Good question. I'm about to put some weeper hoses down and it would be much easier to place them on one side 2 feet away, but I wonder if this is close enough to do them any good.

Lucille, since water flows down hill just make sure you place the hoses on the up hill side. The roots will find the water and grow is that direction if needed. They have been doing this for millions of years so ........

Good tip, I read the same advice on a website earlier.

How long are you running those emitters, by the way? And what kind of soil do you have? I'm guessing clay? Do you ever experience run off? I thnk 2 gph on each side might be too much depending on how long you run your drip circuit. Here in CA, we have to be extremely judicious with our water usage, the costs are very high now-a-days.

I am doing an hour every other day here during May-Sept. Last summer 21 days 100F and above, and this summer so far 10 days over 100F, but full sun and windy. My plant are all under 2 years old and soil is variable including sandy some places and clay others. I am trying to amend planting holes as I go along. I have a good well. I'm sure when plants are established they will be more secure with less water but for now this seems to be working with no runoff.

Lucille, since water flows down hill just make sure you place the hoses on the up hill side. The roots will find the water and grow is that direction if needed. They have been doing this for millions of years so ........

While somewhat witty, this does not address my specific question as to whether two feet is too far. Using your logic of roots growing toward water, I should be able to simply turn on the spigot 40 feet away and the roots would get there, but I don't think it works that way.

With weeper hoses, is two feet away on level ground sufficient?

Depends on the maturity of the rose, no?

Good point. These are a hedge of mature Louis Philippes about 5 feet tall. (they get taller but I trim them sometimes)