You may wish to contact them by email, regarding this. In the catalog, it mentions 'Heritage' at 7 feet, when allowed to grow taller. As I don't really know which you have, as it is actually offered in Climbing form, and since they offer it as such, its only a matter of which form you have & if you have the shrub form, then just a matter of pruning it, to keep it at the desired height, by following their own instructions to remove 18" in warm climates & repeating it through the season, to encourage more compact growth. (While leaving a few inches to allow it to produce fresh new shoots, to repeat flowering...) But, it would seem to follow, that the non-climber form of' Heritage' may require a slightly greater amount of pruning of at minimum, several extra inches, to keep it closer to 5 ft. than some others may require.

My vote goes for RoseTone. I was very late this year applying fertilizer, but spring bloom looked about normal. Then I finally got around to applying RoseTone, and have had several notable candelabras since then. That doesn't bother me, however, since I am not a rose exhibitor. I just add an inconspicuous support under the candelabra if it looks like it might get too heavy to stay upright during the rain or winds, for instance. Kate

Gotcha, Mad gallica, on the shrubby thing. I don't want shrubby. The area is about a ten foot privacy wall between our driveway and our neighbor's property. There is only about two feet of clearance between the fence and the driveway, so shrubby definitely won't do it. At our old home I grew several of the David Austin roses with great success. I remember one of them, Abraham Darby--that is the type of graceful, arching aspect I am thinking of. Canes would get to be about 7-8 feet long, as I recall. I remember severely pruning it at the end of the season and then mounding some hay over it--i.e., no dramatic protection--and each year it bloomed just as beautifully. That is kind of what I am thinking of. I am also beginning to think that I am going to have to deal with mulch if I want to grow something really beautiful. Also--just for my own understanding: Climbers don't necessarily have to grow on old wood, correct? If I don't need to preserve the canes, then I could use any long-caned rose in that location, right? That's kind of where I am leaning. Sorry for all of the questions. Thank you again! philosopher

You're more likely to have a few canes with hard pruning than not, as has been pointed out stem tissue reduction reduces ability to grow back afterward. In fact, a British study showed that shearing bush roses like a hedge resulted in increased flower production over the beloved "opening up of the center". But if you think what is being done at the park is to your taste then by all means go for it. My only other comment is that I would not assume that what I saw happening at a public park was always the result of someone there being in the know. The fact that so many public parks continue to undertake things like formal bedding out of flowering plants in the first place shows that the thinking involved has often not changed in a very long time. Tradition and routine can be a big part of the culture in such settings. And pressure to keep things the same can come from outside, as well as within a parks organization. For instance, the testing-of-the-waters changing of one set of hanging flower baskets on the downtown streets here to harmonious pastels (instead of the traditional loud, clashing color combinations) one year resulted in an outcry. This post was edited by bboy on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 13:26