Rose gardens are loved by many – after all, they are the quintessential flower. Whether it be for a special occasion like Valentine’s Day or just a pretty flower option, roses are the first thought that pops into your head.
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For rose lovers who don’t want to keep spending $12 a stem for their bouquet, why not grow your very own in the garden? These rose garden ideas will help you plan, design and maintain a garden filled with your favourite blooms, taking inspiration from Australia’s best and brightest formal rose gardens.
Hear from Woolmer’s Estate rose expert Jane Burbury on the rose varieties that suit an Aussie climate and all of her best tips and tricks for growing a rose garden. Let’s dive into how to create your own rose garden:
If you’ve never grown roses before, there’s a whole planting world that awaits you. Follow our guides to learn all the ins and outs of caring for these blooming beauties:
Step one in the process of planning your rose garden is choosing the right spot. Jane explains that roses like at least 6 hours of sun each day – so it’s important to pick a spot for your garden that gets a good amount of sunlight. While most rose varieties are tolerant of cold winters and hot summers, they generally dislike warm, humid conditions. For the more humid climates in Australia, a rose may struggle, especially if there’s an undue amount of rain!
After you’ve found your ideal site for a rose garden, it’s time to get stuck into the planning. You can go with either a formal or informal garden; it all depends on what you prefer.
For a clean, structured landscape that is clearly laid out, you’ll enjoy a formal design. An informal approach will give you a more natural appearance, almost cottage garden-like, and allow you to easily mix other plants in.
Operating for almost 25 years, the Woolmer’s Estate Rose Garden is situated in Tasmania, the ideal cool climate for an exihibition garden of roses. Woolmers itself is a historic property founded in 1817, making it the perfect fit for an formal rose garden.
(Credit: Adobe Stock)
It was designed by landscape architect Oi Choong and follows a formal, parterre design. Roses are laid out by colour wash and rose variety with a mix of borders including buxus, English grass and red-ochre-coloured gravel.
Feel inspired by Woolmer’s Estate Rose Garden
Rose garden design ideas
Formal design
Jane mentions formal rose garden design as a concept that ‘focuses exclusively on the rose’. While Woolmer’s Estate does fall into that category, as do many of Australia’s rose gardens, including the Victorian State Rose Garden and some parts of the Palace Rose Garden in the Sydney Botanic Gardens.
These gardens use block planting of colour, variety and form as their basis for design, which, according to Jane, can be easily replicated at home. She recommends planting by variety in clumps of three, making sure colours do not clash with any neighbouring rose clumps. This will create a mini formal rose garden, which can then be built out with small hedges and pathways.
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Woolmers Estate follows a beautiful formal rose garden design with structured rose beds and hedges surrounding them.
Informal rose garden
Informal rose gardens are well within reach of the home gardener, mixing roses, bulbs and perennials to create a beautiful display from spring through to autumn. Choose a colour range for the roses, then include plants that contrast and complement their complexion.
Cottage gardens are all the rage at the moment, and a couple of rosebushes in between your herbs and hyacinths will work perfectly!
Companion plants for roses
Jane has given us her favourite companion plants for roses:
She also explains that a front hedge works wonders for the scraggly underside that rosebushes can have, “a neat front edge of Buxus, Alchemilla mollis or Nepeta (catmint) will highlight the beds.” But, it is also extremely important not to ‘overwhelm the roses’ as they like having their own space to grow.
The best type of roses to plant in Australia
Rose varieties that thrive in Australia are drought-tolerant and love lots of sun. In cool climate Tassie, Jane recommends the following:
‘Pamela Hutchins’, a glorious hot pink rose bred by Meilland. At its release in Australia, it was named after the original head rosarian at Woolmers.
‘Abraham Darby’ – a David Austin rose with a heavenly scent.
‘George Best’- named in honour of the Irish footballer, a lovely soft red floribunda that flowers continuously for months.
‘Winter Sun’ – a hybrid tea developed by Kordes, this is a beautiful soft yellow rose, lighter around the petal edge. It is very disease-resistant, vigorous, with glossy dark green foliage and a long flowering season, hence its name.
If you need to cover an unsightly wall or want an arbour covered with blooms, Jane has two varieties:
‘Pierre de Ronsard’- one of the best pillar/climbing roses. Flowers have white outer petals, changing to soft pink in the centre. Needs a supporting frame or wires on a wall.
‘Westerland’, bred by Kordes, forms our stunning 80 m long rose arbour, glowing in its shades of yellow, apricot, cream and orange.
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