Landscaping Ideas for Roses

Groupings

• A grouping or massing refers to a flower bed that is occupied with flowers of just one variety, all of which are in close proximity to one another. With roses, some of the best varieties for groupings are floribundas. Floribunda roses are frequently blooming, bushy roses that bear dense clusters of large flowers. As the University of Kentucky notes, while three floribunda rose plants are sufficient for creating a rose grouping, more are better and 50 can make for a real show.

Background Planting

• In addition to using red, pink, yellow or white-flowered roses as standalone features within a landscape, you can use the flowers as a colorful background for other landscaping plants, like daylilies or marigolds. One of the best background planting rose options is to use grandifloras. Grandiflora roses are similar to floribundas, but produce larger flowers and grow taller, typically reaching between 5 and 6 feet in height.

Containers

• In addition to growing roses directly in the soil of your backyard, you can grow them in containers. Container roses are flexible landscaping elements, as you can easily transport them to different areas of a yard, patio or deck. Some of the best rose varieties for container plantings are miniature roses. Also known as patio roses, miniature roses are densely branched, profusely flowering compact roses. According to the University of Kentucky, each miniature rose plant can flourish in a plot of soil that is just 6 inches deep and 6 inches across.

Ground Cover

• For covering walkway borders and sloping sections of yard, ground cover roses are viable options. You can also plant these roses on the tops of walls so that the flowers cascade over and in front of the walls. Ground cover roses produce vigorously growing branches or canes, which expand horizontally and have only minimal upward growth. The branches, foliage and flowers of the roses produce an expansive, carpet-like covering.

Hedges

• In addition to using roses as strictly decorative landscaping elements, you can also use them as functional elements by growing them in hedges or dense rows. Rose hedges can serve as property boundary markers as well as screens for making parts of your landscape more private. One of the best rose varieties to use for hedges is the Meilland, from France, which grows in dense shrubs that can reach up to 5 feet tall.