...not for me to give you much advice from over here but only to say I hope you enjoy your roses, they are all fine choices and I have a couple and grown others on your list. ...what I would ask though, are you planning on painting your wall there ? it looks as though it's made of wood but I'm not familiar with American homes too much... only if you plant climbers each side of the window, then you will need to place supports for them to attach to.. Here we would attach trellis or use nails and then attach a wire framework. This will make future painting a bit awkward...but this may not be an issue for you... 'Teasing Georgia' produces thick canes with large thorns, not one to wrestle with too much, although it seems you are a young man and probably wouldn't be so alarmed... ..I do hope it all works out well for you, and that you keep your dream alive.... I'm delighted to hear you enjoyed your visit to England and saw some lovely roses, it's not something one hears too much from younger people these days... they have so many gadgets to deal with.. best wishes,....

I do not live in a climate which is anywhere close to yours, so I can't help, except to say that that appears to me to be the PERFECT place for a climber! You need a rose which is a cold hardy climber - I believe there are lots on the market, but living in CA I never think about them. I know there are breeders who breed nothing but cold hardy roses. Even though you are in zone 6, I think that would be very important, because your rose would be exposed to the elements all winter, and you would not be able to bury it or wrap it up. You would want the climbing canes to survive winter as much as possible. Hopefully someone who lives in a cold region will see this. Also, you can contact your nearest Rose Society, and ask them. Good Luck - great idea! Jackie

Does your road ever get plowed to clear snow in winter? Ever get salted? If the answer to either question is yes, you don't want shrubs, especially evergreens like boxwood between the road and the fence. Also, how much room is there? I am not entirely sure that there is room for boxwoods in that spot unless you want to learn how to shear them when they start to get larger a few years down the road. Do folks ever park along the road? If yes, how would a passenger get out of the car? While what you have there may have gotten weedy and out of control, there may be other perennials that will do well there if you plant just a couple of types of hardy, dense-growing perennials such as one of the groundcover perennial geraniums. Regardless of what you have there, it will need something for weed control, but which plants you choose may increase or reduce the amount of weeding. The easiest is grass since all you have to do is mow and weed whack along the fence. Dense growing perennials of just one or two kinds might work. If no snow, some densely growing shrubs might work if well-mulched. Regardless, anything other than grass will need some weeding, at least for a while until it fills in, and even then will need some a few times annually based on my experience. For your backyard, are you interested in tall deciduous trees or evergreens, or do you want shrubs? Or some tall and some shorter plants? Is it more that you don't want to see all of the neighbors' yard or just all of the fence? Do you want year round coverage or is that not important?

VJ, Here's what works for me. We are essentially growing roses under identical conditions. Get paper leaf bags at Home Depot or Lowe's. They come 5 bags to a bundle, 30 gallon capacity each bag, and a bundle of 5 is $2.12 at Lowe's here, cheap! Each bag is 36" tall and, when open is 18" in diameter. From each bag you can get 3 winteization collars. Measure down every 12", and cut across the bag. Just cut the bottom off of the bag. Each bundle makes 15 collars. Although the bags are paper, they are double thick and will easily last all winter. The 18" diameter of the collar can be a bit wide, so to make a less wide collar fold over the side. My average size hybrid tea collar is 12" high and 14" in diameter. To get this size fold over a collar 7" , crease it, and staple the folded part in several places. The staples will hold all winter long. The collar will now be 14" in diameter. That diameter is usually sufficient. Huge, mature hybrid teas that need winterization may need the original 18" unaltered collar size. Put the collars on your roses after a few light frosts. 17°F. or lower kills most hybrid tea canes. I usually winterize my roses in November, before Thanksgiving. Just watch your weather pattern every fall. Early frosts mean winterize sooner. Do not winterize too early, let the roses get some light frosts. The best winterization material I have found is fine pine bark mulch, but not too fine. Postage stamp sized to Wheat Thins or Cheez•Its sized pine bark mulch is the best size that I have found. Pine bark mulch does not get soggy. Soggy mulch is the kiss of death, and is worse than no mulch at all. Soggy mulch rots the canes. Soggy mulch to avoid: garden soil (especially clay type soil), hardwood mulch, sawdust, vemiculite, most leaves (even oak leaves), grass clippings, manure, compost, straw, i.e. anything that holds water when wet will induce cane rot. Try hard not to prune any canes at the season's end. Let them be, all the way to their tips. Gather the canes together and tie them with soft ripped rag strips if you cannot easily get a collar on a rose. Those tips are your roses' thermometers that report to the bush the weather conditions. Cut them off, and the bush can make premature dormancy breaks, much to the bush's detriment. Place your mulch into the collar slowly, wiggling the collar so the mulch settles in properly. Fill up to the top. You will use an amazing amount of pine bark mulch. This same winterization mulch will be your rose bed covering mulch next year. Next spring in mid-March just wiggle off the collars only. Leave the mulch in place. it will spill away a bit, but now looks like a beaver lodge. Over the next couple weeks, slowly, every few days, tease the mulch away from the crown of the rose. A little more every time. Watch the weather carefully. Spring frosts reported? Hold off removing more mulch for a while. Soon all the mulch will be spread evenly throughout the bed, dressing it up beautifully. When you get closer to the rose's center/crown, be careful removing the mulch so that you do not break emerging shoots. A gentle water spray will help move the mulch away easier when close in to the crown. You can prune your roses just after the forsythia and large daffodils have reached their peak of bloom. What to do if after the mulch is removed and there is a late spring, killing frost? Put 5 gallon buckets over the big roses, over night or as long as the temp. Is 32° F. or lower. Use 2 gallon buckets, or bottom cut out gallon bottles: milk, iced tea, distilled water, etc., over the smaller roses. Remove all those covers as soon as possible when the frost is over, especially if the sun is shining, or the new shoots can cook! Moses