Dear Kanuk, Glad to share my experiences. Unfortunately, hybrid rugosas do not make good cut flowers. They drop their petals rather quickly. Sufficiently long stems are always in short supply, too. So it is best to enjoy them in the garden. Also, there is a strong tendency for hyb. rugosas grown on their own roots to 'run at the root' that is, send up suckers, true to the parent plan.They spread over the years in all directions eventually becoming a community/colony with no major crown, but having several canes emerging from the ground spaced at 4-10" intervals. This habit is ideal if one is using hybrid rugosas as a hedge. The canes fill in all the available vacant spaces of ground in the hedge. They will not become so dense so as to choke the bush to a stunted mess, but reach an equilibrium "No more cane space here, must move onto new ground," they could be saying if they spoke. In the already conquered territory only dead canes are replaced. New canes expand farther and farther out in all directions. This is not a good growth habit if one wants a bush that stays put. I hope your RDLH is grafted, it will be easier to control. When grown on a rootstock, such as is Pickering Nursery's cultural practice, suckering is rare. This Canadian nursery of yours is much beloved by so many US customers. It uses rootstock on almost all its roses, and uses multiflora rootstock. Hybrid rugosas grated/grown on multiflora rootstock are very unlikely to send runners unless planted too deply. My next favorite hybrid rugosa is 'Schneekoppe," (Snow Carpet), a refined hybrid rugosa....so many hybrid rugosas have sloppy flowers...comes with the territory. Cupped white blooms with a hint of lilac on a three ft. tall bush. The cupped flower habit holds the otherwise blousy inner petals neatly together. Again, on its own root, in time it will be sending runner growth into its neighbors. Make sure you get it grafted, which practice is falling out of favor, so it may be hard to find a grafted Schneekoppe. Hybrid rugosas are almost iron clad. They can be susceptible to stem girdler, not stem borer (they get stem borer like most other classes of roses do). I had a planting of Martin Frobisher that was infested with stem girdler. The grub of a certain moth or beetle, can't remember which, eats a tunnel below the outer bark, completely girdling the cane in question. It often attacks the biggest most robust canes, about a foot to 18" from the ground. Some canes survive the attack but usually all growth above the "girdle" is compromised/weak. Often the stem above the 'girdle' just dies. The entire stem may die to the ground, and in the worst cases it was apparent to me the entire bush's death was attributed to stem girdling. There is no way of preventing or treating an attack by stem girdler that I am aware. No insecticide or any other means. You can see the girdle. It looks like a swelling from beneath the bark that makes a pronounced ring around the stem. A stem can have more than one girdle. Non-hy. rugosas are not as prone to stem girdler. So, there's the good, bad, and the ugly on hybrid rugosas. Throntorn BTW, your RDLH has an exceptionally beautiful flower form, unlike most hybird rugosas.

THE plant for dry shade--Geranium macrorrhizum--big Root Geranium. Semi evergreen, handsome groundcover, highly deer resistant, easy to control, very attractive with late spring bloom and no dead heading, dividing or other attention required. What more could you want? Alternate--Epimedium sulphureum--slower to fill in, must be cut back in late winter, but very attractive and has early bloom. If you garden in deer country, as I do, there is very little point in planting plants that deer love. It's a losing battle. And while it is true that starving deer will eat anything, there is a huge range of plants for both sun and shade that they generally have very little interest in. If your yard has mostly unappealing plants, they won't hang out there much. That said, I ALWAYS spray a new plant with a good repellant so if some young thing tries it, their first experience is YUCK! They spread the word. And having said all that, yes, I do have a few plants that deer will eat, and I do spray those. But they are very few, so keeping up with the spraying is not onerous and doesn't break the bank. However, I have NO hostas, yews, or tulips--the ones that say "Free Lunch".

Back to your oak, cd: It appears to be a fine specimen. You and neighbor get along so no reason to mess that up. I'd offer to do some "raising up" style trimming, simply removing whole branches some way up the trunk, in that area, and all around the tree so as to provide for a balanced crown. But as whaas and possibly others have said, don't do it now during the growing season if oak wilt is in your area. The insect vectors of this serious oak pathogen are attracted to fresh pruning cuts. Do the pruning in the fall or winter and do it correctly or have a competent arborist perform the work. A judiciously raised up crown is nothing to be afraid of. BTW, I too doubt that this alone will do all that much to help the hedge. But that's not your goal. Your goal is to appear to be cooperative so as to prevent this fellow from exercising his legal right to lop off branches at the point where they cross the imaginary line separating your properties, which when done usually leaves bad branch stubs in locations on the tree where proper wound closure won't happen. +oM

Oh my. What is a passionate rose lover like you doing in that glacial hell hole? Reading about your endeavors has exhausted me and I haven't even lifted a shovel. I admire your grit and determination, but would love to see you rewarded with thousands of blooms on your rose bushes for all your hard work. I bet they could use engineers in zones 7 to 10!