Sunflower wrote:

"Groundswell" wrote in message

For me, the big strike against roses in large plantings is cleaning up
after pruning. Dealing with the branches from one plant isn't too bad,
but pruning and disposing of an entire hedge would be more work than
I'm willing to spend.

I'll definitely consider one or two of these, though.

You do NOT prune these types of roses like you do hybrid teas. Treat them
like any other flowering shrub you might be considering. When the bush is
mature, (3-4 years) remove about 1/3 of the oldest growth per year and trim
about 1/3 off of the remaining height of the shrub. Treating them like the
typical hybrid tea by pruning them down to 14" nubs will cause them to sulk
quite abit.

I'm sure it's all relative -- to me, the idea of taking out 1/3 (or 1/4 or 1/5)
of a 40 foot run of rose bushes (the area I'm trying to cover) then packing up
and disposing of the branches is more thorns than I'm willing to tackle.

Maybe if I had a chipper it wouldn't be as big a deal. But I think I'll stick
with a smaller planting.