New Rose Garden Completion

A rose garden is not something that Ive even thought that I’d be creating, so it completely surprised me and I am so love with them now. 

I’ve always been a grower of all flowers, just not roses. It never occurred to me that I’d love them so much! When I told my mom that I wanted to grow roses during my birthday, she reminded me that my grandfather use to have a big rose garden and she told me that I was going to love them. Now every time I am in the garden I remember what she said and she is right!

This entire yard has seen a huge transformation, starting back in 2022 when I planted the first perennial garden in the front. During this time I also worked on the backyard as much as I could in my free time, but it was so overwhelming and heavily weeded and big, so I decided to only focus my energies on the front part of the yard and getting it established first. 

Then my plan was to next get the back garden boxes put together and work on that part of the garden the following spring of 2023. That is when I moved the dirt and got all the beds along the fence set up for growing. I did not have much interested in putting anything in the current rose garden area at all, but grew one zucchini plant there last year along with some cosmos and a sunflower but that part of the yard was of very little interest and had no plans. 

 It wasn’t until my birthday in the spring of 2024 that I had the idea of making a rose garden. It’s always been a thing for me, every birthday I love visiting the nursery and picking up new spring plants. Even though I grow almost everything from seed, I still love the feel of being in a nursery and it makes me happy! Sometimes I buy small things at to fill in the gaps or just when I feel like it. But this year, my kids asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said Roses!! Not the ones that you put in a vase and throw away!! I wanted to build a rose garden so I could enjoy roses for a long time and many years to come. Also an added benefit was to make the yard more visually appealing around the aluminum wheelchair ramp that accesses the back yard. It might actually turn out to be perfect. So I went to work, shopping and I bought a few varieties at my local hardware store and also ordered one special rose that I loved from the greenhouse garden center to pick up around Mother’s Day, just in time to plant for spring. Here is one I picked up (pictured above) and is in the front seat of my car. Such an exciting day!!

I wanted some different types of roses too, so I also bought some bare root English roses online from David Austin,(pictured here) no idea what to expect. They looked scary and I was just hoping for the best and that I could keep them alive. I’ve never grown a rose bush before and not the slightest idea of how to take care of them, but I’m excited now to learn!  

I bought 6 at the hardware store and so far 3 of those turned out to be nothing like the label, but I love them anyways. Same is true for 2 of my 5 David Austin’s but they are still lovely and enjoying every minute of them!! They are all very wonderful and I cannot believe I’ve waited this long to experience the joy of having roses. The smell just takes me away to another world and the colors are stunning! 

Watch the video to see what this spot looked like in spring of 2023 before the tree was removed.