In my garden, the following is happening. Daylilies are starting to bloom, nepeta is still blooming, hardy geraniums are still blooming, my Oak leaf hydrangea is blooming and has been for some time, the aboracens hydrangeas, like Annabelle and White Dome are blooming, the rugosas are still blooming, dianthus are blooming, salvia is blooming as is columbine and yarrow. Daisies have buds and cone flowers are getting ready to bloom.

These bloom patterns differ slightly from year to year and I'm sure they will be earlier to bloom in your neck of the woods.

Hope this helps.
Barbara

Robert, my Johnson's Blue geranium and other geraniums have been blooming for two months. Black and blue salvia, huge. Daylilys blooming but short lived blooms. A late clematis. Canna lilys are big but add some color. All kinds of lilys here and hydrangeas too. The calla lilys bloom later than anything.

Carla

I like Louisiana Iris and Japanese Iris to fill in the gaps between roses and daylilies. Also Lilies are great in summer.

Kathy

Verbena. Lantana if you can give it the space ("Miss Huff" is hardy in zone 7 and has flowers that change from yellow to orange to pink). Purple coneflower, Rudbeckia spp. (black-eyed susans), gaillardia, silene virginica -- I like natives, but some can be invasive in improved garden soil and many are spring once-bloomers.

Anyone have any experience with Agastache (Hummingbird Mint or Anise Hyssop)? They look similar to Nepeta, but with a somewhat different texture, judging from photos. I've ordered 'Blue Fortune' to try out. Some of the red ones such as A. cana look interesting too.'

Mike

Salvias, Phygelius, Coreopsis grandiflora, Agastache, Pentsemon and Dahlia coccinea palmeri. This Dahlia is a bush/shrub type Dahlia that comes back bigger every year. I love it as it is quite beautiful with its dark bronzy foliage and single red blooms. All of these are in full bloom now and they tend to bloom all summer long and well into the fall. I am not sure how they will bloom for you (i.e. timing) in your zone, but they have all been blooming for some time now here in Northern CA. The Lavenders are beginning to bloom now as well.

Mike,

Blue Fortune is wonderful. It's been blooming since May and the bees love it.

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I love veronica. I think the blue-purple spikes are beautiful. It also has been blooming nonstop and is another plant the bees are all over.

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Mary

I am a huge fan of salvias. Salvia greggii (autumn sage) comes in shades of pink and red -- I first saw this at Sherando about 5 years ago, and I've liked it ever since. Salvia nemoroso (meadow sage) is a good spiky type, in white and shades of blue lavender. These reseed themselves, but I've never found them to be a nuisance. [Mike, anise hyssop IS a nuisance -- deadhead it or you will have it everywhere and forever. I haven't grown it in years, and it's still coming up in old flower pots.]

Connie

Robert, dahlias make great cut flowers too. They come in all colors. Swan Island has a lot sold out now but you can order in the fall/winter for next spring. In my zone they come back, not sure about where you are.
swanislanddahlias.com
oldhousegardens.com

Carla

Here are a couple of pictures at 'Annie's Annuals' of Dahlia coccinea and Dahlia coccinea palmeri respectively:

http://www.anniesannuals.com/signs/d%20-%20g/images/dahlia_coccinea_r.jpg

http://www.anniesannuals.com/signs/d%20-%20g/images/dahlia_coccinea_palmeri51.jpg

While I like most Dahlias, I really like these two because they look more wild and natural than many of the dinner plate Dahlias. Hummngbirds, bees and butterflies love them. They can get to be around 5 feet tall and hold their own among my roses.

Offhand, the only plants blooming when the first roses bloom are those oxe eye daisies which can get invasive, peonies, iris, and a few late spring bulbs.

With my first flush of Austins, the coreopsis was nice this year, also the clematis and allium were blooming. I've got a lot more, but they are just starting to bloom now.

I've got more perennials started as companion plants, but most won't bloom until next year and not sure how soon.

Robert, as I understand, you are asking what is giving good color right after the roses first flush, but before daylilies.
For me the best are asiatic lilies (they bloom before all other lilies), as already mentioned, louisiana and Japanese irises, veronica, campanulas, lupins, delphiniums (New Millenium hybrids are really perennials in my garden), foxglove, hardy geraniums (rozanna, Jihnson Blue, etc), tall garden phlox ("Flower Power" is really resistant to everything), some early clematis, carnations.
Dahlias are great but they are just starting to bloom here, the same with daylilies, oriental and other lilies, echnacea, "verbena on a stick",etc.
Olga

Thanks, everyone. I do have a wide assortment of the types of plants that were mentioned; and, most of them are blooming now...several weeks after the first big flush ended. I have about a three week period where the garden looks....yucky and empty; i.e., as the first rose flush is ending BEFORE most of this other stuff gets going.

Olga and Kathy, thanks so much. I think your suggestions are especially good for this brief, but important, time period in my garden.

I appreciate all your help, everyone.

Robert

Mike, I love the agastaches like humingbird mint and a.cana and a. rubra. They are not however, neptha--more like russian sage (perovskia), woody and tend to bloom in late summer. They are very deer resistant and become lovely large fountains beloved of bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. High Country Gardens has a great selection. Other agastaches are more neptha-like-like. I don't like them as well and they are not so fragrant to me.

I love larkspurs. They start at the tail end of the first flush and keep blooming for maybe a month. They might be too tall and wild for some people. They are very undemanding plants, set seed which germinates when it gets cooler in fall, and the seedlings do fine through snow and ice. I pull the plants after they broadcast their seeds.

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Another good plant for that period before the daylilies is rose campion. It has silver foliage, and either fuschia colored small blooms or white with pink eyes. It blooms about a month and also reseeds. Both these take drought well.

Linda