You'll never know how much I'd love to grow a Tea rose. I would think if you post this on the Antique forum you may get a lot more advice. Looks as thou Lady Hillingdon is plenty hardy enough but not sure about the Duchesse. I think it's a lovely idea but I know nothing of the shape of these bushes. I'm also not sure about the balance of two large shrubs with the tree. There are others on here that are much better at envisioning the end product.

I have some of my roses right out to the sidewalk & I have a lots of walkers by my house as there is an elementary school 1 block away & a Tech. College 3 blocks away. Also a lot of dog walkers & after I put my roses in, the amount of walkers increased in the summer. Here is a pic of my rose beds, early in the spring, & one of a mixed perennial bed between the sidewalk & the curb with Sunrise Sunset, a ground cover in bloom. Haven't had too many problems with damage but I have noticed a flower or 2 that has been picked, but not very many.

Lady Hillingdon doesn't get really bushy, it's more upright. Duchess will get wide, but also at least 5 feet high. DbD is an earthkind rose and has good resistance, so does Lady H. A tea that gets large and rounded is Mrs BR Cant. I think it would great in one of those spots.

Thank you to everyone who has replied!

Patty, I truly feel for you.. hopefully one day you can have your Teas & drink them too.. (lol) I have always wanted to grow a tea in the ground, but have always worried whether my area would be safe for them. A lot of my favorite teas are not hardy enough for me too (looking at you Marechal Niel & Lamarque) I'm only trying those who have had a reputation for being the most hardy of all teas. Some zone maps put me in zone 6b, some in 7a.. and most hardiness descriptions for these particular ones say zone 6/7... I've decided there is no time like the present to find out if I can or not! I hope that this incredibly mild winter we've had isn't luring me into some false sense of security.. Cross your fingers for me!

WiRosarian, thank you SO MUCH for your photos! They are very very helpful and SO lovely!!! I have often struggled with how to plan beds for my very boxy & urban landscape. I often see photos of shapely, curving and flowing gardens here and think.. man that would be amazing... if I lived on 5 acres of land! It is very comforting to see someone else growing many roses in close proximity to such public areas and are having no problems doing it. This is very inspiring to me and gives me hope that I can make my plain little rectangle of grass into something beautiful, even if it is surrounded by business.

This sounds silly, but couple of weeks ago I had a fence contractor out to give me a quote on a fence to surround my property, but even the most basic model of chain link was several thousand dollars, and would add nothing to my yard in terms of aesthetics. I mainly wanted it to have something to plant my roses up against, that would keep them in bounds, while protecting them from all the rowdies. I was a little put out after this experience because I just had it in my head that a fence was what I needed to have to be able to fill my yard with roses, finally realizing that this is not necessary really just brings me so much joy.

Buford, thank you for all the helpful advice & suggestions!! I'm pretty sure I've read your rave reviews on Mrs. B. R. Cant before! She really seems like an amazing rose... However on HMF it lists her hardiness as 7b, which frightens me a little, even though it is just one "letter" away from what I'm pretty sure my zone is (7a).. it seems silly to be so nervous about that one letter, It seems that NE Georgia isn't that far away from E. Tennessee, do you ever have trouble with chilly weather there? Has your Mrs. B.R. Cant ever been exposed to temperatures less than 15-20 degrees F?

I'm also looking at Monsier Tillier, which seems similar to Mrs. Cant... would anyone here say one is more hardy than the other? Or anything else about how they compare & contrast?

Thanks <3 Jessica

Jackie, your photos and suggestions are wonderful, however I fear that I have neither the space or the funds for a fence anywhere close to as lovely as yours. I have about a 13 ft. deep space between the sidewalk and a non-paved walking path that runs parallel to my house & the sidewalk, which I use daily to get from the driveway to the front door & to go from my front to the back yard. Also, my house is on a corner lot, and so if I added fencing to this area I would have to do the whole front and side as well, which is just too much of an expense for me to take on. A yard and fence like yours is one I dream of having at some point in my life, but right now it seems I'll have to get creative with my 13 ft deep yard and my non-fence. I have a little more space in the back yard, so I will be planting further back from the sidewalk there, and I'm thinking I might have to save my bigger teas for that space and find something a little easier to control for this area, maybe some of the Kordes roses I joust ordered would do nicely there..

( I'm awful, I order roses not when I know where they will go, but when I find nice healthy types I like, so not what I should do!)

Here is a photo from another angle, excuse the mess, I'm currently in the middle of adding a river rock boarder to my flower beds, and the bed in the is photo is in desperate need of weeding as well..

It just depends on the neighborhood. Having read different threads on this over the years, in some neighborhoods the entire plant is pulled out of the ground and stolen, in other neighborhoods they are untouched. In my neighborhood they are untouched, although one year one of the neighbors planted a lot of flowering annuals the day before Mother's Day, and all the plants were stolen during the night--guess someone didn't want to shell out money for Mother's present. Good idea to avoid red hybrid teas--most non-gardener's idea of a rose--those seem to be the most looted.

I really sympathize with you over the fencing issue,though my situation is totally, totally different. My very large garden is out on my land in the woods, about a 20 minute drive from my home. I have to fence, because of all the marauding beasties, (not to mention the un-civil hunters). Even though I do all the work myself, and I use the most generic,admittedly un- attractive materials, it is still very, very expensive. Still, a physical barrier is decidedly the best way to protect young plants. Could you rig something temporary up? Even just pieces of rebar stuck in the ground with chicken wire would send the message out that you wanted people to stay out. If their trespassing is "innocent" (i.e.,simply don't realize that you care one way or the other),it would help. Then, once your plants have been in a couple of years,and have grown large enough to fend for themselves, you could just pull out the un-aesthetic temporary fence.

I am actually debating about the same issue about planting close to the sidewalk. Jackie's garden is my dream garden, as I've told her numerous times in the past. I am a bit hesitant since I do know once in a while some of my roses do get stolen. The popular one is L.D. Braitwaite, a red Austin rose close to my front door. Luckily it isn't too bad but my main issue is rabbits, squirrels eating young roses shoots. They don't like all types but usually thornless ones and austins it seems.

WOW! I never even considered that someone might steal my roses right out of the ground!!! & The fact that this is not uncommon makes me sick! How crazy.... The gall of some people! In my neighborhood I worry more about people throwing trash in them, allowing their dogs to urinate on them or dig them up, or drunken college parties getting out of hand and kids just generally being destructive. One time a couple of years ago there was an instance where a giant tractor tire was rolled down the hill right next to my house, and it stopped when it smashed into my boyfriend's back bumper, (while his car was parked in the back yard because he was out of town), nearly knocking the bumper clean off... Of course I wasn't home when this occurred, and when I arrived home none of my neighbors seemed to know where this myserious giant tire appeared from.... Of course.

I have SO many potted roses around, if I had plant thieves in the neighborhood I feel like they would have already struck. Luckily I don't grow many red roses, and those I do are not the typical HT type, so hopefully I'll never have to deal with that.... Man, I'd be as mad as a hornet!!!

Yeah, I've been thinking about your situation,having had to endure horrible neighbours for many years. I guess I really would encourage you to do something to protect your plants when young. I'd definitely vote for roses that grow into very large shrubs for this spot; once they get really big they could probably handle the neighbours In this particularly vulnerable spot you might also wish to consider thorny roses. Also, you might want to consider planting some of the small-flowered roses ,or singles,which would be less tempting to potential flower-stealers.

I like the idea of putting some conpanion plants and possibly a low decorative fence between the roses and the companion plants, maybe some poky, prickly ones. Maybe you could plant them staggered with some carpet or drift roses on the street side of the zig and the 'nicer' ones on the house side of the zag.

Split rails are very inexpensive and can be installed by you. I don't even have them in cement. We have major dog walkers and its just enough to keep out people and pets.

# 2 Here is the other side of the drive way ...mixture of climbers and bushes...these pictures were taken a few years back so the plants are a lot larger now. I get lots of compliments because we live in the desert where everything is just brown and people walk by and just love the color and smell. Mine all have thorns so no tampering. PS I now have under planting in some areas between the roses...marigolds and poppies etc

Who wouldn't want a front yard looking like yours, Campv. Simply beautiful and stunning.