I know it can be done because my Aunt has roses planted in a very similar situation. As a matter of fact she has less than three feet of bed between the east wall of her house and her concrete patio. The roses are 6 feet tall and gorgeous! This is Midas Touch. The red mystery rose is even bigger but I don't have a photo of the whole bush.

Wow, is she in zone 5?

No, we used to be in zone 5 but on the new maps we're in zone 6. We still have nasty cold winters though, lol!

I just planted a bed this year along the east wall of my garage with roses and iris. Roses love morning sun best so it was an ideal spot. I itched to rip out the little yew bushes the previous owner had planted there from the moment I saw the place. I have been watering well, of course, because everything is newly transplanted but I have been rewarded with an explosion of new growth and blooms. I must say Morden Sunrise never bloomed as heavily for me at my old house as it is doing here in this new east bed. I don't think my rose bed is even 3 ft wide - I should measure it for fun, but I bet it's a tad less. Works fine for me. Now, I must say that my roses are not under an overhang because this is the garage end wall, but if yours would be you just have to make sure you carefully monitor their water needs; remember, most light rainfall won't touch them under the eaves. I DO have more roses and perennials on the south side of the garage (under a wide overhanging soffit) and those in the back of the bed always need supplemental watering.

My neighbor planted Queen Elizabeth and several other roses in a 2 ft wide strip next to the house. I don't know how much care she gave them, but they thrived there. Then she moved away, and the next owner knew absolutely nothing about planting anything and had no interest in learning anything. Those roses, 5 years later, are still thriving--evidently completely on their own! I'm always amazed at how good looking they are.

I would probably take some care to make sure the roses I selected for such a spot were more vertical growers (like Peter Mayle) rather than spreading sprawling full bushy types of roses.

Kate

Interesting suggestions,Thank you! I had considered climbers but I'm not sure if I want to install supports on that wall, and then I thought about something compact and low, maybe polyanthas or minifloras. HTs in there would add some vertical interest. I've not grown any in this zone, could you recommend some that are particularly hardy (and can stand half day sun of course).

Right off hand, the cold hardy HTs I know are Queen Elizabeth (pink), Ingrid Bergman (red), and Berolina (light yellow). All hardy to zones 4 or 5. These are all fairly good on BS resistance.

Another tall skinny rose I grow is the hybrid perpetual Mrs. John Laing--which has big fat pink blooms but has some BS problems. She is hardy somewhere around zones 4 or 5. I don't know if the other hybrid perpetuals are as tall, skinny, and cold hardy, but they would be worth looking into--although I'm aware that one of more of them has lots of BS problems, so if you don't spray, that could be a problem.

I'm sure that with some thought, we could come up with more tall, skinny, disease resistant, cold hardy hybrid teas. That might make a good separate thread.

Kate

I would have never guessed that HT's could be grown in zone 4. I'm not hearing much caution about the eastern exposure. Would you say I don't really need to focus on shade tolerance? Incidentally I do spray for BS, but I'd appreciate roses that can live without too much intervention.

Yes, HT's can be grown in zone 4; I lived in zone 4a for years and grew quite a few. Some are hardier than others - it takes investigation, if one is not willing to do major winterization...or it takes some effort if one does not do investigation.

And yes, you do NOT need to focus on "shade tolerance" for roses planted on the east side of your home. They will get more than the minimum number of sunlight hours required and best of all being an eastern exposure they get the "best" sun of the day. It dries them off from the overnight dew first thing which helps prevent fungal disease and it offers some relief from the intense afternoon sun which can dry up some blooms (esp. dark reds) to a crisp. So plant away!

I grow a relatively deep bed of roses on the east side of my house, and you might plan a little cautiously for roses that are rated a little closer to your zone, or reported to be hardy for the cooler side of the yard. I find that in zone 5, my south facing bed is a zone 6 pocket, but the north and east more shaded areas are effectively zone 4 pockets. I can watch the progression of bulbs in the same areas about two weeks apart in each bed, so I'm pretty sure it's the effect of the side of the house rather than the type of plant.

Having said that, yes, you can plant HTs in zone 5 or even 4, but as Annececilia says it takes a little more planning or willingness to learn by trial and error. If I've killed a hybrid tea on north or east side beds, I'll try it elsewhere before I presume it's not hardy. More often, my successful roses on those beds have been the "shrubs" that look like HTs but have more winter resistance. A good example is Hamburger Deern, which has massive profuse pink double blooms 5-6 feet tall in my north bed and yet is a "shrub". I'll show you a photo below of the "east side survivors" to give you a sense of what grows in my zone 4 pocket, then in a second picture what I can grow in the 3 foot wide bed on the other side of the house.

Here are the east side survivors. The most traditional looking roses in this bed are some Austins (Pegasus, Teasing Georgia, Eglantyne, Queen of Sweden), Heaven on Earth and Hope for Humanity and Folksinger (all shrubs I think) and some Bucks like Pearlie Mae and Lafter. Can't think of any HTs in that particular bed, but there are some in the north bed.

Cynthia

Here's my three-foot wide bed, this time on the west side of the house, and most of them stay fairly tall and narrow. In this shot are Illusion, Sunrise Sunset, About Face, and nonblooming yet Estelle, Distant Drums, Hot Cocoa, Hot Chocolate, and the bed also has roses like Molinieux, Pat Austin, Precious Dream, Sammy, Grey Dawn, and several others that slip my mind.

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My "poster child" for tall narrow roses is Queen of Sweden, who tends to be 6 feet tall and 2 feet wide, but a runner up is Jeanne LaJoie, the miniature climber who stays very narrow because she runs up a shepherd's hook in the back yard. Plenty of nice choices for that spot, so look at some of the more narrow Austins and shrubs or find a way to restrain a climber would be my suggestion.

Cynthia

Thank you so much, going to read up about all of these.

Excellent point about the zone, I'll bear that in mind.

Shepherd's hook - there's an idea, or an obelisk. I didn't want to install trellises but hadn't thought about freestanding supports.

How about tall & skinny & purple (or lavender) & zone 4? I've always had trouble with purple roses, which seem to hate the afternoon sun.