Top Picks for Rose Plant Combinations
Roses are a beloved addition to any garden, but they can benefit from the company of certain plants. Here's a guide to companion plants that not only complement the beauty of roses but also help protect them from pests and diseases.
Firstly, nut-bearing trees such as walnuts, hickories, and some oaks release chemicals that kill vegetation beneath them. Therefore, it's best to avoid planting roses under these trees.
Penstemons, with their variety of colours and shapes, add texture to your rose garden. They are resistant to deer and rabbits, and attract birds, beneficial insects, and butterflies.
Verbascums repel cockroaches and moths, making them a great choice for your rose garden.
Foxgloves, while beautiful, are susceptible to many of the same diseases as roses in rainy, humid weather. However, they come into peak bloom in the middle of the summer when roses are not especially showy, offering a different, delicious fragrance while rose buds are regenerating.
Consider planting herbs like culinary sage, thyme, lavender, basil, chamomile, and rosemary to benefit your rose garden. These herbs not only add aromatic plants for cooking but also repel various pests. Lavender, for instance, repels fleas, flies, and moths.
Adriana Copaceanu recommends planting lavender, catmint, salvia, and geranium as companion plants to create a rose garden landscape. Geraniums repel mosquitoes, blackflies, and gnats, which can prevent the spread of several rose diseases.
Wallflower produces chemicals that make butterflies resistant to predators and deter rabbits and deer. Nepeta, or blue-gray catmint, attracts pollinators, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, and makes a carpet of blue beneath rose bushes.
Tomato plants repel blackspot, a major fungal pest of roses. Determinate tomatoes could do well too when planted with roses.
Some plants repel insect pests away from themselves and to adjacent rose bushes. These include most kinds of citrus, all hot peppers, cedar, and mint.
Salvias have spiral shapes that contrast the structure of roses, creating interest, and they bloom most of the summer and come in a variety of colours. If you like the tall spikes of these flowers, you'll also love pairing roses with Russian sage, a plant from the mint family, just like salvia.
Ornamental alliums ward off aphids and make rose scents stronger. Clematis makes a perfect planting partner for climbing roses, but beware, as clematis can strangle a tree if grown on it.
Lilies are a decoy plant for beetles, as they attract beetles away from roses. However, all parts of lilies, even the pollen, are toxic to dogs and cats and potentially fatal to puppies and kittens.
White, yellow, and peachy-orange mullein begin blooming in the middle of spring and are still going when roses come into bloom. They ward off aphids and make rose scents stronger.
Lastly, roses don't like to keep their feet wet. They shouldn't be planted with companions that prefer or require soggy soil, like irises and hardy ruellia (wild petunias). If you plan to plant vegetables with your roses, you'll need to be careful not to spray your roses with anything that you wouldn't want in your food.
So, planting roses with the right companion plants will protect them from pests and provide you with delicious aromatic plants for cooking. Happy gardening!
