PenPalAnna
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Rose Bush Hedge

My husband and I want to make a hedge out of roses. It would be roughly 200ft long. What type of rose do you suggest? I have been looking at the knockout roses. they seem like a good variety but I'm not sure.

PenPalAnna
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I would say about 3 -4 feet. Also should I just do one color. We kinda want different colors, but I was told it would not look that good.

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rainbowgardener
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Knock outs are very easy to grow low maintenance. I don't grow roses, but I have several friends and a neighbor that have the KO roses. This is just my personal prejudice and I'm sure tons of people will shout me down, but I don't love the KO's. Being perpetually covered with kind of ball like flowers in day-glo colors, they look kind of fakey to me. Most of them are not fragrant (though I guess if you look for them carefully, there may be 1 or 2 fragrant KO varieties)

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rainbowgardener
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And I agree with Mg (as usual!) that what you need is a color scheme. 200 feet of all one color would be boring. But a random assortment of unrelated colors really reduces the impact as well. In a way it's almost like all the colors kind of cancel each other out. If you have some kind of strong color scheme, it stands out in the landscape a lot more.

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rainbowgardener
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Continuing on with color scheme discussion, since we seem to have lost the edit function.

As well as the related/ complementary colors Mg suggested, you could also do contrasts, if done carefully. You wouldn't want a stripey effect like red - white - red - white. What you want in that case is a major color and a minor color. So you could do, for example, a hedge of mainly red roses, with 1/4 - 1/3 of them scattered through being white roses (or of course vice versa). The contrasting accent color, will wake it up and make everything pop, so you don't get the boringness of 200 feet of red. You can do that with one major color and one minor color or you can do it with one major color and two (related) minor colors, say a hedge of white roses with a few red and a few pink, mixed in as accents. No more than that or you are back to the jumble effect.

Mg's version is easier and more forgiving and a softer effect. If you like energy and excitement, the high contrast would be more of that. I'm the high contrast kind of gal -- my front yard is all done in purples and yellows -- but that is strictly personal preference.

superschwein22
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Just had to chime in on the color scheme. I have always liked red flowers. When I started my garden last year and I started purchasing plants, I realized that, without thinking about it, I picked yellow, blue and purple and never red. Go figure...
This year, I am putting a little bit of everything when it comes to the annuals just to get an idea of what color scheme I am really looking for before I continue to buy perennials and then later realize I don't like them.
However, my point is that sometimes you think you will like a certain color and find you end up going for something different. My advice is to look at gardens wherever you go and see what combinations you like. Or image google it and see what really works for you

PenPalAnna
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Thank you everyone for your help. I think we will go with complementry colors. one color is just to boring.

PenPalAnna
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We just bought 8 knock out roses from Lowe's. They were $9.98 but 50% off. As soon as I eat and the rain stops I will be diggin!. :D



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