I don't have photos and am not good at posting but my favorite combination at the moment is: Ebb Tide, Tennessee cone flower, Triumphator lily and Deja Blu the (supposed) mini, edged by dark purple-leaved oxalis with its pink blossoms. Or at least it would be if Ebb Tide would have waited a little to bloom till the Triumphators began to open.
PS- The smell is heavenly!

Current photo is Dorothy Perkins and self-seeding knautia.

This is my favorite.

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It is Mme. Hardy, Heart Attack Dianthus, and Six Hills Giant Catmint.

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Hardy geraniums, salvia nemorosa, veronica, and heuchera are four perennials that I think go especially well with roses. The colors work well and the plants grow without fussing and serve as a superb background without distracting from the roses. Lavender is good, too, but I am mildly allergic to it so I don't grow very much of it. I grow many other perennials -- lilies, peonies, chrysathemums, agastache(s?), penstemons, and catmint just to list a few, but they either stand on their own rather than supporting the beauty of the roses, or even need to be prevented from taking over. I'm thinking right now of an agastache gone mad that I just discovered that may need to be removed.

Rosefolly

I don't have a photo, but I love Cinco de Mayo rose and salvia Mystic Spires.
Zaphod, your combination of blooms is awesome!
Molly

Pam, that is mind-bogglingly beautiful.

zaphod42, what a striking combination! Again, I wish I could smell what I see on this forum.

Mendocino_rose, the beauty in your garden looks like it should have been the subject of a Monet or some other great artists' work past or present.

Where I reside, due to the high temperatures etc., I do not have the opportunity to see gardens like the ones posted on this forum... I am highly appreciative because it is as close I get to seeing such beauty on a regular basis.

This post was edited by desertgarden561 on Sun, Jun 30, 13 at 13:26

What I see in Mendocino's photo looks like my own idea of what's pretty. I also like acid green-yellow and yellow-green foliage with roses, and the reddish-purplish-brown of Berberis thunbergii 'Atropurpurea', and plants with similarly colored foliage as companions. And of course the many subshrubs and perennials with gray foliage and blue, lavender, or violet flowers.
Sometimes I like something a bit gaudier. This spring I had a chance combination I enjoyed for several weeks: rose 'Comtesse de Cayla' with fluorescent pink-orange blooms, Salvia officinalis 'Icterina', with sage-green and dull gold foliage, at its feet, and field poppies, those orange-red ones, popping up here and there. It was quite bright, and VERY enjoyable.

It was a real adjustment going from east coast to west coast on this front. I was very fond of astrantias and hardy geraniums back there. Now, my favorite companions are centered on what can take the dry heat and intense sun, along with having a long bloom period, and is on the "spikey" side, or at least has a different texture, to contrast with the roses.

Tall nicotianas (my favorites with roses are 'Lime Green' -- Melissa's acid green yellow, for sure-- and an accidental hybrid between 'Lime Green' and white N. alata that is pale green and so scented it wafts all over in evening). Agastaches ("Nectar" series a little more manageable and lots of colors, though as Rosefolly points out, can be obnoxious). Penstemon pinifolius: orange, short, tidy, tough. Aster x frikartii 'Monch': I was shocked this works as well here as it does -- year in, year out, heat tolerant, very easy on the water bill, blooms for like forever. Salvia 'May Night', ditto. Hardy geraniums are mostly not heat-tolerant enough, except Geranium harveyi (odd one from S. Africa) and 'Brookside'. A bunch of species oreganos, teucriums, and saturejas as drought-proof edges.

Tea 'Le Pactole' this morning heading into a big flush (I expect her to eat her companions in a few short years)
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Also this morning, other side of the path (Penstemon pinifolius is on lower right):
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Fabulous plantings, Catspa.

catspa, absolutely stunning. wow, I'm speechless.

Oh! Very nice Catspa. Le Pactole will eat her companions later. Then you could put shade loving things there.

I love your garden, Pam (Mendocino_rose) !! Every shot of your garden is poetic beautiful, nice as screen-saver! I still remember how nice your garden is with that blue bench.

Here's a row of Austins roses .. the yellow is Golden Celebration. I plant snapdragon annuals since the deer don't eat those. They re-seed themselves, thus become perennials in my zone 5a.

strawberryhill: Your G.C. is beautiful. It is one of my favorite Austins:) She is one of the roses that I transplanted from a previous home that died after we realized an entire section of our irrigation line was not watering the plants. What is the soft pink rose in the distance? It looks like it could be a beauty too.

Mendocino rose, once 'Le Pactole' overwhelms her companions, maybe I will try lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) under her, again, another plant I really miss from Massachusetts. I've tried it a few times here in shade (but maybe in too-heavy soils) and it has always perished. Photos from your garden always encourage my exuberance!

Strawberryhill, I wish Austins did better here -- they are beautiful over at Strybing Arboretum (whoops, not Strybing proper, but "across the street" in the rose garden of Golden Gate Park) in San Francisco. The main scourge of snapdragons in this garden is rust (tried, failed) so, alas, they are not here either (nor are hollyhocks, something else I love).

This post was edited by catspa on Sun, Jun 30, 13 at 22:20

These combinations are so beautiful---I love all of them---
IFlorence