Golden showers about to be planted.. any tips..?

I have recently ordered 3 Golden shower roses which as you all probably know is a climbing rose. I am very new to gardening and am hoping to train the three roses horizontally along my fence about 3 feet apart. I am told that training them horizontally produces the most flowers. I have not yet received them and am told that they will arrive around oct - nov time.

My question is basically do you guys have any tips for success? These are the first roses i have planted and they will be planted straight into my lawn. How far apart should i plant them and, since i have time, is there anything that i can do to the soil to prepare it for their arrival?

I want these to be a great success as they will make a fantastic feature in my garden up against the blue fence they will be climbing. I have to apply the trellis to this and have read that it should be about 5cm off the fence to allow room to grow and very sturdy so the plant does not damage the trellis and pull it down.

Any more tips?

The newbie

 

I think one of the most important things would be to get the hole the right size for the plant, and to be ready for delivery. It sounds like your roses will be coming as a bare root plant, this means that the roots will have no soil on them when they arrive.

I would make sure that the holes are well dug, and relatively deep, so that the roots that the rose produces are able to move through the soil easily. Not knowing what type of soil you have, I don't want to suggest a process that may not be needed. For example, if you were planting your rose into a heavy clay soil, then I would suggest that you incorporate organic matter to help break up the clay.
If on the other hand have a nice loam soil, then the addition of organic matter may not be needed, and you could incorporate a general fertiliser instead.

As for attaching to the trellis, I'm not too sure what you are trying to do. A photo of the location may help to go with your description.

Hope this Helps!

 

Brilliant, thanks for your answer. I'll get the camera out and upload a photo when I have worked out how to do it. In the meantime, how do I know what type of soil I have? I have heard of ph neutral but, although I understand ph values don't really know for sure what that means. I take it that ph neutral means 0 on the ph scale?

I have read that roses like an acidic soil, is this true? If so how do I acheive this, vinegar?