On Sun, 13 Jul 2003 15:47:19 GMT, "Kellie J. Berger"
wrote:
If you had to pick some roses to make a long hedge (probably w/o a
supporting fence), and wanted something w/o much maintenance, what would
you choose? Oh... In Houston TX zone 8/9, don't care if it has thorns or
not, repeat blooms and/or fast growing would be nice, but not necessary.
Been following the CB thread with interest, but not sure that would work w/o
a fence.
Kellie
One thing to remember is that in a lot of climtates, many roses
defoliate during the winter. Are you cool with this or do you want an
opaque hedge?
Do you want something that can be trimmed into a fairly regular shape,
do you want a sort of "billowy" "cloudlike" hedge, or do you just want
something that separates one area from another?
If you don't mind a defoliating, arching form, fast growing,
once-blooming, orange/red hipped in the winter, green applely smelling
foliaged, cute litte five lobed pink old rosey bloomed, heavily
armored and densely branched plant, then sweet briar rose is your
man...eh...plant. It's even mentioned in Shakespeare - that's how
venerable it is.
This sucker grows big- fast! Mine is in its third season and has a
wingspread of 19 feet and it's about 7 feet tall.. It only blooms for
a month in the spring but it blooms pretty profusely during that
period. It attracts bees for pollen. It is definitely self-supporting
and grows in a sort of elongated umbrella style. It is very dense, not
only with entangled branches but also with a massive amount of
different sized thorns.
Five of them would easily cover a line of 100 feet and you should plan
for at least 10 -15 feet wide from front to rear. One thing, mine has
tended to grow with its width facing the axis of the sun. It has
definitely grown wide from north to south, presenting the "front" as
it were to the east/west axis. So, you might want to take this into
consideration when planning your hedge line, *if* you decide on this
kind of hedge. What I'm saying is that, if you aren't careful, you
might have plants that grow at angles to each other, if you can
envision this.
Here are three shots of my plant, the first when I first planted it
three years ago (about 3 months after planting), the second from May
2002 and the third from May of this year:
http://mywpages.comcast.net/ddweil2/SweetBriar1st.jpg
http://mywpages.comcast.net/ddweil2/SweetBriar2nd.jpg
http://mywpages.comcast.net/ddweil2/...riar5.8.03.jpg
BTW, the dimensions in the last shot are 19 feet wide by almost 7 feet
tall (the plant is about 10 feet fromthat facing edge to the opposite
edge - envision an ellipse shape from above). My back is to the
morning sun and there's a definte "front" that's developed (which is
sort of angled in relation to my house - it's about 30 degrres off
paralell). I've read that this bush can easily get 10 - 15 feet tall
in certain climates. Remember, this is a plant that's only been in the
ground for 3 years this spring. It's about this time of year that it
really throws out a lot of new growth. I just went outside to look at
it, and the tallest upright canes are now about 8 ft. tall and they
are quite thick, so it might be another foot or two before they start
to arch downward, which is the general shape of the plant. It's really
starting to develop a canopy "umbrella" shape, but part of that is
that I've been selectively trimming lower canes so that I can mow
under it (it was tough last year, because i didn't want to trim much
at all). My point is that this won't be a hedge that seems to be solid
from the ground up, like a boxwood.
If you can deal with the short blooming period, you'll love this plant
for a hedge. The neat thing is, this is one of the few roses that has
aromatic leaves. When they get wet, they smell like green apples.
Hope this helps.
Oh yeah, here's a closeup of the blooms. Each bloom only lasts about 2
or 3 days, but they grow in groups where one blooms then the others
bloom sequentially. Each bloom is only about 2 inches or so.
http://mywpages.comcast.net/ddweil2/...riarBlooms.jpg