I'm trying to decided which roses to plant together and having no luck since I'm not good at visualizing.

I have two raised beds I'm going to fill. They are going to contain roses in a 3x2 pattern. The roses I have:

Blue Girl
JFK
Intrigue
Mr Lincoln
'Spice'
DA Benjamin Britten
Nacogdoches x2 (yellow)
DA Evelyn
Caldwell Pink
Belinda's dream

I'm probably going to pick up another pink or red (not sure which yet) to balance out the numbers. Benjamin will probably need to be on the back part of a bed since he tends to climb.

What fun! White really pops out in a landscape, so JFK could go in the back of a bed, and so could Mr. Lincoln because he gets tall.

I try not to have two rose bushes of the same color next to each other. It happens anyway, of course, because of mislabeling, but I do try.

I never worry about clashing colors, though. Nothing in nature seems to clash, even if I plant a red rose next to an orange one.

I'd plant the strong yellows away from the lavenders.

Probably Mr Lincoln is red enough to stand up to Nacodoches. I'd imagine Benjamin Britten and Spice might look good in this group.

I think Blue Girl, Intrigue, JFK and Belinda's Dream might look good together. And Caldwell Pink. That leaves Evelyn for this group, and I think it would look really good with these roses.

Good Luck.

Thanks for the advice! I should have everything in the ground in the next couple of weeks. Spice, Evelyn, and Benjamin already have buds so I get to celebrate soon!

Actually, I think lavenders and yellows look nice together. Purple and yellow are opposites on the color wheel, and opposites are often paired together by designers.

Try this site to see what color groupings you like:

http://colorschemedesigner.com...

To use the wheel, start by clicking on any color inside the wheel, then click on one of the little wheels above the big wheel to see monochromatic complements (shades of the same base color), or complementary contrasts, or triads, etc. It's a lot of fun to play around. Of course, not all colors are available in roses, but you could come up with non-rose companion plants of nearly any color on the wheel.

Mike, that's a wonderful site!

I tried it out and it looks to me that if you start with the reddish sort of lavender that most roses bloom in, the opposite color is chartreuse. That is certainly a popular color combo theme. Dark purples such as those of salvia May Night look fantastic against a soft yellow. I didn't see how to match Blue Girl with the strong yellow of Nacogdoches using their scheme. Of course color mixing is mostly a matter of personal taste and all this is just my opinion. I mostly agree with Zuzu that if you mix things up enough, roses colors are soft enough that they usually don't clash.

Another place to go to explore mixing and matching rose colors is RoseFile http://www.rosefile.com/RosePa...

Both great sites, thanks!

Those are both fantastic, and what I need! Thanks again! I'll post some pictures when it's all laid out...hopefully should complete this weekend.

Well, DH has come home with a grandiflora by the name of New Year. As I still have some roses in pots from last year, who knows when it will get planted or where!

Lots of new, lush green growth on my roses, which is something I'll enjoy before the weather gets unbearably hot and humid and the BS returns. I don't even try to fight it anymore. Once the weather cools again in the autumn, I'll have nice green growth again and the roses will start looking much better, so even though I have blooms off and on throughout the summer, I actually have only 2 seasons when they look great.

Angie, my mother over in Winston-Salem said the Forsythia is already blooming there! Wanted to know if she should start pruning. I told her it wouldn't hurt to wait another week or two.