Most people including myself do not have a lot of tree's to prune. I only have 2 peach tree,s to worry about, my other tree's are already shaped and do not need heavy pruning any more.I do have a few late freeze's in my area. I do prune my peach tree's the open center and shape them for a lot of sun penetration when they are young. When i buy a peach i usely cut the tree down to about 32 inches and then pick-out the new laterals branches.I descard all the flowers the first 2-3 years and continue shaping and cleaning the tree of small branches,tipping-off strong growing shoots during spring and summer. Then in the spring i usely wait till the last frost that(27 degrees and lower)to do the final pruning.When you have a lot of tree's to take care-off you might do it differently.I have other fruit tree,s to fall back on mostly no spray tree's like persimmon,paw-paw, citrus,asian pear and a few others. I believe in edible lanscaping so my tree,s has to look good too. I am working on a 10 year project to get my 21/2 acres out of 5acres in shape and this is on a slope. 3 more years then i am done.(hopefully)

Thanks all for the wonderful recommendations -- I really appreciate it! I've called around to a few local garden centers and one has some David Austin roses in stock and will be getting more varieties within the coming weeks, so I plan on checking back frequently to see if they have something that will suit my needs. Otherwise, I might wait to order online later this year and delay planting by a year to get exactly what I want for the space. I'm definitely rethinking the arborvitaes too since it sounds like they'd crowd my roses too much, so may plant a hedge row of 4 or so rose shrubs instead to make sure they have enough space/light. Thanks again all for weighing in! I'm diving back into the rose research and reading up on the gorgeous types suggested here -- Cheers!

rosecanadian Both roundup damage and RRD produce the strange distorted growth on roses called witches broom. RRD has other symptoms as well which may include bright red new grow, new shoots larger than the stem they are growing on and more. You can look it up. RRD usually shows up on new growth on one branch first and it looks really bizarre, It spread from one branch to the next. Roundup damage appears fairly suddenly though it can be weeks after the spraying was done. It shows up on multiple branches at the same time and does not spread to new branches. It can take a year for a rose to recover from Roundup damage and sometimes they never are the same as before. As long as Czarinalex has never sprayed Roundup, never hired lawn care or garden care service or garden spray service, then is probably not Roundup damage. Roundup damage may also occur from spray drift from a neighbor if the yards are small or houses are close together. Czarinalex, it would be a good idea to contact your ag extension office to see if they want to confirm RRD. Then you would know for sure.

Thank you all! @frances-in-nj, thank you so much these are all such great ideas. I’m in nj too, very northwest up in sussex county. Are the roses you mentioned ones you feel are cane or tip hardy to make it through the crazy winters we have up here? Thanks! @ken_adrian - thanks for the tips! It is wrought iron and has been secured with lots and lots of rebar! It’s not going anywhere! The little roof in the background is a covering over an old 1800s springhouse. With a pump we’re able to utilize the extra water from the spring to help water our gardens in summer. I have big plans for a pretty garden around the spring house in the future because I think it’s such a neat little feature! @tammy oh my gosh your patio and gardens are beautiful! You might’ve sold me on Sally Holmes… how thorny is she? And would you say she is tip hardy? How many seasons did it take from planting to have her cover your arches like that? @christine quicksilver is a great idea too, that lavender color is so great. How is she in terms of thorniness? Tip-hardy? @joeywyoming that’s a beautiful rose as well! I do like the idea of miniature blooms, so that could work well. Does yours have one flush in spring, or is it a repeat bloomer? Thorny? @nhbabs such a great point about the thorns! I’ve thought about zepherine drouhin quite a bit, but was feeling wishy washy as I’ve seen some posts on here saying they didn’t get too many blooms from her. Has that been your experience? I did also think about major wheeler, but I ended up planting some of that over by a shed we have where I have more warmer tones going on. I am totally obsessed with hummingbirds so can’t wait to see how it does!