I have 4 Martha Gonzalez, and they are not pretty. They are difficult to dead head, and are not thriving well. I think that for the area, I needed to enhance the soil better, and I needed a more efficient watering system.

We live in Tulsa, 4 hours north of you, and the heat from the street, and sidewalk radiates to the rose, and perhaps makes them much hotter than the rest of the garden. Since my garden often gets away from me, I have not regularly added compost, and mulch. I also haven't watered as much as the area demands. The roses are alive, but not in bloom as much as they should be.

If I had it to do over, I would put in a rose with a bigger flower. I would dig out the dirt deeper than is necessary, and fill it with a good mixture that will hold the water, and also allow it to drain. (More than likely, I only dug out the area that the individual roses are in, and not the entire plot.

Last year I added some Vinca, and they were pretty for awhile, but perhaps you need some contrast plants to the roses - some other plants that really love the heat, and can share it. For my area I am thinking about Mexican Heather, or a large salvia.

Good luck.
I am going to watch here for other suggestions.

Sammy

I'm going to try some smaller rugosas, they don't need spray, road salt tolerant.

Eric

I think it sounds like a great idea, then you can bless all those neighbors that walk and drive by. I have 4 Abraham Darby between the street and what would be the sidewalk, if we had sidewalks (we have horse trails in front) it is about 40 feet long. I have 2 trees on either side and roses in the middle with some kind of purple ground cover in between. It looks really pretty. I don't have any pictures as of yet.

I sure I've seen a few picture posts here on the forum with
gardens planted in this manner.My only concern with the idea would be having thorns reaching out into the sidewalk.
I know my town has restrictions on certain plants growing next to sidewalks.Perhaps you should check into that. I know I always have a problem with rose bush's growing out into my driveway. I'm always pruning so people don't get hurt.
Mark

Since it's 6 feet wide, I would plant roses right in the center so they shouldn't grow out into the sidewalk or street. I probably would keep narrow strip of grass on street side so that they can get out of cars in the street. I don't know yet. It's 120 feet long and I would only turn maybe 20 feet of it into garden so there should be plenty of parking space elsewhere. Even the park across the street. Having lack of space to get out of car on the street even though there's a lot of space elsewhere may become an issue with the city or HOA president who is an idiot but that's another story.

Since you live on a corner, keep in mind that you don't want plants and roses that get too tall so that it impedes a driver's vision when they pull up to the corner.

If you like pink, CHINA DOLL is a thornless, low-growing poly that is in constant bloom all summer. They look great with daylilies, and perhaps some liriope or other low-growing clump perennial grasses.
-terry

What bothers me the most about my roses that grow close to the sidewalk is how often they get stolen! Maybe with extremely floriferous semi-doubles it won't be as painful, but with my hybrid teas and David Austin it just breaks your heart to be waiting and waiting for a beloved bud to open and come out one morning and find it ripped away. Maybe your neighborhood is better than mine! Good luck!

The rose bed would be located in the middle. I'm going to leave front part of the strip all grass so friends can get out of the car. The other half is never used for anything anyway. Risk of theft is probably the biggest reason that would keep me from building it. I don't plan on planting hybrid or anything that would be very attractive to be stolen. Just common cheap stuff that you can get anywhere like Belinda's dream, Ducher, Mutablis, and whatever is on Texas A&M earthkind list. Another reason for wanting to plant those roses is that my soil is highly alkaline. That's one area that earthkind roses must be able to tolerate. I have mutablis growing right into caliche soil but the soil is much improved after several years of organic program and generous mulching.

I have two WS2000 growing on either side of my driveway between the sidewalk and the street. I was concerned about the reflected heat, so I left a good mulched area around the roses. The biggest problem for me is dog walkers that let their dogs "mark" the roses so I have to think twice every time I want to smell those roses :-)
Masha

Never, ever plant classic HTs in the color red. They get stolen.
I did that in New Orleans and the first year, I got to see the buds fold sepals down. The second year, the buds were stolen before they showed color.

Now for the up side: Plant single blooming roses. Reason: they don't look like grocery store roses so they have no value and generally are never stolen. I used The Fairy along the sidewalk: never stolen. Also Betty Prior: one time someone took an entire cane, but aside from that it was never touched.

I have yellow roses (Grandma's yellow aka Nacogdoches) but no way I'd plant them in the strip. I'm pretty sure everybody would at least cut roses off for themselves.

What about the thorn issue? What if kids ride bike into the rose bush and get thorns all over? I'm afraid one scratch on the kid and their parents sue me for it. I can picture HOA president ordering Trugreen to spray herbicide on them. The park is across the street and HOA president hired TruBurn to treat the park with all kinds of poison for weeds and pest. I strongly objected against it but he didn't care. I do. I have a kid and he doesn't. I even planted trees there asked by previous board members but current board refused to help me maintain trees to ensure their survival during first year when it was not raining. I had to sneak out and turn sprinkler system on at night. It's ridiculous that he cared more about getting rid of weeds than keeping trees alive!

Ha, ha, ha. I have to laugh at myself, when you guys were talking about your roses getting stolen, I was thinking the whole plant (duh) I'm still laughing at myself. I couldn't imagine what kind of neighborhood you lived in that someone would dig up all your roses. I hope you guys get a kick out of my stupidity, I sure did. Lori

Gymmom,

Actually, I think that did happen. I seem to recall over in Texas gardening forum talking about how someone managed to dig the whole plant up with thorns everywhere and took off in the middle of the night! While it is relatively easy to dig it up, I can't imagine doing that to fully grown rose bush!

This would look great. Plus it would give you more privacy in your yard and garden. The only problem that I see is that you are going to leave a strip on the road side. The roses you mentioned get to be 6' wide and there's no room for a strip of grass unless you plan on mowing UNDER the roses, which would be a pain. My suggestion would be to make it 6' wide, underplant with lantana, which can take the heat and look beautiful all season long.
Most of the earthkind roses are great, but I would avoid Martha Gonzales. That's just a plain ugly rose (to me). Ducher is great, Mutabilis is great, Jean Bach Sisley is great but I don't know if it has made the EarthKind list - it SHOULD. I don't spray and it's one of my best roses. Cramosi Superior, which I don't know if it is on the Earthkind list, but it is the best rose I grow if you are looking for showiness from a distance and overall health. This rose is covered in blooms from the ground all the way up, and is full and twiggy from the ground all the way up. I wish all roses had as beautiful of a form as Cramosi Superior. Most of the Chinas are similar to that.
My sister is not a rose gardener, and doesn't have time to take care of anything, and I planted those 3 roses along her road, with 5 Duchers on one side, 5 Mutabilis in the middle, and 5 Cramosi Superiors on the other side. It looks gorgeous, and she barely even waters it.

A story from New Orleans metro.
At Home Depot the man in line behind me was buying twelve roses. I asked him why and he said that the previous day he looked out in his yard, and his neighbors paving stones were there. (it had been very wet.) When he went out his front door, the paving stones led from his driveway to the holes where his roses had been. The roses had been pulled out of the wet soil by the roots and only holes were left.

Thanks cweathersby. I drove around in the nearby neighborhood to see if anyone did anything similar and there are a few that planted trees in the strip but no shrubs of any kind. Since I live on a corner lot, I may try and convert corner part of the lot into rose bed and see how that goes. At least I'd get to see it a lot more from inside the house rather than the side where there's no windows to look at the roses in the side strip.

You would think rose bushes, of all things would be safe from thieves. Thats pretty gutsy to steal someones rose bushes right out of the ground, I hope they ended up with a hand full of thorns and a dead plant.

That wasn't really very nice of me, I need to apologize.

You might want to check with your local gov't (probably Street Dept or Forestry Dept) before you plant anything in this area. Many municipalities have regulations on what can or cannot plant in this space.

gymmom411--no, you don't need to apologize. While we might not want to punish the rose itself, I think a handful of thorns might be an appropriate consequence for rose-theft, don't you? LOL

Kate

Thanks Kate, I was starting to feel a little bit guilty LOL. So far no one has stolen the roses I have out front although they did steal this cute little wishing well that my parents gave me. Don't people feel bad for taking something that doesn't belong to them? It just amazes me!

I dont know if this helps, but I could recommend "Home Run" for a street rose. It is a single, red, five petals, very floriferous. Repeats fast. Flowers are large. ( I think it might be a Grandiflora) It is "disease free", but mine does get a little Cercospora (sp?) meaning black dots on leaves in late fall( no defoliation) it also makes hips, if you let her make them. Look it up, you might like it. Btw, the flowers open the truest red, but as they age they turn red-purple. I like mine, and it's carefree. Nobody would steal it, it's THORNY.