EDWARDS — Kay Turner has been integrating roses into her landscape for more than 10 years. They are not planted in fussy straight lines like one sees in a formal rose garden but are nestled in with her foundation plants in the front yard, along the fence row, on arbors and around several out buildings on their property in Edwards.

“I have a few rose bushes in my yard,” Turner told me when she invited me to speak to the Bolton-Edwards Garden Club recently. She has more than a few, and most of them are the older antique varieties that are oh-so-fragrant and easy to grow.

Two large urns of aspidistra stand sentinel under tall pines and mark the entrance to her front garden area from the driveway. One walks by a bright blue bottle tree, a crescent of Glorybower trees, azaleas and a camellia she rooted from a cutting. Her favorite roses are planted here, she explained. They sit in front and among beds of huge old hollies, variegated pittosporum and other evergreen foundation shrubs in front of the house.

Cecile Brunner, one of the most beloved roses of all time with its perfect, little pink rosettes, and Mutablis or Butterfly rose, whose single blooms open buff-yellow, changing to pink and finally crimson with all three colors appearing simultaneously on the bush, are in full bloom now near the steps leading to her front door.

A Heritage and two Belinda’s Dream roses reside there as well. Belinda’s Dream is a relatively new rose, introduced in 1992. It flowers freely during thesummer with delicious, pink fragrant blooms and has bluish green foliage.

A sprawling Old Blush, a popular rose grown for at least 200 years that has passed on its incredible blooming prowess to countless rose cultivars developed through western hybridization, twists and climbs around one of the columns on the front porch. Turner grew this one from a rooted cutting clipped from a bush that belonged to her grandmother. Modern Double Red Knockouts grow alongside the older varieties.

A Peggy Martin rose dominates the bed in the center of the front yard. This is the rose that survived Hurricane Katrina and received a big write-up in Southern Living magazine several years ago. A truly vigorous climbing rose, it almost covers a 6-foot triangular support that Turner’s husband, Doug, built for it. A yellow Graham Thomas, a Madame Antoine Mari and pink Knockouts are in the same bed with an under planting of variegated Artemisia.

Four New Dawn ramblers with pale pink, fairly-double blooms are planted on a huge arbor in the fenced-in backyard and are visible from the den. New Dawn was introduced in 1930 and bears the U.S. patent No. 1, the first rose ever patented under federal regulations. Along the fence are Mme. Isaac Pereire, Buff Beauty, Perle des Jardins, Duchesse de Brabant (Thomas Jefferson’s favorite rose to wear on his lapel), Zephrine Drouhin (pink and thornless) and Dr. W. Van Fleet (parent of New Dawn).

Maggie, Carefree Beauty, Puerto Rico, Formosa, Climbing Pinkie and a Natchez cemetery rose that she got from Dr. Dirt can be found in the back along with her tomatoes and other vegetables. Birdhouses created by her husband can be spotted throughout the back and front areas including a special bluebird box that towers over an enclosed bed that Turner uses for old-fashioned zinnias, cleome and black-eyed susans.

“I don’t water, feed or spray them,” Turner said. They do have a robust compost pile located in a shady spot in the back so the soil they use at planting time is thoroughly enriched, and they are mulched with organic material which breaks down and provides nourishment.

The old roses are definitely tough and many are still with us only because they were planted in cemeteries and around old home sites where they were left untouched for many years before they became popular with modern gardeners who are looking for easy-care plants.

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Miriam Jabour, a Master Gardener and Master Flower Show judge, has been active in the Openwood Plantation Garden Club for over 35 years. Write to her at 1114 Windy Lake Drive, Vicksburg, MS 39183.