Rugosa Roses for Shady Fence?

[momo]

I want to plant a nice informal hedge in front of my new fence, I'd like something prickly to discourage any kids with spray paint from getting close. I was hoping that there would be enough sun for Rugosa Roses, which do well here, need minimal water, and are pretty and prickly

I've been doing some exposure research and the area gets about 6 hours of dappled sun and 1 hour of full sun per day during the middle of summer.

This picture is of the fence at noon:


If Rugosas won't do well, I was considering Mahonia instead. Any advice?

[Kisal]

I can't say whether Mahonia would work, without doing some research first.

My experience with roses, however, has been that they must have early morning sun, to rapidly dry any moisture that collected overnight on the leaves and stems. Otherwise, they will constantly be afflicted with mildew and black spot. I had roses on trellises on the west side of my house. They grew beautifully, but in order to control various diseases, I was having to spray them far too frequently. I got fed up with that really quickly, and moved them to the fence on the east side of my house. They never had any further problems with diseases. Now, that was just my personal experience. Someone else might have had great luck with roses in shady areas.

[momo]

The fence faces east and the only full sun it does get is in the morning from about 9-10 am. The western garden book lists roses as sun or part shade, but later on says plant in full sun or with light afternoon shade in the hottest climates. I've seen roses doing well in part shade around here, I'm just worried that this particular spot doesn't have enough sun.

The fence is right along the road and I really want to plant something pretty there, but I'm getting discouraged

[Kisal]

Have you considered pyracantha? Thorns, pretty flowers, pretty berries, attractive to wildlife, grows in sun to shade.

[momo]

Looked good at first but... I need something a bit smaller, I've got 13 ft from fence to curb and people walk by a lot so I want to leave 3 ft free of plants.

Thanks for the help though!

[cynthia_h]

When Sunset talks about "the hottest climates," they're referring to places like Phoenix, Arizona, or the Mojave Desert. Sunset's hottest climate zones.

Santa Rosa, on the border between Sunset climate zones 14 and 15, isn't what Sunset means by the "hottest" climates. I think you'd be OK to plant the rugosas.

I've struggled vs. pyracantha, and the mess the birds make in December/January around here when the berries are ripe is unbelievable. It's like having a plum tree drop fruit on the sidewalk, except that the birds do *not* confine their--ah--discharges to the sidewalk. When the birds eat a surfeit of berries, they act as if they're drunk. Their sense of orientation goes away. They fly into the walls of houses (not glass windows--exterior walls). They fly into cars. They--ah--throw up. They...hm...make a mess.

We had a pyracantha in Berkeley. 17 years I struggled with that thing. We couldn't take it completely out, because it blocked a gap between a retaining wall and our fence. So I dealt with "pyracantha berry bird mess" for a l-o-n-g time.

No info here on Mahonia; I have no experience with it that I know of.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9