lovesblooms .........
I forgot to address the root competition/shade issue ... sorry.
I used the Ask.com search engine and asked how many gallons of water a mature oak tree would use in a day and was really surprised by the answer .... 50 gallons !
Here's a link:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_...
So whether or not the rose has root competition really is determined by how close it is planted to the oaks. If it is only shaded by the trees blocking sunlight but is far enough away from the tree's drip line, the root competition would be less of a problem than light deprivation.
I hope that makes sense ...
Smiles,
Lyn
