Run over to Canadian Tire, Walmart and if you have Sobey's and clean out their stock of Hansas. They're usually $10 at Walmart, $15 at Sobeys and around $12 at CT.

Roses are also really easy to propagate if you need more.

There, impenetrable hedge :)

Gil, I always think Peking Cotoneasters looks so nice as a hedge, you can prune to whatever shape or size. It has small pinkish-white blooms and the most gorgeous red hues and berries in the fall.

Myself, I have the beginnings of a hedge growing in front of my holding garden, bought some really nice 2gal pots late last summer for 1/2 price at NoFrills.

Sharon

Hansa's a good thought. Does it get really big in zone 2? (i.e. cane hardy?) I'm not that excited about pink rugosas, but I will consider it. I was thinking of Agnes, I have one and I love it, but I had to order it from Pickerings so it would cost a fortune. I would love to use Harisons Yellow but it's not easy to find either.

Sharon, I have 60' of cotoneaster hedge and the little punks around here push right through it. This proposed new hedge would be to replace the end of the cotoneasters they keep smashing out, and to go around the corner. I love cotoneasters too but I need something meaner. I want something they would regret trying to get through. Mwahaha.

Any other ideas welcome, and info about the double flowered plum.

You want something mean, about this plant, not a perennial but an annual, will self seed if you let them be in the fall.

This is the meanest plant you will ever confront with, a hedge of these will stop any punk in its tracks ;)

Just kidding, don't plant it if you have children around ;)

Sharon

Rasberry hedge, stops them dead if you do not cut it down every year. Or Barberry, nice colors, nice thorns, pretty hardy. A friend of mine did a climbing rose hedge by pounding rebar in to support the roses and training them cross wise. Some thing pink I can not remember the name hardy here in Edm. I like the raspberries I get the barrier and the fruit, the kids have not figured out that they are edible yet. Silly kids, if it does not come from the store...

I think there's a few zone 2s and 1s here that can vouch for Hansa's hardiness. Prairie Dawn and Joy are other alternatives if you want a non-rugosa type rose.

Raspberries are another good alternative, but you'll have to prune out the dead canes every season. There's flowering raspberry that doesn't have this problem, I think.

I would like roses, but I need something that's going to be reliably around 4' tall without much dieback.

Raspberries are a little too messy-looking for the front sidewalk but good thought otherwise.

Sharon, LOL @ Solanum hedge.

Barberries aren't very tall, are they? I don't want something you can just step over.

Cherry prinsepia (Prinsepia sinensis, not a member of the prunus family). Mine has never had any die back or tip kill, and it leafs out way before any other shrub. It is laughing at this miserable cold weather, all leafed out and yelling at mother nature to bring it on. Birds like the berries in the fall. Spring flowering on old wood is insignificant.

Thorny? Hah! I approach mine with trepidation and keep a respectable distance because she is one mean b**ch of a shrub.

I had severe dieback on my barberry this year so although good and thorny, it's not completely reliable.

This may not be a plant for a city lot but I'm thinking of planting sea buckthorn with it's "formidable thorns" to keep the deer out of our new larger garden. It's going to be fenced soon so I'll see how it goes.

Here is a link that might be useful: sea buckthorn

I have sea buckthorns that I got from the PFRA. They're slow to get going, but some of the little sticks I got 5 years ago are about five feet tall now, and bushy. They just started to produce fruit last year. The thorns are wicked sharp, and 1-3" long - to be approached with caution. My Hansa roses are hardy unless we have truly dreadful winters - they came through this year quite well, and even John Davis suffered. They should slow kids down, I would think.

Connie

I don't know about availability of attractive varieties, but a hawthorn (Crataegus) would be an excellent deterrent to keep people from traipsing through your property. I know there are native species that are hardy, and get tall enough (although I don't know how quickly), and that the first time I saw one I was very intimidated by its thorns. However, there probably is a reason that they're not a very common hedge plant, and that is probably because they're not all that attractive, in a garden sort of way, so they might not be ideal for your frontage. They do have pretty flowers, in my opinion. But the thorns are the real selling point. Fleshy hawthorn is apparently used in some settings, so it might be worth a thought.

I take a walk around a few blocks at lunch time, and have noticed that most people here have caragana hedges and they look pretty impenetrable. In one yard, they've let them grow up to be small trees. I like the look of carraganas, but don't have any (though i've been tempted to dig them up from along side the road and plant them somewhere!).

I'm still thinking about roses. Started a new post about hardiness if anyone can help me.

In the end, if I go to all this trouble, I want something that has more decorative value than just being green.

Thanks for all the suggestions though!

On buckthorn

They sucker. You need armour (full plate is best, chainmail with tight links ok. to prune them. Plant them where you can MOW next to them for sucker control.

If you want berries, you need both male and female plants. If you ever figure out how to pick berries without getting as much blood as berry let me know.

I live in michigan planted dormant plants look like twigs first of may showing no sign of growth 50 plants wanted a hedge instead of a fence any help

What species, Sandy? Anything alive should have sprouted by now - are they under warranty?