Sophie Thompson shares her favourite bed fellows for planting under bush roses.
I love to have roses in the garden, the more the better. I love their scent, their looks, their amazing variety, and the way they look in a vase, but I don't love them in beds with nothing but other roses. This old-fashioned style of rose bed might look good when the roses are in full flower, but between rose flushes there is very little interest and once the roses are pruned in winter, the whole bed looks like a collection of dead sticks.
Instead, I'm a fan of underplanting roses to soften and enhance the effect of the garden. The reason so many gardeners don't do as I do, is because of a belief that roses don't like root competition. This is partially true. Roses do not like the severe root competition that comes from trees and large shrubs. Roses forced to battle this lot will certainly diminish in vigour and performance. But if you avoid planting roses near large trees, combining them instead with appropriate perennials and groundcovers, and you keep them healthy by feeding them regularly, root competition is not a problem for roses.
Annuals massed under your roses always look great. In summer, petunias or salvias in complementing colours to your roses could highlight their beauty; and in winter, pansies, violas or lobelia could draw attention away from the bare rose stems. But if you prefer a less rigorous work schedule, perennials are the right choice, providing a permanent cover.
My favourite perennial to plant with roses is Nepeta (catmint). The lavender flowers form a great show against the grey-green foliage, and match any rose colour scheme. There are several forms of this summer-flowering perennial and I've found the longest flowering and most reliable to be 'Walker's Blue'. It grows to about 45 cm, and in my Adelaide Hills garden flowers frommid-spring to late autumn. This perennial needs to be pruned back to ground level at the end of autumn, and then mounts a lovely show of fresh foliage over winter.
'Princess Lilies'are dwarf varieties of the hardy old-fashioned plants known as Alstroemeria, or Peruvian Lilies, which have long been prized as cut flowers. Unlike their taller cousins, the new varieties form dense clumps, only 20-40 cm high, and in a sunny position, they flower for at least six months of the year. The colours available in this range include several shades of pink, soft cream and shell colours so it's easy to find the perfect colour to suit your roses. Whether grown as a border or as individuals, these plants will provide a mass of colour, and cut flowers.
Dwarf varieties of lavender can also look very attractive as a border fronting roses. Varieties range in height from 45 to 80 cm, and you can select those that flower either in the cooler weather when your roses are not blooming, or those that bloom in the warmer weather and make a great show with your roses.
Varieties of miniature agapanthus such as 'Blue Baby' and 'Snowstorm' flower for two to three months in summer and can also make an interesting border in front of, or between, roses of any colour. Their graceful evergreen foliage requires no maintenance, and the spent flower stems are easily removed after flowering. 'Blue Baby'produces delicate blue flowers on slender 45 cm stems while 'Snowstorm'has pure white flowers on sturdy stems to 40 cm. Both are effective cut flowers as well.
Stachys (lamb's ear) is popular because of its low growth and soft silver-grey foliage, but it does need to be divided regularly or it looks scrappy. The dwarf form, Stachys thirkei, available from Lambley Nursery in Victoria, is ideal if you want a more manageable, compact plant. Stachys, like other plants with silver foliage, will match any rose colour scheme – pink, gold, apricot or red.
I also grow Japanese windflowers in the same beds as my roses and these create a great display in autumn. For most of the year their foliage is low and exists below the roses, and then in autumn they produce tall spikes of simple, single or double flowers in white, pale or dark pink. Although they can take a couple of years to establish, Japanese windflowers are sometimes maligned as being too invasive. In my garden I control them by weeding them out of areas where they are not wanted and thinning them out once a year after flowering.
Even the common seaside daisy, Erigeron is a good companion plant for roses as long as it is kept well trimmed. It smothers itself with small pink and white daisy flowers for most of the year and benefits from a harsh haircut once a year to keep it manageable. Other popular perennial plants that combine with roses are old-fashionedpinks, Dianthus species. These plants have a mound of low foliage and produce upright spikes of miniature carnation-like flowers with a deliciously sweet clove scent. Also consider the winter and spring flowering perennial Bergenia, which has bold round leaves and heads of rich pink flowers.
For very low rose companions, choose from groundcovers such as verbenas (assorted colours), Ajuga 'Jungle Beauty' (violet flowers), prostrate rosemary (blue flowers), veronica 'Oxford Blue' (blue flowers), Bidens 'Gold Mound' (yellow flowers), Iberis sempervirens (white flowers) and Odontospermum maritimum (yellow flowers).
Think of matching roses in the garden in the same way you would arrange them in the vase and you'll enjoy all the sensuality of the rose, freed from the disadvantages of being contained in a bed of their own.
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