backyard rose gardens
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Doing things halfway is just not in Corky Thacker's nature—even when it comes to her hobbies. As a girl, she rode horses. Rain or shine, she was at the stables after school and competing in horse shows on weekends. As an adult, she considered taking up golf but decided that the last thing she needed was another compulsive sport. "I'd been there and done that with horses, " she says. "At least, that's how I felt until I fell in love with roses."
Seven years ago, Corky was a gardening novice, though you'd never know it from the looks of her yard today. Back then, she and her boyfriend, Michael O'Brien, were too consumed with renovating their 1930s Tudor Revival house to worry much about their green space. It wasn't until the next-door neighbors piped up about unkempt shrubs scratching their cars that the couple turned their attention outdoors. The privet hedge along the side yard would have to go, which got Corky thinking about what could take its place.
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Shown: With plans to remove the privet hedge and turf grass, Corky used a clothesline and stakes to map out future beds and paths.
In her mind, roses would make a lovely, low-maintenance substitute. While living in Florida, she'd planted a hedge of famously carefree Knock Out shrub roses along her foundation. There, daily downpours in summer washed away any potential pests. Roses were easy, as far as Corky was concerned. So she set out to create an English cottage-style garden to complement the house, with roses as the anchor plant. After sketching out a detailed plan, she hired a carpenter to turn her sketches of a scalloped, lattice-top fence and gate, an entry arbor, and a pergola with lattice arches into reality. She also found a landscaper to transform her lawn into paths and plant-ready beds.
Shown: An 'Autumn Sunset' shrub rose scrambles up the entry arbor near the house, while leafy, self-sowing hollyhocks grow at its base.
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Early on, though, the project hit a snag. Once the stone paths were in place, the landscape crew tilled the beds without removing several big piles of limestone dust left over from the hardscape installation. A soil test confirmed Corky's worst fear: The pH had risen to 8.9—far too alkaline for roses.
Exasperated but determined, she took the advice of a soil scientist at her local cooperative extension service and set about removing 2 feet of tainted soil and amending the foot below it with peat moss mixed with coarse sand. She topped that with a mix of leaf humus, sand, and topsoil. "I grossly underestimated the time it would take for one woman with a shovel to do the job, " she says.
A year passed between the time Corky sketched her plans and planted her first rose. She joined the Cleveland Rose Society in the winter of that year, and with every meeting, she learned about more varieties to try. Swept away by their colors, fragrances, and sheer versatility in the landscape, she was soon planting roses in the spots she had reserved for flowering vines, shrubs, and herbs.
From Blah Lawn To Backyard Rose Garden Paradise
She wasn't always picking disease-resistant types, however, and Ohio had some pests she hadn't experienced in Florida, such as rose midges, which she now controls with a soil drench. She was learning that there was a lot more to growing roses than she'd initially thought, which only stirred her curiosity more. "I'm kind of a learning junkie, " she says. "For years, I read only books about roses."
As a result, these days Corky is often the one doing the teaching. Now a consulting rosarian, she regularly makes house calls, helping other gardeners troubleshoot problems and pick the right plants. She's also an accredited judge for the American Rose Society, a contender at rose shows herself, and the devoted caretaker of some 90 varieties. Many of her specimens grow far bigger in her backyard than as advertised in plant catalogs, thanks to her rich soil and carefully honed routine: a monthly feeding with Mills Magic Rose Mix organic fertilizer and, to combat disease and pests, a dose of neem-oil-based spray every two weeks.
Shown: Upon arrival, new roses are planted in pots and set along the driveway, where they'll stay until Corky finds a home for them in the garden.
For The Love Of Roses
For someone whose first paying job was mucking stalls, pushing a wheelbarrow and dragging a garden hose feel comfortingly familiar. "There are a lot of aspects of gardening that mirror caring for horses, " says Corky, who thinks nothing of spending 2 to 4 hours each day tending her plants. Although there is a hammock under her rose-covered pergola and a table and chairs on the patio, she spends little time in either spot. "I might last three minutes drinking in the scenery, before I go, 'Oh no, there's a weed!' and start in on the beds, " she says. But this tireless achiever believes the results speak for themselves. "I wanted to grow roses like the ones I saw in picture books, " she explains. "And I have."
Most of Corky's roses are fragrant, but some earn their keep in other ways. This cluster of pink Rainbow Knock Outs are the first roses to bloom every spring and continue to flower profusely until hit by a hard frost.
Alkaline-tolerant herbs, such as catmint and lavender, run along the stone paths and act, in theory, as a buffer between the limestone dust and Corky's roses.
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French doors invite views of the garden inside, while the painted trim outside echoes the purple- and blue-flowering perennials that wind through the garden.
A fast grower with big, spicy-scented apricot blooms, this tidy hybrid tea has strong upright stems perfect for cutting. Grows 3 to 4 feet tall and wide in Zones 5-10.
This tough shrub sports clove-scented white blooms and makes a resilient hedge along sidewalks and driveways. Grows 3 to 6 feet tall and 4 to 5 wide in Zones 3-7.
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Fragrant shell-pink flowers cover this climber all season, turning into bright-red hips in fall. Grows 8 to 12 feet tall and 3 to 6 feet wide in Zones 5-9.
In "Corky's jungle, " as a friend likes to call it, sandstone paths loop through the 30-by-40-foot garden, defining beds of cottage-style plantings and widening into a patio. The fence, arbors, and pergola offer ample privacy, while the roses that cover them add color and fragrance.Ideas for Designing a Rose Garden Create a beautiful rose garden for your front or back yard, small or large garden, and learn what to plant with roses By Janet Loughrey, Garden Writer & Photographer
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As one of the world’s most beloved garden plants, roses deserve a prominent spot in the landscape. While these long-lived shrubs have a reputation of being somewhat fussy, newer cultivars bred for disease-resistance and vigor have made growing roses easy for even novice gardeners.
Krasberg Rose Garden
A rose garden can be as simple as a single rose specimen interspersed with a few other plants. It can be as elaborate as a formal landscape embellished with hardscaping, arbors, seating, and statuary. Even smaller spaces can accommodate roses in containers, raised beds, or narrow side yards. Here are the basics of rose garden design, along with some ideas to get you started.
On this page: Planning | Different Spaces | Landscaping Tips | What to Plant With Roses | Design Ideas | More Rose Gardens | Related Reading
Make sure the site gets at least 6-8 hours of sun a day and has good air circulation to help prevent disease.
Image Rose Garden, Britzer Garten, Berlin, Germany
Decide what kind of rose garden you want. Do you want a clean formal look with structured hardscape, or a more natural appearance with other plants mixed in? Pick a style that will harmonize with your home’s exterior.
Roses like rich, well-draining soil with a slightly acidic pH between 6.0-7.0. Amend the soil with compost or other organic matter. For containers, use a high quality all-purpose potting soil and make sure pots have adequate drainage holes.
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Choose roses that are easy-care and hardy in your region. Select varieties for traits including size, shape, flower color, and form, fragrance and repeat or continual bloom. Many newer varieties such as Oso Easy Roses are bred for disease-resistance, vigor, and long bloom time. Some older types, particularly hybrid teas, can be higher maintenance and more disease-prone.
How To Grow Your Very Own Rose Garden
Plant fragrant rose varieties near a deck or patio to enjoy their fragrance up close. Gardener: Diana Gough. Designer: Phil Thornburg. Photo by: Janet Loughrey.
Include climbing roses to maximize your space. Train other vining plants such as clematis to grow up through shrub or climbing roses to create exciting flower combinations.
Many roses can be successfully grown in containers, a good solution for small spaces, apartment balconies, patios, and decks. Containers should be at least
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