The Greek poetess Sappho crowned the rose the “Queen of Flowers.” Rosarians wholeheartedly agree with her, because roses light up and illuminate the garden. When planted with a “court” of compatible plants, the queen’s beauty is highlighted and the garden becomes even lovelier and healthier.
Mixed-plant communities are more resilient
For some rosarians, a garden of pure bliss is one planted solely with roses. These rosarians rail against the practice of growing a variety of plants with their roses, maintaining that “the best companion for a rose is another rose.” But a monoculture of just roses invites and encourages the spread of pests. Roses interplanted with a wide range of flowers and other shrubs are also less prone to the fungal diseases that affect roses.
Growing compatible companion plants in the rose garden makes horticultural sense. This is because when it comes to companions, our roses are very much like us. Good companions are ive, help us look and perform better, make us stronger and more resilient and cover up our shortcomings. When we pick our roses’ companions with care, the plants enhance each other’s beauty, and the mixed planting reduces disease and offers pest protection by deterring or diverting unwelcome insects and attracting beneficial insects as well as hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.
But take care in your selection of companions, because very much like our relationships, the wrong companions can become difficult and challenging and hinder and obstruct growth.
Compatibility is key: Select companions carefully
Plants that compete with our roses for water and nutrients, invade their space, block their light or have differing water requirements should not be included in the rose garden’s “guest” list. Alternatively, they should be planted at a distance or in a different bed.
Create depth and dimension in your garden by using plants of varying heights and forms, but be sure to plant the taller plants and rose bushes towards the back of the bed. Tall salvias and sages, lavenders, shasta daisies, echinacea and alstroemeria can be fabulous companion plants as they entice birds and pollinators into our garden, and they also complement the beauty of the roses. But their mature heights and widths must be considered at placement for appropriate spacing so that they don’t dwarf our roses. Some of these plants must be staked so they don’t flop over and rest on our roses. We also need to check periodically that they are not blocking irrigation.
Be wary also of low-growing plants like ground covers and forget-me-nots, and plants that seed themselves freely like nasturtiums, chrysanthemums, daisies and nemesia. Many of these plants entice bees and other beneficial insects but we gardeners need to keep these and other over-exuberant companion plants in check as roses don’t like an invasion or crowding of their personal space around their base.
Companion planting can enhance visual appeal
There are many plants with shapes, colors and textures not found in roses. These plants add great value and visual appeal when grown with roses.
Choice considerations
Contrasting shapes and sizes: Foxgloves, delphiniums, snapdragons, lupins, stock and penstemon are wonderful companion plants. Their vertical spiky growth contrasts with and accentuates the roses’ round blooms. The tiny dainty flowers of alyssum and nemesia and the dinner-plate-size blooms of some dahlias create a stark and interesting contrast in flower size.
Color: Garden designers suggest we use the color wheel to plan the colors in our garden to achieve an attractive, cohesive and harmonious space. If you want an energetic and attention-grabbing garden choose warm colors such as reds, yellows and oranges. If you prefer a calming, restful garden use a cool palette of pastels, purples, blues and whites.
Complementary colors on the color wheel are opposite each other and provide high contrast, impact and eye-catching pop. Great examples of complementary color pairing are yellow-gold ‘South Africa’ with lavender ‘Love Song,’ salmon-orange ‘Lady of Shalott’ with blue or purple delphinium, salvia or echinacea, yellow ‘Sparkle & Shine’ or ‘Julia Child’ with purple foxgloves or sage and yellow-tinged-with-pink ‘Sheila’s Perfume’ with purple stock. Analogous color schemes use colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. These colors match well and include red with orange, orange with yellow, blue with purple, and purple with red.
There are no blue roses, and blue complements every rose color so plants with blue flowers like penstemon, delphinium, campanula, nepeta, hydrangeas and violas are valuable in the garden.
White roses are beautiful with all flowering plants including other white roses. White is neutral and is always a good separator color on colors that are hard to tie into the garden such as smoky chocolate-orange ‘Hot Cocoa,’ rusty red-orange ‘Cinco de Mayo,’ coral-orange ‘Ring of Fire’ or coral-pink ‘Boscobel.’ White moonlight gardens are beautifully serene and glow at dusk and early evening so be sure to include white roses and flowers and silver foliage if this is a time you frequent your garden.
Foliage: All roses have green pinnately compound leaves with either three, five or seven leaflets. The silver-grey foliage of nepeta and lavender, the feathery foliage of fennel, cosmos and artemesia, the furry foliage of lambs’ ears, the airy, spiky foliage of some alliums, the strap-like foliage of agapanthus and the long leafless stems of scabiosa and craspedia globosa provide a striking contrast to roses making them visually appealing.
Timing: Modern roses have several bloom cycles throughout the year. Take your rose blooms with you to the nursery to find plants that flower at the same time as your roses and harmonize and highlight the color of your rose blooms. Also visit the nursery and choose plants that are flowering when the roses are not in bloom. In this way your roses will be interplanted with a succession of flowers that reinforce their beauty when they are in bloom and add interest and extend the flowering season of your garden when the roses are in between bloom cycles.
Early blooming bulbs like daffodils, hyacinths, freesias and corms like ranunculus extend the season of color in the garden before the roses bloom in the spring. Late-blooming tubers such as gloriosa lilies and dahlias extend color between rose bloom cycles.
Our carefully planned color schemes can get lost and thrown into disarray with the “out with the old to create space for the new” ritual which happens annually in rose gardens with the arrival of the new rose catalogs. One solution for this is to have recurring elements such as repeated groups of color and texture. The repetition of colors such as white, blue or purple in our companion plants guide our eye, unify the garden and create cohesion and rhythm in the garden.
Fragrance: Plant fragrant roses where you’ll enjoy the perfume. Heavenly scented freesias, sweet peas, stock, dianthus, star jasmine, stephanotis, wisteria, honeysuckle and rose geranium can be relied on to fill in and scent the air between rose bloom cycles.
Deterring unwelcome insects
A natural and preferred way to control pests and disease in our garden is to use companion plants to repel pests and avert their interest away from our roses. For example, gardeners often plant scented plants such as garlic, society garlic, alliums, cilantro, mint, parsley, dill, oregano, thyme, some scented geraniums, marigolds, nasturtiums, alyssum and calendula to keep pests such as aphids and thrips away from their roses and vegetables. While these plants do not deter all pests, they do give them a smorgasbord of rose-alternative choices. Caterpillar-chewed nasturtiums, mint leaves and marigolds usually mean fewer caterpillar-chewed roses.
Encouraging natural enemies
The benefit of companion planting goes much further than just deterrence and diversion away from our roses. The adage “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” puts into a nutshell the “insect-eat-insect” cycle that benefits us. Beneficial insects including syrphid flies, tachinid flies, lacewings, lady beetles and parasitic wasps are drawn into our garden by nectar- and pollen-rich plants such as bee balm, echinacea, alstroemeria, penstemon, daisies, chamomile, alyssum, chrysanthemum, coreopsis, nepeta, coneflower, gallardia, nemesia, phlox, salvia, lavender and yarrow. These friendly heroes and heroines lay their eggs in our garden. Once hatched their larvae steadfastly and single-mindedly feed on the “enemies” that are taking liberties in our garden.
The rose is the “royal” in the garden. Plant her with a harmonious entourage of beautiful garden courtiers. The attending hummingbird, bird, butterfly, bee and lady beetle guests will make your garden a party fit for a queen.
Perwich is a member of the San Diego Rose Society, a Consulting Rosarian and a Master Gardener with UC Cooperative Extension.
