Hi All - I'm in Z4 and have 3 large William Baffin roses growing against my garage. They are about 8-9 feet tall and pretty full on the top half. The bottom half, on the other hand, is almost bare. The roses are about 7 years old. The canes are probably 2-3 inches thick and brutally thorny. The garden faces west and gets full afternoon sun.

I want a fuller look at the base of these roses. I am considering planting Annabelle hydrangeas at the bases to hide the bare canes. I have these shrubs in other parts of my yard and they seem to be hardy and pretty low maintenance. They also seem to grow pretty dense - thus filling up the void that exists from the ground to about 4.5 ft. up. However, I have heard that they don't really like strong afternoon sun...

My question is this: Are the roses, being so large, depleting the surrounding soil of nutrients too much for nice, large shrubs to grow close to them? It seems unlikely, but I seem to have difficulty growing other perennials in that garden with the Baffins. I really hate looking at their "legs" but don't know what to do. I guess I should have pruned them harder when they were younger and maybe now they'd be a bit more shrubby. Sigh. Live and learn. Any recommendations/knowledge is very appreciated.

kat