Meet my "circle garden"- a 28 foot circle in the middle of my driveway. In the middle, I have a Chinese Fringe tree that Dave will never allow me to move, so that is going to stay.

My plan was to plant 4 drift roses around the outside, and keep the pink verbena that you see (It did so incredible during the drought, that I think it needs to be a staple). BUT, the Drifts that I bought (4 pinks) all died. (all the rest of them lived, naturally, but I was going for continuity, and the others are all different).

Chamblees is calling my name, but now I'm just not completely sure what direction I want to take here.

Any suggestions on variety?

If you have a different suggestion on the overall look as well, I'd love to hear about it!

Did you mean to post a picture with this thread?

I love it!

dave said:Did you mean to post a picture with this thread?

I added the picture

I've a question. How do you plant on watering it. It there a stub for a drip system?

I have an overhead spray already installed in that bed. There are 5 heads arranged all along the border of the garden, spraying inward. The entire bed gets pretty good coverage.

If we ever want to change to drip, that'll be easily done. Just unscrew the sprayers and screw in some drip heads.

Ok, good, it gets regular water. I couldn't see anything and was hoping something was put in before that driveway. I'm not a big fan of hauling hoses, although I do that a lot.

Do you have a color in mind? Do you want to stick with pink?

Oh, gosh. I probably shouldn't give you my advice, Trish, because I would plant 40 roses, not 4, in a 28-foot circle.

I'm wondering, though, why you chose the drift roses for that space. They're so tiny and almost unnoticeable. I've also found that they're not as vigorous as I want them to be. The drift roses are compact versions of the larger Meidiland landscape roses, so if I wanted to use some non-finicky roses as a centerpiece, I'd probably choose something from that line. Would those be too big for you?

The bloom on Cherry Meidiland is similar in shape to the bloom on Pink Drift, but it's a more vibrant color and makes a better statement as a centerpiece, in my opinion.

http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

There's also a Pink Meidiland if you want something in a more subdued shade of pink:

http://www.helpmefind.com/gard...

I am a big fan of the Earthkind roses and many of them are pink if that is the color you are planning to have. My roses are planted along fence lines where they are difficult to water and I didn't lose any of the Earthkind roses to the drought this summer. However, I am not one to ask anything about design, like Zuzu I would stuff the circle with dozens of roses; but perhaps you wanted room for some other plants?

Earthkind roses are great for carefree gardening, and Chamblee carries a full line of them, many in pink. They have two pages of them on their site, and I want to give you a link, but Chamblee links usually seem to take you only to the home page. Anyway, for what it's worth, here's the link that should take you to the Earthkinds:

http://www.chambleeroses.com/o...

Belinda's Dream would be gorgeous as a centerpiece.

By the way, is that wall-to-wall carpeting around your flower bed? It looks so perfect!

I'm with Zuzu and Porkpal on this one. I'd start somewhere toward the center and put in taller roses, then work my way out to the outer edge with shorter plants, leaving long triangles (think pie slices) to be able to access the center. I'm a huge fan of the Easy Elegance Series, though they're tough to find. If you can find some they're also very tough plants; and beautiful to boot!


These are a couple of EE Roses. I'm always checking to see if I can get lucky enough to grab some more!
Rose (Rosa 'Centennial Rose')

Rose (Rosa 'Yellow Submarine')

Cinco de Mayo is a carefree/trouble-free rose here. Of course I'm not familiar with how well it would do for you in Texas but it would certainly be worth a shot IMHO.

I agree with Chelle: Cinco de Mayo is exceptionally trouble-free. So is Playboy. Virtually everything in my garden gets black spot, with the exception of Cinco de Mayo, Playboy, and all of Ping Lim's roses.

Ping Lim is the hybridizer of Chelle's Easy Elegance roses. I'm not growing any of those now, but Chelle's photos are really tempting.

In fact, while we're on the subject and before I forget, I love what Chelle's done with her rose photo contributions. They run the gamut, from buds to blooms to foliage to canes.

Another of Ping Lim's roses that I like a lot because it's almost always blooming and is highly resistant to black spot is Kiss Me:

Rose (Rosa 'Kiss Me')

But my favorite Ping Lim rose is Rainbow Sorbet:

Rose (Rosa 'Rainbow Sorbet')

Like I said, I'm not dead set on anything at this point...

To answer Zuzu's question on what I was thinking with the Drifts- just that it was a mounding rose. My kitchen window as well as my dining room (where we spend most of our days, it seems) both look out this direction, and I want to be able to see beyond the circle to what will be new gardens in that bare dirt behind it I do see your point about the small-ness. I think you are right that bigger flowers would do better.

That was my reasoning behind not filling it up with rose bushes (although I'm still not totally against that!). I really want to start my rose collection again, as I left them all behind. The question is- do I want the circle to be just roses? I am thinking more than 4 would be better if all we do is the Fringe Tree, and the roses.

Sue- you asked about color... I was thinking sticking with white and pink, especially if I do the minimalist approach in this bed. However, if we decide to do more, all bets are off (Man, I'm really wishy-washy on this one, aren't I???)

Now I'm also seeing that the verbena isn't really going to play well with mounding roses either....
I must have lost all since of design lately- I just can't picture "it" here!

Well, that's why I turned to you!

Not to mention what shades of pink are you looking for? You can go with the softer pinks (New Dawn http://www.helpmefind.com/rose... this is a climber, but using this only as a color reference) all the way to a hot pink (Hot Princess http://www.helpmefind.com/rose...). Height, width, once-blooming/all seasonal, floribunda/hybrid tea/grandiflora/OGR, scent, cut flower quality, etc etc etc If you're looking for white/pink, so you want roses that start off white & fade to pink, roses that are white & pink already, pink roses that fade to white...

And w/Zuzu.. why stick 4 in that huge of space when you can have 40? Seriously! My front yard, which is microscopic (about 15' wide at the narrowest, 30' wide at the widest, and about 80' long (I live on a pie-wedge-shaped property)) I have over 90 roses in the front with still tons of room for them to spread out. And that also includes a number of other shrubs and a tri-color beech tree, too. Roses get along quite well with trees believe it or not.

My personal preference when going with one color plus white is to have a range of that color that blends well together, as if you were looking at a batik fabric and could get a sense of color depth when looking at the overall garden. I haven't grown them, but I really love those pictures of Cherry Meidiland and Rainbow Sorbet that Zuzu suggested. Unless you're going with a more formal symmetrical garden look, maybe you could consider adding something along these lines in a few places for added interest? I guess I'm thinking like a quilter here...

I also think some occasional pops of other colors such as purple or blue would be fantastic. Or even orange if you want a little more bounce. And you can still do minimalist -- although I betcha over time you'll manage to fill it! We all do!!!


Edit: I also love Betty Boop (wouldn't you know):

Rose (Rosa 'Betty Boop')

Oh, that was worth an edit, Betty. I love Betty Boop! Grow Betty Boop, Trish. Look at all of the cool pictures we have of it in the database:

Rose (Rosa 'Betty Boop')

And it leaves me with an impression of pink from a distance too!

Oh, Betty, you edited to add the link just as I was leaving the link. Trish, that must mean you should look at the link twice. You need this rose! And I'm sure Chamblee has it.

Adding to reassure all of you that normally I am NOT a minimalist when it comes to my gardens. I pack 'em in! This will be in between two very full gardens, and Dave's tropical bed (definitely full) is to the left in the picture.

So- two ways to go-
a quiet place for the eyes to rest when you drive up, or
why mess with a good thing- the more, the merrier

Checking out Betty Boop!