Peony advise

Mojisola

gardenroute wrote: »

http://www.gardenseeker.com/roses/rose_sickness.htm

Rose sickness is a completely different thing to moving roses. If you grow roses in the same place for a long time then you may have problems establishing another rose in that place, although this can be prevented by using fungi like Rootgrow at the time of replanting.

Moving a rose from one position to another is straightforward and there's no reason why it shouldn't grow away well.

ginvzt

lostinrates wrote: »

I hope it helps. FWIW I'd keep the cheryy and the crab apple,and climb roses up them. Crabapple jelly is the very best and it provides a good vehicle for a climber....

Well, I would keep the cherry if it was a proper cherry - it is a decorative one, so it only flowers, which is nice, but then no fruit I have a minarette cherry from Ken Muir going in the pot (bought last year), and I was hoping to put some fruit trees (dwarf, minarettes, etc) after I got rid of leylandiis.I have some rhododendrons in the garden too. I think I will keep two of them, but the small one on the south facing will will probably go.

The crab apple is out of control, as is the cooking apple - we need to trim them back and into some sort of the shape. It looks like the garden wasn't looked after for quite a few years.

Right, I am going to look at some more roses today, then order stuff over the weekend.

ginvzt

Ok, that is the place that is available (minus the shrub and added the planter to contain the soil between the slabs):

lostinrates

ginvzt wrote: »

Ok, that is the place that is available (minus the shrub and added the planter to contain the soil between the slabs):

You know, I think I'd rethink the rose. I love them, but everytime you walk out with out a coat fastened in the wind past the rose to the garage it might catch on thorns and do damage. If like me, you like roses even more than clothes its a differnt story!

ginvzt

lostinrates wrote: »

You know, I think I'd rethink the rose. I love them, but everytime you walk out with out a coat fastened in the wind past the rose to the garage it might catch on thorns and do damage. If like me, you like roses even more than clothes its a differnt story!

If I got rose, I would plant it in the far left corner, then peony mid-left, and something else front left (but a bit less to the left than rose). This way rose would be out of the way. Unless I would decide I have to go and stand in front of the window - never do that anyway. I think the clothes might be safe this way.

Any other ideas if I do not go for rose?

lostinrates

ginvzt wrote: »

If I got rose, I would plant it in the far left corner, then peony mid-left, and something else front left (but a bit less to the left than rose). This way rose would be out of the way. Unless I would decide I have to go and stand in front of the window - never do that anyway. I think the clothes might be safe this way.

Any other ideas if I do not go for rose?

Personally, in the the reasonably spot I'd be tempted to have containers in rotation with seasonal things in....white cyclamen in the cold months, white geraniums in the summer (which through inter might keep flowering on the window sill inside there)....white spring bulbs in the spring... but its requires some, not much efort moving stuff four ties a year, and means you have three sets of containers to find space for the rest of the time.

If you wanted something earlier than your peony to share space then Daphne is a nice thing ...will be blooming soon and smells great. Or surround with different white irises, for white flowers of a very different shape. I have white hellebore planted for this time of year, white wall flowers, white violets for later...as well of a host of other white things...white aqueligias white poppies,mock orange etc etc.



TBH, its a difficult thing to choose for other people! Though our taste sounds similar!

Or, a radical idea, you could have lawn chamomile, flat, low maintainace and enjoy stamping on it when you come in and out for the scent. And still have your peony too.

ginvzt

Here we go, that is my idea:

gardenroute

Mojisola, your're right moving a rose is different. But digging up a rose and then moving a few inches/a foot is surely the same as planting a rose where one has previoiusly grown. The 'affected' soil doesn't know its the same rose. It might be fine, but why not plant it in the right spot to start with?
That root grow fungus does help in some situations, but it isn't a miracle-working panacea. Most soils contain these fungi anyway. The only way IMHO is to sink a cardboard box into the ground and plant into it.

Ginvzt, its your garden but I would at least think about these points:

1. It looks like a suntrap with little air circulation. Make sure the rose you choose is a strong growing variety. A lot of roses would be prone to mildew, etc in those conditions.
2. The lov will look messy for most of the summer, again being baked in the sun. The peony might look a bit ragged in a hot summer as well.
3. Up against a house I think you need something bolder/sculptural and larger. Its too close to the path for something arching or spiky. How about box topiary, statue/bird bath, a plant such as a cordyline or astelia in a pot, or archectural tree like Acacia pravissima? Plants with large leaves or a dense form would show up against the pattern of the brickwork. This could have a gravel top-dressing as well, or with bedding for seasonal variation and colour.
4.The plants you chose are nice plants, but it gives a cottage garden look that doesn't fit the strong lines of the front garden and house.
5. I cut and pasted this quote about scale

Scale within the garden, as distinct from the overall scale of the garden as discussed earlier, refers to the harmony of the garden. That is, all the elements of a garden should agree in the sense they convey of the size of the whole. The actual size of an object is different from its relative scale or proportion in relation to other neighboring objects. So scale is concerned with the relationship between the size of an object to the size of the other objects within the same composition. Thus, a tiny alpine plant is out of scale among tall trees, just as it would be planted next to a large building.

from this website : http://www.gardenaesthetics.com/DESIGN.htm

The point being that from a distance those plants would look 'lost' up against a two-storey building.

6. There's a lot of room on the other side of the path for roses, etc.
7. IMHO simple but strong, symmetrical planting always looks better in these situations.
8. You could print out that photo, trace over it and draw a shape to visually 'fill' that gap. Look at the shape and decide what's the closest thing you can do to mimic that shape.
9. Your something else? Convolvulus cneorum is about that size and would give you a long display of white flowers, or a pelagonium.

ginvzt

gardenroute - thank you for all the advise.

On the other side of the path is a bit of the lawn with a big tree and some hedge. We cannot change the landscape of the front garden, and if we remove tree/etc., we need to replace it with something similar 9if you remove a big tree, you are supposed to replace with another tree, smaller if you wish). The tree gives shadow in the lawn, so we wouldn't really be able to plant anything there.

I love the convolvulus cneorum - I might take it up.

I am still considering just one plant, and then planting other more seasonal flowers/plants around. I can't plant anything tall, as I need light in that living room. I hope redecorating in light colours will help with the light levels in that room, but if I grow something covering the window too much, it will not work.

The old bus seen in the photo worked ok, but it was out shape due to previous owners not trimming it, and it had to many 'empty' spots/holes. Also, I would have loved to have more flowers, that is why I thought about peony. OH loves roses, so this suggestion is very good one.

emiff6

What about clematis? They don't have to be trained 'upwards', and look very pretty tumbling down over planters, especially the smaller flowered types, like montana or the macropetala ones. You could put 2 or 3 in there, flowering at different times to get a longer flowering time.