Good points, Susie. I hadn't thought of fire at all; but this is a pretty good time to consider it! Because this area can be a rushing stream bed, occasionally, I do need something that will stop erosion; not sure roses will be enough. Until I planted roses it was just native grasses and weeds. I'm afraid that the native grasses will keep cropping up there for a few years. But what I'd love to do is to mix some low-growing xeric perennials and/or grasses in with the roses to hold the soil.
There's a place in the garden where I have cerastium tomentosum, a gray leaved ground cover that makes white flowers. It looks great growing between red roses. There's a place where some pale orange marguerite daisies grow between yellow, red and orange roses - at least that's what I imagined as I was planting things. I have a bed of lavender and jupiter's beard interplanted with daffodils and although this design is kind of inside-out, it has roses skirting most of the edges. It looks a little unruly right now with the daff. foliage dying, but it looks great in March and in summer when the dead foliage is gone. And I have a bed of yellow and soft orange roses interwoven with blue flax. I just have a lot of fun interplanting rose areas with other plants. In any case, I would like to have something other than just river rock between the roses. I wonder if there is a kind of thyme or a blue veronica that might work well - especially near the path? Maybe some monarda or phlox near the fence at the back?
