Thank you to our March speaker Charlotte Owendyk for this list of companion plants for roses.
Alyssium – reseeds, easy to pull out.
Eventually all white; get seed or plant for color
Anagallis – great small ground cover
Angelina Sedum – vigorous, chartreuse, easy to tear out
Aromatic Aster – interesting flower
Astromeria, Dwarf – trim back to get rebloom.
Calibrachoa hybrids – subject to damping off
Catnip, Walker’s Low – gets 2 feet in diameter. Need to cutback in winter
Clematis – viticella (type 3- cut back to ground) can handle heat and blooms on new growth
Columbine – cutback when gets ratty in the summer
Coreopsis – vigorous and reseeds
Cushion Crysthanamum – Cut back if gets too tall in mid summer.
Daffodils – used mixture that lasts over 4 weeks. Need to trim up foliage
Daylily – limited use—can get big
Diasia – like especially in front of bed. Sometimes overwinters.
Feverfew – chartreuse – reseeds, cutback periodically or pull out
Foxglove – falls over, plant can get big
Fringe Flower – neat summer annual
Gladiolas – weeds, tendency to fall over. Put in back of roses
Hardy Geranium – various types. Some vigorous, some neat.
Iris – Needs to be thinned each year
Lamb’s Ear – vigorous –
Latris – tendency to fall over
Lavender – do not grow under roses prefer more sun and less water.
Lobelia – Leguna variety can handle our heat
Miniature rose – blooms all summer
Nicotina – reseeds. Spotted plants throughout garden – cutback when too large or floppy
Pansies – easy to tear out when done (early summer)
Salvia Midnight – trim back to get rebloom, neat
Salvia Vitoria Blue – annual and spiky so use in flower beds with miniatures
Santa Barbara Daisy – too vigorous – put in area that is dry to restrain
Scabosia (pincushion) – use blue dwarf, gets powdery mildew, still have some
Silene – variegated is better since not as vigorous
Tansy – Reseeds, easy to pull out after spring bloom
Verbena, Purple – lowest and neatest growing of verbenas,
Veronica Speedwell – blue and pink are small and good for in front of roses
Yarrow – very vigorous, reseeds. Moved where gets limited water
Yarrow, Dwarf – groundcover in front of roses; blooms summer and occasionally after.
