21 Roses Ideal for Creating a Hedge or Privacy Screen

Whether you want to delineate sections of your garden with a low hedge or create privacy with a tall wall of blooms, roses won’t disappoint. Some of the most romantic settings in the world are created with the clever use of plants as living walls and barriers. 

In my biased opinion, roses are the very best plant for hedging. Why? Many varieties have continuous blooms that provide months-long color and fragrance. They are long-lived, provide winter interest with colorful hips, and can deter unwanted guests with threatening thorns. 

‘Mystic Fairy’

	botanical name Rosa rugosa ‘BAIfairy’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 3’ – 4’
	hardiness zones 4-9

‘Mystic Fairy’ grows up to 4 feet tall and blooms with clusters of cherry-red rose blooms all summer. The blooms are semi-double and beautifully waved, with yellow stamens that beckon pollinators. 

This variety is part of the Easy Elegance Ⓡ series, bred for floriferousness and vigor. Plant 1 foot apart for a quick, dense hedge, and give them a trim as needed in late winter or spring. 

‘Mystic Fairy’ has a naturally soft, mounding habit that lends itself perfectly to natural hedges. The foliage is bushy and dark, contrasting the bright blooms, which have a mild sweet scent. 

‘Apricot Drift’

	botanical name Rosa ‘MEImirrote’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 1.5’ – 2.5’
	hardiness zones 4-11

The entire Drift Ⓡ series, which also comes in coral, yellow, red, white, and several shades of pink, is ideal for low hedges. They are designed to be low maintenance and bloom heavily throughout the season. 

In my high desert climate with rocky soil, ‘Apricot Drift’ is the first to bloom in spring, with loads of tiny, exquisite swirled double flowers in light pink with just a touch of peach. They make beautiful, giftable mini bouquets. 

Drift Ⓡ roses slowly spread to create a lovely hedge with bushy green foliage smothered with flowers.  They’re incredibly winter-hardy, always reappearing healthy and full in spring. ‘Apricot Drift’ is disease-resistant and flourishes even when neglected. Mine puts up with part shade as well as the hot afternoon sun. 

‘Rise N’ Shine’

	botanical name Rosa ‘Rise N’ Shine’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 1.5’ – 2’
	hardiness zones 4-11

Don’t let miniature roses fool you with their diminutive appearance in the nursery pot.  Many of them are very vigorous and will quickly fill in to form a dense, low hedge adorned with an abundance of tiny blooms. One particularly good mini for hedging is ‘Rise N’ Shine,’ also called ‘Golden Sunblaze.’ 

‘Rise N’ Shine’ has golden yellow, elegantly high-centered double blooms with a nice tea rose fragrance. It boasts outstanding disease resistance. 

This variety received the American Rose Society’s Award of Excellence and is in the mini rose Hall of Fame. You can depend on it for lots of charming, sunny color all summer long! 

‘Ballerina’

	botanical name Rosa ‘Ballerina’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 3’ – 6’
	hardiness zones 5-9

‘Ballerina’ is a hybrid musk rose known for vigorous growth and nearly continuous blooms. While it can grow tall, you can use a hedge trimmer to maintain a thick, low hedge (though I recommend using pruning shears to remove anything dying or diseased from the centers). This rose is fuss-free and will repeatedly bloom from spring through frost. 

‘Ballerina’ has a delightful antique woodland look. The bushy shrub is blanketed in adorable single-petaled blooms in baby pink and cream that make a big impact planted as a hedge. It has a long list of awards to its name, with the reliable health you need in a hedge rose augmented by whimsical beauty. 

The blooms have a lightly sweet and musky scent. The petals are used in the culinary world to flavor syrups, honey, and desserts. Tolerant of sun and shade, this rose is ideal for gardeners who love soft tones that blend harmoniously. Beloved by pollinators, too! 

‘Snow Pavement’

	botanical name Rosa ‘HANsno’’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 2’ – 3’
	hardiness zones 3-9

‘Snow Pavement’ is a hybrid rugosa rose. You’ll find many on this list because this class is perfect for hedges, with pretty leathery, wrinkled foliage, excellent health, and dense spreading growth. ‘Snow Pavement’ is a small version at 3 feet tall, with gorgeous airy blooms in blush pink that fade over time to snowy white. 

Once planted, ‘Snow Pavement’ is carefree. It will grow in thickly, and several in a row create a natural hedge with a gently rounded form. The blooms are semi-double and delicate looking, with petals that look tissue-paper thin. 

‘Snow Pavement’ covers itself in bloom throughout the season and has a delicious strong clove perfume. Stop deadheading in late summer to allow pretty orange hips to form that will decorate your hedge all winter (until lucky birds snatch them up). 

‘Petite Pink Scotch’

	botanical name Rosa ‘Petite Pink Scotch’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 3’ – 4’
	hardiness zones 4-11

This gorgeous variety was discovered growing in a North Carolina garden in the 1940s. Though not related to traditional Scotch roses, it was thought to have been planted along with the original garden by Scottish immigrants in the 1750s, earning its name. 

‘Petite Pink Scotch’ throws out long, horizontal canes. When allowed to fall to the ground, the arching habit forms a beautiful weeping hedge blanketed in quarter-sized, fluffy deep-pink blooms with touches of cream.  

‘Petite Pink Scotch’ is an economical choice too. The canes can root into the ground via layering, and it also produces suckers that grow into new plants, slowly developing into a thicket all on its own.

If you have the time to let it spread, you may only need two plants to create a nice hedge. This is a once-blooming variety, but the flowers appear in impressive numbers for a month or more. Healthy and adorably tiny leaves are the icing on the cake. 

‘Lavender Floorshow’

	botanical name Rosa ‘Lavender Floorshow’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 3’ – 4’
	hardiness zones 5-10

If fragrance is important to you, consider ‘Lavender Floorshow’. With an intense sweet fragrance and generous flushes of lavender blooms from spring through fall, you might be tempted to camp out in the garden. 

‘Lavender Floorshow’ stays low and spreads slowly. Several planted together make for a lovely hedge that can perfume the whole garden! The blooms are semi-double and mauve to pale lavender, with light eyes and golden stamens. 

This rose is popular with bees and fits right in with an informal cottage garden style. The flowers are fairly large for such a small rose at 3 inches across. An easy and reliable winner! 

‘Nearly Wild’

	botanical name Rosa ‘Nearly Wild’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 2’ – 3’
	hardiness zones 4-10

Do you admire the free flowering woodland look of wild roses? ‘Nearly Wild’ takes the rugged beauty of native Species roses and tames it just enough to make a highly desirable ornamental garden shrub. 

‘Nearly Wild’ has all the health and vigor of its truly wild cousins but brings continuous bloom and a compact growth habit. The flowers are single-petaled (the best shape for pollinators) and deep raspberry pink. 

This variety has a luscious apple scent. It is completely covered in flowers from spring through frost, bringing dependable color to your garden. Healthy, strong, and with beautiful winter hips, ‘Nearly Wild’ is hard to beat for a graceful low hedge. 

‘Rose de Rescht’

	botanical name Rosa ‘Rose de Rescht’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 3’ – 4’
	hardiness zones 4-9

‘Rose de Rescht’ is one of the most fragrant of all roses. A winner of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit in 1993, it’s an heirloom rose of unknown origin (with suspected beginnings in Iran)that flourishes in modern gardens.  

‘Rose de Rescht’ grows 3-4 feet tall and has abundant fluffy deep magenta blooms with intoxicating Old Rose fragrance. They are densely petaled and quartered, a lovely old-fashioned look that looks stunning in the vase. 

With the short stems characteristic of Portland roses (though its exact classification is murky), the flowers seem to float just atop the foliage, coloring the entire shrub. Several ‘Rose de Rescht’ bushes in a line will perfume the garden and have a major impact.

It needs no spray regimens, making it an excellent choice for organic gardens. It reblooms in flushes all season. This is just an incredibly healthy, tough, and dazzling rose for fans of antique style. 

Medium/Tall Hedges

If you want a privacy screen or a formidable barrier, you need varieties that grow 5 feet or taller. Unless you already have a fence to train them on, climbing roses can be unwieldy to train as a hedge.

The selections below are generally upright, densely-growing shrubs that should be planted 2-3 feet apart for a full and beautiful look that provides you with security and seclusion. 

‘The Lark Ascending’

	botanical name Rosa ‘AUSursula’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 5’– 6’
	hardiness zones 4-11

This poetic rose is named for a beloved musical piece by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. ‘The Lark Ascending’ is all sophisticated grace, with loosely double, cupped blooms in soft hues of golden yellow and apricot. 

Breeder David Austin is credited with creating the English Rose look, with large, fragrant flowers that combine the beauty of Old World roses with excellent disease resistance and rebloom. ‘The Lark Ascending’ is rated highly for health and consistently blooms from the ground up. 

This variety has a pretty myrrh scent and abundant flower clusters. It grows vigorously and will form a tall (5-6 foot)  hedge with lots of thorny canes to deter wildlife and nosy neighbors from entering your space. 

‘Ferdinand Pichard’

	botanical name Rosa ‘Ferdinand Pichard’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 5’ – 8’
	hardiness zones 4-9

After admiring this rose for years, I finally got one for my garden! ‘Ferdinand Pichard’ is a showstopping French rose from the 1920s, with light pink petals and flashy magenta stripes. True to the old-fashioned look, the blooms are large and beautifully cupped. 

‘Ferdinand Pichard’ is healthy and robust, growing up to 8 feet tall in a bushy, upright habit. It produces a generous spring flush followed by smaller repeats until frost. The scent is rich and sweet.  

‘Ferdinand’ appreciates a bit of afternoon shade in hot zones. If you want to keep your hedge full of blooms, try “pegging,” a technique where canes are encouraged to grow horizontally by attaching them to the ground (or the base of the plant) to increase the number of flowering shoots. 

‘Super Hero’

	botanical name Rosa ‘BAIsuhe’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 5’ – 6’
	hardiness zones 4-9

Another winner from the Easy Elegance Ⓡ collection, ‘Super Hero’ is ready to rescue your garden from a boring hardscape. It’s a tough floribunda shrub that marries the classic look of a hybrid tea with the durability of a landscape rose. 

‘Super Hero’ is winter hardy down to zone 4. It has vivid scarlet double blooms that appear in clusters all summer season. The medium green foliage is bushy and appealing, even when not in bloom. 

‘Super Hero’ is bred to be worry-free and resilient to pests and diseases. I highly recommend it for a consistently-blooming red rose hedge. 

‘Carefree Wonder’

	botanical name Rosa ‘MEIpitac’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 4’ – 5’
	hardiness zones 4-9

‘Carefree Wonder’ is a midsize shrub at 4-5 feet tall, with profuse double blooms that stand out. Excellent for landscape hedges, the flowers are constant and a lush bright pink, accented with a white reverse. 

‘Carefree Wonder’ has a refreshing sweet fragrance and lots of cutting potential. It’s highly recommended for new rose growers due to its ease of maintenance. 

A 1991 All-America Rose Selection, ‘Carefree Wonder’ is a trialed and tested choice that will perform for you, green thumb or not.

The name is no lie. ‘Carefree Wonder’ makes gardening look easy by needing little maintenance or care to create a long row of blooms. It will turn heads from spring through frost and perhaps longer due to showy orange hips that persist into winter. 

‘Buff Beauty’

	botanical name Rosa ‘Buff Beauty’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 9’ – 15’’
	hardiness zones 5-10

‘Buff Beauty’ is for those who want a hedge on the tall side. Honey-colored and prized for its lavish musk and tea scent, this rose can grow up to 15 feet tall! 

The canes arch prettily, draping over smaller fences in a breathtaking way. It’s a perfect candidate for adding height to a short garden wall and increasing your privacy, with spectacular full apricot blooms as a bonus. 

‘Buff Beauty’ is a hybrid musk that will tolerate quite a bit of shade. The leather-like forest green foliage creates additional interest. This is a prestigious Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit recipient. 

‘Old Blush’

	botanical name Rosa chinensis ‘Old Blush’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 5’ – 10’
	hardiness zones 6-10

Records indicate that ‘Old Blush’ has been cultivated in China for more than 1,000 years. It is an important ancestor of many modern varieties, used to develop the consistent reblooming characteristics desired in today’s roses. 

‘Old Blush’ grows up to 10 feet tall, with medium candy-pink double blooms that fade to pale blush-lilac. It blooms steadily until the first frost and produces flowers all year long in warm climates.  

Just one plant can sprawl to form a natural large hedge, as this rose sends out long canes that will drape up and over the sides of the shrub. If you’d like to keep it smaller, it puts up with heavy pruning. This is an heirloom China rose beloved in the American South, with a moderately sweet fragrance and reliable bloom power. 

‘White Simplicity’

	botanical name Rosa ‘JACsnow’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 4’ – 6’
	hardiness zones 5-10

Created especially by vendor Jackson & Perkins for hedging, the Simplicity series consists of easy-care roses with a growth habit that lends itself wonderfully to full, medium-sized hedges blanketed in blooms.

The entire collection is densely branched, generously blooming, and disease resistant. It comes in yellow, lavender, red, pink, and white.

‘White Simplicity’ is my choice, as the cupcake frosting-like white rose blooms glow in the garden. White hedges are a classic option, forming a beautiful backdrop for the rest of your plants while standing out in a tasteful way. The blooms of ‘White Simplicity’ are double, with a hint of luminous pale yellow in the centers. 

This variety blooms in reliable flushes through the summer months. The light and sweet scent carries in the breeze. It’s just a simple, easy-to-maintain, gorgeous choice for hedges of any style. 

‘Rhapsody in Blue’

	botanical name Rosa ‘FRAntasia’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 6’ – 8’
	hardiness zones 6-10

Technically a small climber, the growth habit of ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ is great for hedges. With violet blooms that mature to a deep slate blue, pictures don’t do this unusual rose justice. The canes are covered in striking flowers all season, showing off bright white eyes and golden stamens. 

The smoky plum tones are complemented by fresh spring-green foliage, while the flowers welcome you with intense sugar and spice perfume. ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ has long canes that reach up to 8 feet tall. It looks stunning trained over an arbor as well as in a long hedge.

‘Rhapsody’ is unbothered by humidity, though it prefers cooler temperatures. It performs especially well in coastal regions. A gold-medal winner and a Royal Horticultural Society Rose of the Year, this is a must if you’re after elusive lavender blooms and steadfast performance.  

‘Rosa Woodsii’

	botanical name Rosa ‘Woodsii’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun-Part Shade
	height 4’ – 6’
	hardiness zones 2-8

If you’re an eco-conscious gardener, you know that native plants are the way to go! Fortunately for rose fans, many native roses are perfect as hedges and all-around excellent garden plants for those who have the space. 

‘Rosa Woodsii’ is a pretty native to the western United States and Canada. It has dainty single flowers that range from soft violet to deep raspberry. Pollinators love its open form with easily accessible stamens. It provides a habitat for wildlife and forage for birds in winter, with showy coral-red hips that resourceful gardeners use for interior decor. 

Like most Species roses, ‘Rosa Woodsii’ slowly forms into dense thickets over time via spreading suckers. This creates a great privacy barrier with the added protection of thorns. It’s a vigorous grower that will amaze you with how large it gets in one season.

‘Woodsii’ isn’t fragile and can be pruned heavily to maintain its shape. Best of all, this rose is nearly bullet-proof in the landscape (hardy down to -50℉!) and is even used by the US Department of Agriculture for the revegetation of unmaintained mining sites. A lovely environmentally friendly choice! 

‘At Last’

	botanical name Rosa ‘HORcogjill’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 3’ – 6’
	hardiness zones 5-9

My baby ‘At Last’ roses are still under 2 feet tall, but they keep producing flush after flush of rich apricot flowers. The blooms are ruffled, filled with a delicious fruity scent, and look gorgeous all season. 

‘At Last’ was designed to be a low-maintenance rose. It has outstanding disease resistance, lots of bushy deep green foliage, and long, slender canes. If you like a very formal look, these aren’t for you. The slim canes tend to arch and flop a bit, which I think softens a hedge just the right amount (especially in a cottage garden). 

I’m committed to a no-spray garden, so ‘At Last’ won me over with its ability to perform in an organic setting. This stunning sunset-hued rose doesn’t sacrifice beauty for ease of care. Planted in a robust hedge, it’s sure to win compliments.  

‘Sir Thomas Lipton’

	botanical name Rosa rugosa ‘Sir Thomas Lipton’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun – Part shade
	height 5’ – 8’
	hardiness zones 5-11

‘Sir Thomas Lipton’ is the result of a cross between two tough blooming varieties, a polyantha and rugosa rose. It’s covered from spring through fall in large ivory blooms with thick, sturdy petals tinged with light pink. 

‘Sir Thomas’ has the perfect temperament for a hedge. It’s a perpetual bloomer,  tall enough to provide privacy at 6-8 feet, and isn’t fussy about maintenance. You can depend on it to grow vigorously while remaining disease-free. 

This variety has a rich old rose fragrance and is great for cutting. It’s extremely thorny, which may be a desirable feature for a privacy barrier. Plant ‘Sir Thomas’ and don’t worry about drought or poor soils. This guy is an antique that just keeps on ticking. 

‘Rosy Hedge’

	botanical name Rosa ‘INTerall’
	plant type Perennial
	sun requirements Full Sun
	height 5’ – 6’
	hardiness zones 5-10

Do you want a hedge covered in clouds of pink apple blossoms? Get as close as you can with ‘Rosy Hedge,’ a free-flowering rose with single-petaled blooms that look just like the spring blossoms of an apple tree. 

An Award of Garden Merit and international gold-medal winner, this rose is a healthy and stunning addition to the garden. The flowers have cream centers, with outer petals edged in strawberry pink.

The shrub is enveloped in huge bloom clusters and has an airy, ethereal feeling. Flowering begins with a jaw-dropping show in early spring, followed by intermittent flushes until frost. 

Low maintenance and designed for hedging, ‘Rosy Hedge’ makes it easy for you to get a gorgeous garden wall in a short period of time. Space each plant at least 3 feet away to maintain airflow, and they will soon fill in with bushy growth. ‘Rosy Hedge’s’ fragrance is light and sweet, bringing the freshness of spring to your garden all season.