Making a Rose Hedge
The Antique Rose Emporium, Texas
http://www.antiqueroseemporium.com/culture.html
There are two basic types of hedges - formal and informal.
A large, informal hedge can replace a wall or privacy fence, or be used to disguise or soften an existing one. Members of the Shrub rose class, most of the Hybrid Musks, several of the Species roses, and individual varieties from other classes such as the China rose, ‘Mutabilis’, or the Rugosa, ‘Sir Thomas Lipton’ make excellent subjects for an informal hedge. This type of rose planting requires almost no care at all other than the basics of feeding, watering, and removing the occasional dead cane.
Roses can also be used to create a neat, formal, everblooming hedge that offers a great deal more color and interest than the traditional “green mustache” of shrubbery that hides the foundations of many modern houses. The keys to a formal appearance are not in trying to keep the bushes all precisely the same shape (continuous production of new bloom stalks will always make the bushes slightly irregular) and choosing one specific variety rather than trying to mix and match. China and Tea roses are excellent for hedges in the 4 to 6 foot range, with Polyanthas useful at shorter heights.
In order to create a really thick hedge, the rose bushes can be planted in a double row or staggered in zig-zag fashion to maintain appropriate intervals between plants.
If the bushes are pruned back hard the first year or two, they will fill out vigorously with uniform thick growth. After the plants are established, the hedge can be simply sheared to the required height once or twice a year (late February and late August in the South) and left alone to bloom.
Thanks for the post, I have done some of the right things but you post will keep me from repeating my mistake of not doubling the planting, zig - zag. I think that I will extend the hedge next year.