I am starting to think that hybrid teas, even the older ones, are not as much work to keep clean as the dense shrubby OSO EZEs and the Knock outs. wIth the HTs you just look to the hygiene, air transfer and spray them with old fashioned Sulpher Lime and dormant oil in the winter. With the twiggy new shrubs you can accumulate all kinds of fungus and stuff but they keep blooming and over grow the yellow leaves. They have to be opened up and cleaned up or they infect everything around them. I really believe this. You really cant strip their leaves off; its suicide. Here in coastal NJ we are in black spot hell, fungusamongus every spring. The nights are cold and wet. The days can get warm with big drops in temperature. Humidity all year. I have rugosas but keep them far away from other roses because they are great mildew traps. I like all of them. Some that I think are excellent for us in cold 6B are Autumn Sunset, Queen Elizabeth, New Dawn, Sea Foam, Cecile Brunner, Heritage (prone a little to bs) popcorn drift, and the newer Kordes. I have found great Maidens Blush gets some, but its worth it, so does Sidonie, but I love it. Sun, spacing, food and hygiene (pick up the leaves) are the keys.

Cleveland select pear - Noooo o o o o . . . For many reasons it really isn't a great tree. It's invasive in native woodlands in much of the country (something you said wanted to avoid), the blossoms smell dreadful, and the wood is prone to winter damage. Here are some pears near me after a wet autumn snow. I had a few broken lilac branches, but none of my trees other than some of the scrappier white pines had broken branches, and I saw no other trees that were severely enough damaged to need to be removed as these needed to be. If you search these trees on the tree forum you will only get a very few positives vs. many many negative comments. The dogwoods I mentioned in the post yesterday would be much better choices. My Kousa dogwoods have color that rivals the pear and mine has been healthy until last winter's -22 (at least) killed the buds, though it is still working on leafing out now. That shouldn't be an issue for you. If you do go for the crabapple, do a web search to be sure it is a disease resistant variety. As far as the holly - I much prefer holly over yew. I can't grow it here without winter damage, but at least some varieties are hardy in your area. Be sure you get an appropriate boy holly to pollenate your females to get berries. China Boy is supposed to be appropriate for China Doll, but I couldn't find specific hardiness info on China Doll. I think the combination of holly and Hydrangea will be handsome, with the Hydrangea providing summer bloom and the holly providing winter green along with berries for the first part of the winter (before the birds eat them.) I don't know what you mean by barn stone, so I can't answer that part. Where ever you plant the hedges, be sure they are set back far enough so you can see oncoming traffic as you pull out of your driveway.

I've been wanting to try some more cold hardy cacti outside all year, too. I've had the same doubts about the claimed cold hardiness I've seen on the Internet. Some of the cold hardiness ratings I see listed by some nurseries seem a bit exaggerated to me. However, I'd rather not point fingers at any specific nurseries because I have no hard evidence to the contrary. Plus cold hardiness is not the only thing needed for a cactus to survive the winter. As I mentioned, they do better in the extreme cold if they are dry. Perhaps those cold hardiness ratings I have doubts about are possible if the plant is completely dry. I'm in the Snake River Valley, Idaho. I'm not sure how the precipitation here compares to that of New England. I don't cover my cactus bed. It does get wet and frozen during the winter. So far I've had good luck with certain kinds of Pediocactus simpsonii and Escobaria missouriensis. I have a couple small Escobaria sneedii or leei (the label says leei but the growth habit suggests sneedii) that over wintered OK last winter, too. Also, there are some wild kinds of Opuntia that grow in the valley and mountains.

Update: I checked for berries about a month or so later. There were none. I also tried to find info on Lycium with 7 petals. No success. The absence of berries could be due to the high number of birds — there are a couple of birdhouses and feeder nearby. I got the impression that wildlife find the berries quite delectable. Or, maybe male and female plants are needed to produce fruit. I wasn’t planning to remove this plant so I’ll keep an eye on it.