Advice needed re Wild Rose hedging

the same thing happened to me years ago and we ended up getting rid of them. Then I saw them again in a hospital grounds in brilliannt sunshine baked dry earth and they were COVERED in flowers

Yep that's the plant. Some of them are in a very open location so they get sun all day long, the others are lightly shaded. We used to mulch them each Spring until a neighbour told us not to as they do better in poorer soil and to treat them like weeds! We were told to plant them 18 inches apart to get a nice dense hedge. Perhaps they're too close together. They're about 12 feet tall now, very arching and quite frankly dangerous. If they were not so thorny I'd be tempted to rip them out and plant something else.

www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/16017/Rosa-canina-(S)/Details
Sorry forgot the link. Oooops

Is this the right plant? If so there's no mention at all of pruning but quite a lot regarding feeding and mulching.
Might be worth a look.

Hi everyone, Sorry I haven't returned to this thread sooner, I completely forgot I'd posted it. Thanks for all your advice, I think you're probably right about the pruning, but it's difficult to know when they have finished flowering because they don't really flower at all! In the past 4 years we have had perhaps half a dozen flowers on 50 plants. We have tried leaving them unpruned but still no flowers the following year. DH likes them kept to a manageable size because they're so vicious. Some of them have the sun all day, others for about half the day. Our soil is heavy clay. We also have about sixty other rose plants (shrubs, climbers and ramblers) around the garden which are all flourishing. Perhaps I'll leave them unpruned again this year and see what happens next year.

Ours grow through next doors Leylandi hedge. When I cut my side I avoid cutting the roses. They always flower, so I suspect the pruning theory is right.
I’ve also planted Ramanus roses, which are the hedging sort you see along roadways. These might give you effect you want.

Snap, Whitewavemark2 That would be my theory, too. They need time for those new shoots to develop and flower.

I suspect that it may be when you are pruning them. I think you could try pruning immediately they finish flowering. The subsequent growth should be the flowering stems.
By prruning in early spring you are cutting all the flowering growth

Meant to ask, are they in a sunny position? Not deep shade?

Very strange, not sure what to suggest. What type of soil do you have? Do roses grow well in the immediate vicinity?

We have same hedge. Sometimes we forget to prune, sometimes we do, also in autumn. We never feed,same as you. We have heavy clay, they are full of flower.

Do they flower on the previous year's growth, as my Rambling Rector does? If so, by dutifully cutting away the new growth each year you are losing any chance of flowers the next year. Then the following year you do the same. Could you try just cutting older growth back each year and keep the newest shoots until after they have flowered? That might solve it.