Deb, so far I've only planted elephant garlic - last January. Maybe too late for it to bloom, I don't know. I know zilch about herbs but I would like to learn. I've tried Fennel for Butterflies but not with roses. Which ones did you plant?

Sherry

Hi Sherry,
I have garlic planted in every rose bed. Actually I have several heads of garlic around each rose bush and I think it has made a difference in the aphids I have on the bushes. There are less aphids on them!

I planted the usual parsley, oregano, Dill. I also planted some lemon basil, Thyme and catnip. I have a friend over in Texas that is sending me a lemon verbena plant!!! I'm so excited about that one. I want to put the leaves in the tea I make and use some in my linen closets. People say you can make lots of recipes using lemon verbena. Perhaps make me some verbena oil...I love different olive oils. I am new to herbs too. But I want to learn how to use them soooo bad.
I need to learn how to dry them too.
I have my big plant of Rosemary planted in the rose bed and you know...I think it has had an affect on the aphid population too!

Deb

Doesn't catnip have blue flowers? I'd like to grow the ones that flower - and smell! My garlic is among the roses also. Last year I planted chives to ward off the aphids around 2 hybrid teas.

Here's a book I want to get. If you don't already have it, you might find it helpful.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Herbs & Plants for Florida Gardens

"Real" herbs you can eat, or more like ornamental types?

I had "Blue Hills" sage/salvia with my roses for a while and set Russian sage nearby a grouping before the end of fall. The salvia was beautiful; just watch out for bees!

Molineux did a post (in the antiques forum, I believe) a while back on lavender with roses in the garden. Provence is the one that worked really well, even in clay soil, I believe. Might be worth a look-up.

I grow Lavendar and Rosemary but will think about garlic and other herbs after seeing others posts.
I think it's a terrific idea and would cover up the bottom of some of the leggier varieties.
Chuck

Rosysunnygirl I think I mean both. I have my rosemary in the rose bed planted in the ground.
I was admiring my Souvenier de la Malmaison today and realized I had society garlic planted all the way around it. This rose didn't have BS last year, was not bothered by aphids and bloomed none stop until the middle of December! I think the society garlic helped because the bugs didn't bother it this year.
I think I will start putting it all around my rose beds, it is a pretty plant. And the blooms are pretty too.

Deb

Deb, there is a companion book to the famous companion planting book "carrots love tomatoes". It is called "Roses love Garlic" and that is for the very same reason as you said: Garlic keeps blackspot away from roses, probably because garlic has anti-fungal properties. Companion planting really is a wonderful thing.

Wow, thanks for the heads up on this you guys! I am definatley going to give the garlic companion planting a whirl. BS is super bad here. I also have a few types of lavender, rosemary, and parsley around mine now. I did have a large catnip plant, really pretty, but the neighborhood kitties constantly crushed it down all the time, so I pulled it out. They LOVED it. Never plant mint - that stuff goes nutty with it's runners. If you do, contain it. Some weirdo also planted Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum) here before I moved in, another big time no-no. It smells really nasty and pops up everywhere. I've been trying to get rid of that stuff for years!

I'm planting citrus thyme (it's variegated yellow and green with a wonderful citrus scent) with my alyssum under and around the roses so that the soil is covered and therefore a little shaded from that hot afternoon sun. I also have a lemon verbena the size of a rose bush itself in with the roses. It's a vigorous plant but so pretty mixing in with roses. The scent is great! Will try to take pics of it later this season.

Lemon thyme, regular thyme, sages, lavender.

Chives is also another well growing herb that had beautiful blue flowers. Just be careful not to step on it because then your rose garden will smell like onions!

In my zone, rosemary, thyme and chives are green year round.

I have a large Rosemary bush. Mostly I grow Lavender, it does well on the hill where it is hot and dry. Dill and cilantro sometimes.

Carla

I have successfully tried thyme, marjoram, chives. I have avoided rosemary, a favorite, because I read somewhere (on a forum? not sure) that rosemary wouldn't like the liquid seaweed fertilizer that my roses love. It was years ago - when I was using the stinky stuff that I bought from Lloyd Brace's now defunct rose nursery in Maine. I still get a version of it at the local Agway, so if I am wrong on this please let me know - I think rosemary foliage will be lovely under all my pinks/lavendars.

Another one I forgot is the Citronella scented geraniums I have in my other rose garden. It is low, grows with little or no attention from me and I divide it for more plants each year. Has gray-green leaves and little white flowers. (This one I recommend - if you can find it. Don't remember when or where I got it.) Love those scents!

I've stayed away from edibles in my perennial areas, because I have tulips planted amidst my rose bushes. I think you're not supposed to plant edibles near tulips because of toxins? poison? from the tulips. Not sure on this.

Carol

I love chives, they are pretty & very cold hardy. I grow lavendar & thyme as well. Need to try the garlic and lemon verbena.

Cheers,
Michelle

Deb, that planting with the society garlic sounds amazing -- especially if it keeps aphids away (the one bug I just can't deal with seeing without getting all icked out). Does society garlic spread? I've been digging up/spraying Roundup on clumps of wild onions for years and I don't want to add to my work...

Also, does anyone know if lemon verbena is one that spreads, too? (I don't think it's hardy enough to become perennial in my zone). I'd love to plant this near some sunny yellow roses!

Thanks for bringing up this topic! Herbs are really easy and cheap to find around here, and it sounds like they make great (affordable) companion plants.

canadian rose, I'm not sure. I do know that you can't chill tulip bulbs in the fridge with other fruits and veggies. Some gas that escapes from the fruit can damage the bulbs, or something like that.

I don't know about society garlic repelling aphids, but I can tell you for sure, it repels ME.
No few people are very sensitive to it, so be cautious.

And don't plant ANYTHING that you plan to eat with your roses, if you spray or drench or otherwise use chemical pesticides.

Jeri

I have most of my herbs in pots right now. The one's I put in the rose beds are not for cooking use.
I love the smell of society garlic. My hubby David does not care for the smell.

Deb

I really like the look of society garlic, but like Jeri, its smell would make me avoid going near my roses. So I enjoy it from a distance in other people's gardens. I wish I enjoyed its scent like you do, Deb.

I trying herbs with my roses this year ... 'Provence' & 'Goodwin Creek' lavender (Goodwin Creek smells awesome), rosemary, lemon thyme, parsley, purple sage, & basil.

Randy

When we first built our house, the landscaping that came with it had several plants of society garlic growing in all the planting beds. Now don't get me wrong, I love real garlic in my cooking, including the way cooking garlic smells, but society garlic reeks. It literally made me want to throw up whenever our weather got cool here, and the stink carried quite a distance. They were a bear to remove, but when I did my neighbors thanked me for getting rid of it. They couldn't stomach the smell either.

I grow many cooking herbs in pots, and have been thinking about planting them in the ground interspersed with my roses this year. However, I DO NOT SPRAY - EVER.

Sandy

Since I have to spray most of my roses, I don't use culinary herbs in rose beds or those I use (like purple basil) I use as ornamentals. Exception is the section with Devoniensis and Crepuscule on the pergola; that section needs no fungicide so in that bed I have chives, parsley, basil and marjoram and a huge rosemary bush the has pretty blue flowers in winter.

I had no idea that rosemary had lovely blue flowers. I can't believe I didn't know this but I haven't had my rosesmary in the ground but perhaps one season. So....rosemary blooms in the winter?

Deb

Oh my!! Thanks for the warnings on society garlic!

It would defeat the purpose of having fragrant roses for me. Maybe I'll just try some big allium bulbs instead. I heard they keep aphids away.

You know, I never have thought that society garlic was all that strong of a smell. I have it completely surrounding a good sized rosebed but have never been "gagged" by the society garlic smell. I need to go out and smell it again. LOL

Deb

Deb, I think everyone's sense of smell is really different. Mine just seems sensitive to the scent of garlic and onion plants for some reason. It's a really strong odor for me. If the scent doesn't bother you, then you are lucky because I think society garlic is a beautiful plant.

About your rosemary question, yes, the rosemary plants that I have grown in the past (a couple of trailing varieties) has always bloomed small light blue flowers in the winter and early spring. They were not showy blooms at all on my plants, but nice to look at. This year, I am going to try a more upright variety ... the trailing types have gotten really wide and their branches root by themselves easily, taking up a lot of real estate.

Randy

I grow all my roses with abundant companion plants, including many herbs, as the dry climate ones are well adapted here--this part of the world is where many of them come from, after all. The biggest problems I've had has been planting herbs that got too big for their space: some of the lavenders get large (3' x 3') and so does rosemary (4'-5' wide). Common thyme (T. vulgaris) in my garden is easily overwhelmed by larger and more vigorous plants, mine having been outcompeted by self-seeding culinary sage (S. officinalis). I agree that mint gets out of hand and ought not to be planted in most gardens; two other pretty and invasive pests are lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) and Chinese garlic, both of them to be avoided.
There are many kinds of thyme with varying growth habits and scents, and I pretty much like them all. I don't think anyone has yet mentioned lavender cotton (Santolina, various species and selections) and the various artemesias (Artemisia, ditto), also Helichrysium and then there are catmints: I think I have one in my garden but I don't know the group at all. There are lots of sages, too. These herbs I'm talking about are mostly gray-foliaged plants best adapted to a fairly dry climate; people who live in wetter places may or may not be able to grow them. I think good drainage helps: I've seen rosemary grown in north Florida. And people in wetter places can grow things like basil and cilantro that require watering. Most of the perennial herbs are easy to grow from cuttings.

Melissa

Deb, I have never smelled society garlic. I have smelled garlic that some refer to as "society garlic," but the real society garlic, I have never smelled it.

I have a trio of containers on one corner of my balcony consisting a Double Delight flanked by 2 Hot Lips Salvia. They can be quite aromatic, and the DD is the only one of my 4 HTs and 6 micro minis that hasn't needed aphid treatment (at least not yet!) Perhaps other sages (culinary or incense type) may have insect repelling properties...

I do not. I grow my herbs separate from my roses, because I want the ability to spray my roses when/if I need to.

I do grow tarragon, basil (two types), rosemary, sage, thyme (2 types), oregano, parsley, marjoram, and chives - but not
with the roses with the exception of a container roses that I move aside when/if I spray.

Rosemary doesn't mind liquid fish or kelp fertilizer at all. In fact, that is about all I give my herbs in weak doses.

Here in CA the rosemary is blooming now. My mother-in-law
lives in Mississippi and she said she didn't knew it bloomed either (even though she grows it), so maybe it doesn't bloom well in that climate. Here I have even seen it bloom almost year-round near the cooler beach areas like Malibu, but 30 miles inland (where I live) it blooms from late fall to early spring. It really can be pretty planted en masse, but a single plant (which is what I grow) doesn't have quite the same effect. I grow mine in a pot, but in the ground they can grow to be monsters. The trailing kinds can (and do) take over entire hillsides. The deer seem to avoid it, which is good if you have that problem.

the only thing i grow is mint in a container since its invasive. I had no idea everyone had other herbs in with their roses. I am so excited to hear this, i thought they were all pretty much invasive... but now i have hope. Headed to the nursery after work to get tons of herbs. Thanks so much for the great info!!!

NorthTexasDude, get catmint, Nepeta, which is beautiful and spreads but has pretty misty blue blooms, and grow it as a groundcover to choke out weeds. Yes, the mint is invasive and although catmint spreads fast, which is not your everyday mint, it is lovely and not as aggressive and the cats like to wallow in it.

Lemon Thyme makes a great ground cover under roses and smells delightful when stepped on or brushed.

I think catmint is great with roses.

Lavendar is also pretty with its silver folliage.

I grow verbena and veronica with my roses as well.

ok great! on my list of things to get for today!! going after work as long as it doesnt storm. thanks so much!!!!

I love lavender of all kinds but every variety of lavenders hates my soil. I had garlic chives many years ago and it took us years to excavate them from the rose roots so I would never try that again.

Purple basil I use in rose beds but I do not use that for cooking-eating.

Yes, rosemary bush has beautiful blue flowers in winter. IME it is more tolerant of clay and wet soil than other Mediterranean herbs are but rosemary grows to a huge woody-based shrub. There is a variety (maybe Tuscan) that should have white flowers but my 4" Tuscan rosemary died before it could grow to the size when it flowers. I wonder if creeping rosemary would survive if planted close to roses that must be watered.

I love laurel, the Turkish culinary kind. It is a very slow growing evergreen tree so I bought an 'adolescent-almost-grown -up' specimen when I found it at Lowe's. By now it is 7' tall. I use bay leaves in cooking, so we are careful with spraying around that area.