Companion planting for a rose garden?

18 Apr '05 1:56 pm

We've planted an upside-down horseshoe shaped rose garden in an area roughly 28' square, with a 4' diameter circular central garden in it planted with miniature roses & a small birdbath. It has been an incredible amount of work - the area was formerly overgrown with brambles and the soil no better than landfill. We cleared the whole area and put in raised beds. Last autumn I planted the area with spring bulbs and we're now enjoying a lovely display. In summer, this area gets full sun for 10 hours a day.

Today the last of the 31 different varieties was planted and now I guess I have to hurry up and wait! to see how it all turns out. I've been reading up on companion planting for rose gardens and would love to hear what has worked for you.

One arm of the "horseshoe" is yellow/apricot/orange varieties, the area at the top has New Dawn climbers up a frame with white shrub roses in the foreground, and the other arm is pink/red/purple varieties.

Thanks for any suggestions!

18 Apr '05 6:41 pm

Howdy sunshine Smile

If you are asking about companion plants in the true sense of the term then I have tried garlic, chives, parsley.
The garlic and chives have fabulous flowers and are supposed to repel aphids (I think this helped when I did it), as does the parsley which is also rumoured to enhance the roses' scent (not sure about this, I couldn't tell any difference Confused

)
The additiion of a few lavender and rosemary made a really pretty garden with complementary colours (and they were useful in the kitchen).

For plants which just look great with roses I have used salvias, daylilys (with colours to match the roses), gypsophila (sp) and old favourites like foxgloves, delphiniums, geranium.... the list is endless! Very Happy

Don't forget to post a pic of your rose garden...it sounds delightful!

19 Apr '05 5:13 am

I'd not heard about the garlic, chives and parsley and will definitely try each. Someone had advised nepeta (sp?) - "catmint". I don't know if this is a true mint but mention of the "m" word put me off and gives me a headache. We literally had to burn the ground there to get rid of mint someone had planted, that had taken over completely and kept coming back no matter what .

Thank you for your interest! and I will most certainly post some photos. I find myself viewing my new roses almost as I do pets: they each have a name, they each have specific needs and I check on their welfare regularly. I'm a new rose gardener. Is this typical? Will it get worse? (I already find myself eyeing up other areas in the garden where I can sneak in another rose or two)

Laughing

19 Apr '05 8:59 am

Ha! Rose obsession! It doesn't diminish - but you might find you'll get tougher with age. There'll come a time when you'll pull out an unhealthy specimen and dispose of it. Then you'll have graduated!

Nepeta isn't a proper mint, and really doesn't give any problems - it is rather beauritul and easy to manage. If ever you got sick of it it would take ten minutes with the spade to completely remove it! The colours look great with pink roses, though it would be a worthy companion to any colour. And it is low growing, so the canes don't have competition.

Good luck! Enjoy those roses. Has the climbing rose bug hit you yet?

19 Apr '05 5:37 pm

"The aphid is the bane of the rose-grower. When planing new rose-bush put a clove of garlic with it. The roots of the rose will take up the exudation from the garlic and so becomes less attractive to the greenfly.
Parsley grown with roses will also help against the pest.
Instead of throwing away your banana skin, tuck them in the soil around your rose bushes and they will provide silica, calcium, sulphur phosphate and sodium on which the rose will thrive.
Its unlikely that you'll want to plant onions among your roses; garlic looks right in the way that onions do not, but onion skins can be chopped and dug into the soil. Both garlic and onions make roses smell all the sweeter.
Mignonette looks pleasant grown as a ground cover beneath rose-bushes and the roses appreciate its presence.
A wide piece of plastic piping sunk about a meter deep into the ground by the side of the rose bush make a good funnel for ensuring the water provided gets to the roots where it is needed and is not just dissipated in a few inches below the ground."

Rose companions: garlic, parsley, onions, mignonette, marigolds.

31 Jul '05 11:22 pm

Dear Rebeka, I trully appreciated your advice about the real aphid problem with the Roses! Your style is direct and your arguments crystal clear.
Reading your letter, an idea struck me:tell me, if I put in my blender a quantity of onions, creating a creamy mixture, and then mixing it softly with the soil that surrounds each plant and then water...What do you think?..And if you agree, what exact season would it be more beneficial for the plants:Autumn(:November-December), when we add the organic matter to the plants (hummus, compost, etc), in order to enhance their soil quality naturally, or in early Spring after prunning,together with the powder fertilizers? Or do we have to do this regularly during the "attack Season"? And what quantity of onions would it be sufficient each time?
Thank you in advance for helping me, or any other forum gardener!
Love from Liza.

3 Aug '05 6:38 pm

I Liza.

My post was a piece from one of the books I have here. Hence the "" between the copied post.

As I myself don't have much (hardly anything) to do with the more 'pretty' size of gardening, I am more than at home in the soil in my vegetable plot.

So I can't really answer your questions, but all I can suggest is to try it and see what happens. You can only learn from your mistakes, right?

5 Aug '05 5:36 am

Hi! Rebekah
Shocked

OH! you knew many things about how to growing rose it is good knowledge I will remember them growing herb around flower to avoid them from insect is the really natural way it's easy but most of the people can not think about this. Razz

5 Aug '05 6:57 pm

I agree with Moosey - catmint is a lovely plant that makes a great groundcover plant under any colour rose. Beware that some cats like to roll on it, though most cats only do that to catnip, a close relative of catmint. It just needs a tidy up in autumn and the rest of the year keeps weeds at bay with its spreading, but non-running mat.There is a white form as well.
From my experience using chives under roses is a waste of time - I've never had such a invasion of aphids as when I grew them under roses and the chives were as equally as the roses covered with the pest.

18 Jun '06 1:07 pm

The nepeta is coming into its own this year - as is the rose garden. When I figure out how to post some photos, I will. With the rather wet and miserable June's we sometimes get on Canada's west (read "wet") coast, the buds are ready to burst when the sun finally shines for longer than a few hours! Any minute now. Fingers crossed, I seem to have been keeping on top of the black spot so far.

I do enjoy reading comments here and on other forums on this site. Happy 2006 gardening to all!

Companion planting for a rose garden?

Companion planting for a rose garden?

Thank you for great suggestions

Precious Rebeka's advice against the aphids!

Rose

Wonderful information here: Thank You