"dave weil" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Oct 2003 22:17:10 GMT, in rec.gardens.roses you wrote:



The space is 6.5 feet by 16 feet. I need some ideas about how to make
the
area look nice. How many roses can I put in that area? Should I use
decorative rock? Should I make a path through the middle, so I can walk
through and prune roses? Should I kill the grass with chemicals, or
remove
them without chemicals?
What would YOU do if it was your project?

First of I wouldn't use chemicals to 'kill' the grass.
Easiest way is to get a plastic sheet and cover it for
3-4 weeks which will 'cook' it.

Next I'd make the area near the wall into a 3' deep
raised bed to about 24'. this will make it oh so easier
to clean and prune. Also the level changes will allow
you to fill the fore& back ground with color.

The bench idea by tom is pretty good.
Bird feeders there though will attract cats to
the top of wall from where they might attempt
flying leaps @ the birds.

Its pretty obvious that if you put in roses they
will be fairly close to you. So try putting scented
varieties. And wait for them to surprise you. Thorny
giants should be a no-no.

If you can put a Felicia in there. My scented in
the heat and sun favorite. For some reason
cool weather reduces Felicias scent.

Here in Nashville, I haven't found that to be the case so much, but
then again, cool weather here is different than cool weather in KC. It
gets cool at night but it's almost up to 70 now. But I just went
outside and checked and, sure enough, the blooms that are there are
still pretty bold in scent.

One thing about Felicia. If the poster is going to do Felicia, it will
take up almost a third of the space. Nothing wrong with that of
course. It tends to grow in an arching style so, while its "footprint"
is only a couple of feet wide, the top of the plant stretches to 6 to
8 feet wide. Mine has stayed about 6 feet high at max after the second
full season. It is fairly susceptable to black spot. Also, if I were
to do it all over again, I would be fairly agressive with pruning at
the end of the first year. I've found that the bottom growth is fairly
woody and it's starting to get a little 'top-heavy" (although I notice
that there is new growth coming from some of the woody parts). I'll
try to post a couple of pics that shows what I'm talking about, but
that will have to wait until tomorrow, probably.

Felicia doesn't do much in the middle of the summer. But spring and
fall are great. The smell is wonderful (musky, spicy smell) and when
it's in full bloom, you can smell it from a mile away. One downside is
that the blooms are fairly short-lived and aren't very useful for vase
cutting. You can use them and they look nice, but only for about a day
or two.

So right dave. I just noticed that in real 100f plus heat Felicia
is the only one that gets even more scented. It still has a scent
in cool weather. Everything else is spot on.

Theo