a climbing rose that one can tame—to a degree. One way to address this is to plant standard roses.

I have had to accept, and now … I know which are docile and benevolent from those which are headstrong; those that are pliant from those which are pig-headed.”
Mirabel Osler

After being captivated by a new rose to plant, it is also a good idea to check the breeder, the parent rose, and each rose’s hardiness or growing habits. Then, it is all about the colour, style and available space. As the garden is smaller this year, my choices are more vertical, and I’ve planted quite a few standard roses.

Standard Roses are sometimes called stem roses or tree roses. They are a usual rose bush grafted to a 90cm stem( 60 cm for a Patio Rose). The best feature of standard roses is that they sit above the ground and allow other plants to grow underneath, creating extra space for more plants.

There were numbers of standard roses which had so spread their branches that they were like little trees.
Frances Hodgson Burnett

Standard roses can also help create vertical interest in the garden quickly and provide structure. They are elegant and a stunning feature that can be spectacular when planted in large pots on a verandah.

The head of the standard rose can be shaped as desired. The general growth pattern is that the Hybrid Tea roses will grow in a V formation, and the Floribunda roses will grow in a rounder shape. The standard roses here have not been shaped because they are constantly in flower since early Spring.

Standard roses straight away in the first year after planting, will provide many roses because they are less hidden and, therefore, less susceptible to insects and disease. The standard style also gives the plants more air movement and for the gardener easier access for observing and enjoying the fragrance and blooms.

The other feature is that prickly or unruly roses are more manageable as a standard rose. The Carmagnole Rose, for example, is a sensational standard rose, but as a bush rose, it is often described by the growers as an impenetrable hedge and is difficult to manage.

Gardening is much easier and more rewarding if your plant choices fit your garden style, colour scheme, climate, and soil conditions. Roses will vary in your garden depending on the available light, shade, sun, and soil quality. However, it is also worth considering how much time you have available to nurture them. Roses are not the palnts to grow if you want a plant and forget style of garden.

Annual plants are nature’s emergency medical service, seeded in sounds and scars to hold the land until the perennial cover is re-established.
Wendell Berry

Today’s featured roses are Vintage, Spiced Coffee, and Twilight Glow, all in bloom of their second flush.
Rosa Vintage WEKbluhimeye started with these soft pink tones that aged to an authentic old-world vintage parchment. Rosa Vintage is a Hybrid Tea Rose bred by Christian Bédard USA in 2022 and introduced in Australia by Swanes in 2023 as ‘Vintage’.

“A rose is an argument. It proclaims the triumph of beauty over brutality, of gentleness over violence,
of the ephemeral over the lasting, and of the universal over the particular.
The same rose bursts into bloom on the North Cape and in the Sahara desert. “
Alain Meilland

This season, Vintage Roses were planted in haste towards the back by the fence, so they are almost non-visible, with The Endeavour Rose flourishing in front. Rosa Vintage is said to grow to 150 cm, so it should be fine by maturity. It has mostly solitary blooms with a high-centred form and glossy medium-green foliage.
A few are growing together in a cluster. The idea is that once they grow, they should appear as one large shrub. The Vintage rose is unusual in colouring and is now, after the first flush, a light shade of white with yellowish-green hints and a very subtle rim of pink on the petals.

“One rose says more than the dozen.”
Wendy Craig

Twilight Glow is a beautiful rose that lives up to its name. It glows like a beacon in sunlight and at dusk. Twilight Glow is a climbing rose that, once it flowers, can take your breath away with its gorgeous, luminous, large blooms. The colour is a rich, creamy apricot, and the edges are scalloped, creating an ‘old world’ charm.
Twilight Glow – MEItosier, was bred by Jaques Mouchette France in 1991 and introduced to France as Polka- climber, Mouchotte/Meilland 1991. It is part of the Renaissance ®, Romantica ™ Collection and will grow between 120 to 365 cm.

The Spiced Coffee Rose has been a fabulous rose this year and appears to thrive in our climate away from the intense heat. It has the softest of colours that start out from coffee hued buds to parchment, fawn and beige then as the roses unfold turn a superb blush pink with just a touch of gold underneath and a hint of lavender.

Spiced Coffee roses are growing in a group beside the driveway, one is covered in buds that will open soon. The others are pictured here with their gorgeous colours borne mostly solitary, in a cupped bloom form that fade to coffee and cream roses. – delightful.

The Spiced Coffee Rose is a Russet Hybrid Tea with registration name MACjuliat and was bred by
Samuel Darragh in 1985, New Zealand. It is sometimes also called ‘Siegfried Sassoon’ after an English poet and novelist who died in 1967. It will grow between 75- 120 cm and will repeat bloom all season.