Funny that you mention wanting a hedge of these - I just discovered this plant while looking for suitable hedge plants. I plan to plant a varied hedge of enkianthus, calycanthus-Carolina Allspice (for the scent), and possibly some viburnum (for the colorful berries), ilex glabra - inkberry (because I like its neat form & cute black berries), red hydrangea (because they were on sale) and maybe some lilacs because one can never have enough lilacs (I love the scent). I might plant some joe-pye weed in there too because it's tall and smells nice. I was searching for shrubs that are more tall than wide, upright, with a neat habit, not invasive, that will stand up to wind, harsh midday sun, road salt (the hedge will run along the side yard of my corner property) and occasional drought. I hope the hedge will screen my patio furniture from the busy street to help prevent my patio furniture from being stolen. I just didn't want the standard uniform green hedge where the brown spots/dead plants stand out so badly. With my varied hedge, if something dies, I can take it out, no one will miss it! I love boxwood but my boxwood keep dying so that wouldn't work. I'm actually driving to Rare Find Nursery this week to buy these plants. I'll let you know how it works out.

Thanks, Kippy! Your visit was a hoot! I thoroughly enjoyed you, and myself. The box of "maters", squash, Passion Fruit, et al. was down right wonderful and as gracious as you can get. Thank you! There are many ways to accomplish everything concerning roses. You can make it as 'scientific' or as 'low tech' as you wish. Both methods will work. Me? I LOVE 'low tech'. I don't want to 'work' at any of it. I want to ENJOY it. So, my unscientific procedure for collecting and spreading pollen is here on my blog, linked below. After roughly three months, or when the stems of the hips begin discoloring indicating they are about ready to fall, or the hips are changing color, indicating they're ripe or ripening, I collect them. I try to use the time method mostly so I can beat the squirrels and rats to them. I collect them with the stem and tag attached. Then, I just do this. Each cross is bagged separately. I will dig out the bag containing the particular cross when I collect another hip of the same cross to add the seeds so they are all in the same bag. That way, I can plant them all together. Just a bit of my anal retentiveness.. I keep the quart size bag full of the smaller bagged crosses in the refrigerator to delay germination until the weather is appropriate for planting. Here, that has traditionally been around Thanksgiving. Until then, it's too hot, dry, too brilliant sun, to successfully raise rose seedlings. There are methods which require storing them on damp toweling, or in damp peat/vermiculite/sand, etc. and they work. They are great if you're germinating them in the refrigerator and planting individually germinating seeds, such as is necessary when you germinate them indoors. As all of mine are outdoor germinations, I need to delay them from sprouting until I plant them all. Storing them dry helps accomplish that. I plant them all in raised tables I constructed very "cost effectively" from fir fencing from my local home improvement store. They are sized to make the greatest use of the available length of wood per board. The bottoms are covered with nylon window screen with galvanized hardware cloth providing stiffer support. There are 1" X 2" strips screwed to the bottom edges of the side wall bottoms to prevent the screens from collapsing out of the openings. The entire set up rests upon two x fours placed between saw horses or set directly on stacked concrete blocks, as I've done with the third box created this spring. It takes a little over two cubic feet of soil to fill each box. More can be added, but I also have to cover the tables to keep birds and vermin out. Rodents and birds ADORE rose seeds! I use inexpensive, thin bamboo stakes, trimmed to fit inside the tables to divide the rows of seedlings. I simply lay them down between the rows and plant between them. I created "box lids" out of 1" x 2" with plastic hardware cloth stapled to them to provide air, water and light availability, while keeping critters out. The tables can be watered right through the tops and often the seedlings will grow through the screen, as you've seen in some of my photos recently. I have been able to remove two of the tops without incident, while the latest table has a rodent which loves molesting the seedlings, so the top remains on that table. It's strange as all three are right together. The seedlings are permitted to grow in the tables where they are better protected from being fried by the wooden sides and greater soil mass, until next Thanksgiving when I transplant them to individual pots, refill the tables and plant the seeds I generated this year, to begin the process all over again. Of course, you CAN make it much more involved, "scientific", intricate than I have shown, and it will very likely work. This also works and it's inexpensive, pretty fast to accomplish and requires a whole lot less effort and time than more involved methods. And, of course, this works for outdoor germination. If you must germinate seeds indoors over winter, this isn't going to work for you. Oh, yes, "The Christmas tree". Each tag is one hip and there are MANY hips on this plant! And, there are several almost as loaded as this one. I hope it helps! Wow! Thanks, Henry! Kim Here is a link that might be useful: Pollinating roses

ljrd3, For the first year treat these as potted plants untill the roots grow into the surrounding soil. The water must go directly into the potting soil that came with the plant. Use 12th of a gallon per day if the temperature is in the 70"s. Use 1/6th of a gallon per day if the temperature is in the 80's. Use 1/4 of a gallon per day if the temperature is in the 90's. Delay one day for each 1/4 inch of natural rain. The second year use the same total amounts, however, you can begin to water less frequently using proportionally more each time and also watering a greater area around the plants.

Hey I am apparantly from the same area as you---getting older too---steep roadside bank too---clay rocks and fullsun. I planted creeping phlox, daffodils, grape hyacinths, and daylillies. Purple coneflowers reseeded onto the bank and I have also started transplanting Iris. They all do great. What I did was spray a total vegetation killer in a blocked out area at a time (an area I knew I would be able to get planted that season) It has taken me 3 seasons, but I am on my last small area. The last 20 feet!!! I had a 220' stretch of bank to do. The plants all do well on their own, the creeping phlox keeps the weeds down, while allowing the iris, daylilies and coneflowers to come up through. Please don't put that awful crownvetch in---it is one of the worst things to kill off, as bad as creeping charlie. Ann