I don't look at the advertised size, I look at the hear-say, size folks say it gets to in their garden. Now I haven't purchased and planted large orders of roses in years. With over 250 roses in the garden, there is no more room in the inn. Most the roses in my garden now have been there for a good 15 years. But helpmefind.com use to be an excellent source to get the true size roses mature to, from other gardeners who grow that rose. I seldom go to helpmefind.com anymore, because I have no room for any more roses in my garden.

However, when I was know, I did experience what you say. Especially with some of the English roses. When I first got Abraham Darby it was advertised a 4'x4' ..smirk. Wrong, wrong, wrong. More like 4 feet by 15 to 20 feet. Generally I've found roses like this quite eacy to prune back, dig up, and move to another location where they have more room. I guess it's all in how flexible you are willing to be.

Vertical gardening? No, seriously, I am starting to use more pots and having some success with the 'bonsai' approach-prune roots with repot. Only smaller varieties. Not climbers, though I was able to keep MIP alive for several years before we parted ways.
Now RRD has me worried, so I may hold back on purchases until growers find some way to make it safer. My DH will be relieved!
Fun thread!

Wow - you resurrected a thread that is over eight years old... I'm impressed!

Oops! I didn't even notice!

I'll add to this OLD thread......I am a crammer with roses and all other plants in my garden including Hosta, Iris, and even my tomatoes. The problem with the roses is that it makes it difficult to dead-head. The rose beds are aslo full of Rudbeckia and Echinacea.........

My roses always seem to be gappy or crowded. I never seem to predict the space required accurately. I also replace a clearly dying rose with another only to have the original come back to life, and then there are the misidentified climbers that weave their way through their near and not so near neighbors...

I am so glad @MmeBoullet reviving the eight-year-old thread! I am in the process of sprucing up the backyard to get it ready for rose planting season in January, and this thread gives me some creative inspirations in regards to spacing roses! I would like to plant as many as roses I could in my modestly-sized backyard.

Most of our roses will grow to about 3ft-4ft wide so I space them about 40" inches center to center...I like alittle room to deadhead and have decent air circulation etc...