Rosa banksiae ... can it be grown as a Ground Cover?

I just realized what two seedlings that have come up under my Olive tree --near a birdbath-- are ... Rosa banksiae.
At least that is what I think my neighbor has on his fence (1 white & 1 yellow), which is growing way up into his tree.

IF I can successfully transplant one or both, I am wondering how it would do grown as a ground cover.
Or, does its branches need to be kept off the ground (we have heavy clay soil) ?

I live in the Inland Empire / Riverside County, CA.
We do get *hot* summers, but it seems to weather those FINE!
I'm just wondering where --and whether-- I want to transplant either of them to somewhere else in our yard.

We do have a 5' fence I would like to cover parts of ... but, *not* with something that will *have* to be topped every year!

By the way, though ... how far would one probably grow in width, IF it were topped at 6' every year?

Also, IF I kept the one near the Olive trunk pruned back every year, how would they both fare?
(I doubt the Olive would do very well, as it already had black stuff on its leaves from not being thinned enough 2 yrs back.)

I'm not crazy about roses, but the fact that this one is almost disease, pest, & thorn, free ... has caught my interest.
PLUS, wildlife likes it!

This message was edited May 26, 2013 1:11 AM

Mine ambles wherever it wants! It is going all over the ground and up a wooden trellis, so I'd say it's a good candidate for a ground cover plant.

Hmmm . . . I just noticed that the description on this site doesn't say anything about propagating this plant via seed. However, I assume that is what my two little ones are . . . seedlings. Now I am wondering just how much they will be like their parent plants . . .