Rose garden

I received 6 lovely roses for my anniversary/retirement, in pots, and am in the middle of making them a new bed, nice sunny position. They are a range of colours and have been bought for their names eg Keep in Touch. I also have some vouchers I would like to spend, and have an excellent rose nursery nearby, but doubt much will be in flower now.
Could anyone give me suggestions of 4 relatively disease resistant tried and tested varieties to go with them? Colour not important,but fragrant would be nice. We get black spot quite badly. I was also thinking of putting a climber at one end, where I already have a trellis, maybe Gertrude Jekyll .
A slightly different problem, I had a lovely Mermaid up against the house which died in the bad winter 2 years ago, but I have heard that you shouldn't plant a new rose where an old one has been, so I was thinking of using a big tub to put one in. Does anyone have a suggestion for a climber which would tolerate morning shade,faces west,and survive in a large tub?

 

You don't necessarily need to use a tub. I planted a Gertrude Jekyll this summer where a rose stood previously. You just need to dig out a decent sized hole to remove all the soil, then replace with soil from elsewhere in the garden

I added lots of John Innes No 3 compost, a few handfuls of manure and mixed it in with the fresh soil, then planted the new rose.

I am sure our resident rose expert, WOO, will be along at some stage to give you some recommendations

 

What a lovely gift for you. Great there is a good nursery nearby, roses are bought bare root at this time of year and its the time to plant them now (as long as the ground isn't frozen) as a general rule they are cheaper than those bought after march which are termed potted.

You can get a very good idea of what roses will look like by having a look at the following sites – but some wait until the summer and visit local rose gardens to see the roses in bloom before they make their selection.

Here's a link to RHS rose collections:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/RHS-Recommended-Gardens/Features/Rose-collections

Heres some suppliers links for you to browse
David Austin Roses http://www.davidaustinroses.com/english/SlipGate.asp
Peter Beal's roses http://www.classicroses.co.uk/ (largest collection of roses atm over 1000)
Harkness roses http://www.roses.co.uk/
Cockers roses http://www.roses.uk.com/

There are some great sticky threads on roses by the lovely wise old owl which are really useful:

planting roses
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/planting-roses.6225/

pruning roses
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/...ose-family-reference-sheet.10915/#post-623935

pests and diseases
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/...ose-family-their-cures-reference-sheet.10916/

this book lists the most popular roses and details their resistance
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Rose-Expert-Dr-Hessayon/dp/0903505479/reftsr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355478728&sr=8-1

u can borrow mine if u like just pm me

I am sure woo will be along soon to advise you better than me. as your questions are quite specific and i am still a novice

i heard mermaid is really nice did u like it?

 

Thank you very much Chimneyrosegarden for all the practical advice, I enjoyed reading all your posts about your garden and look forward to seeing its progress over the years. And thank you for the suggested varieties Wiseoldowl, just what I needed to focus my mind, there are so many lovely roses out there.i have Golden Showers up a wall against the house, think I paid 99p in Wilko's many years ago and it does very well with very little care from me. I love the look of Chinatown,so pretty. So I will visit the Country Garden Plant Centre next week, and hope they have your short list available. they have a sale on ATM, I might even be Lucky!
I did love my Mermaid as my dad used to grow it. Only single blooms, but very good colour,lovely stamens. His suffered an accident one day when he was trying to shoot a rat with his shotgun, he was a keen sportsman, and the rat kept running up his grapevine. sadly he hit Mermaid instead, just at soil level. She never recovered from the shock.

 

Although it was pouring with rain, went off to the garden centre today in my wellies with my friend plus umbrellas, and probably bought too many:( but what can you do! Chinatown, queen Elizabeth, compassion, Gertrude Jekyll, and a half price one, baron girod de l'ain, which i just fancied for the romantic name and the unusual white edging to the petals. Plenty of root grow as well.will post pics when I make a start.