I like light airy plants with roses such as baby's breath, alyssum, heuchera (coral bells), Russian sage, silver mound, lavender. Boxwoods and yews are the classic shrubs. I planted a new cultivar of alyssum this year, that had "frost" in its name that has been awesome, never browned out as they usually do in my area in the heat. Each plant grew huge. Even plants like lavender that grow well in dry soil seem to thrive with the enriched soil and water I use with roses. You might try a search. This topic has been discussed a lot.

Julie, since you and I live in totally different climates, I won't bother making suggestions, but I wanted to say how exciting your excitement is. And when you say boatload, you really mean boatload! Congratulations on all those roses! Since you mentioned that you have OGRs, you might also want to check out the Antique Roses Forum which also includes Austins.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: Antique Roses Forum on GardenWeb

lainey2: Wonderful! Hadn't even thought about the herbal route but that sounds fantastic. Am going to look up Russian sage and silver mound to get an idea of the coloration. Am actually thinking those might even complement another area of the garden as well!! Many, many thanks for taking the time to provide such wonderful suggestions. Oh, and I too purchased several of the new alyssum (seeds) and haven't gotten around to even starting them yet. Thanks for the inspiration.

sherryocala: Ha! Sherry, thanks for making me smile. And I would absolutely delight in hearing your suggestions regardless of the climatic differences. I do go plants like peonies and lilacs which generally are not often found in the heat of sunny California so I'd really enjoy hearing back from you. And thanks for the Antique Roses forum recommendation, it's one of my favorites!

Last summer, when I was in zone 9 in CA, I planted the bush morning glories, the word ensign was in the name somewhere. They were very pretty, looked better, more colorful and more refined than in seed catalogue photos, and bloomed all summer. You might try the Carnivale di Venezia morning glory amongst your climbers, especially any which only bloom once, but do keep the clippers handy, so that it only goes where you want it to go. Finally, in zone 10, you can have the might blooming, powerfully fragrant white morning glory, which might even be perennial for you. Moonflower.

It is best to plant stuff that 1.) has a non-agressive root system, and 2.) that doesn't spread too fast. Rose roots don't compete well and usually lose any competition. And it's a good idea to plant varieties of things like daylilys and Iris that don't multiply fast. For example some daylilys and some Iris form a big clump FAST, that quickly crowds the roses, while others just don't. The ones that don't are the ones to select. Luckily the prettiest ones are usually the ones that don't spread fast, so that works out.

Clematis, Coprosma, Dahlia, Daylily, Iris, Limonium perezii, Morocco daisy, Geranium 'Rozanne' (a must!), Gaillardia, non-spreading-by-roots Salvias...really if you are simply attentive to the above 2 rules, anything works.

If you have drip irrigation you can pinpoint how much water each individual plant gets, and mix in Aloes and other water-stingy succulents without a problem.

I have some silvermound (Artemisia) at the front of my rose bed. This pic is from last year, when the plant measured about 12 inches around. This year, it's about 3 feet across.
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I like it because it's a contrast to the olives & deep greens of the rose bushes, and it has a light, feathery texture. Very soothing. I had Russian sage at the last house & left it there. It gets massive and is intrusive like most perennial herbs. It was boxed in by a stone retaining wall, and grew THROUGH the stones & pushed them outward. It does, however, attract hundreds of bumblebees and it smells fantastic. No scent on silvermound.

Everything else I have is basically herbs, because I love their aroma and I cook a lot with them. I have them in pots so that I can keep them close to the kitchen, and also because I needed a way to decorate the very blah areas around our deck. I stuck some dwarf sunflowers in a few pots, and bought a black petunia....it's in the middle left of this pic below.
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Other than that, I mainly leave the rose beds only for roses since it's easier for me to work in them without crushing other plants. Then again, I'm a gargantuan six-footer with huge feet, so maybe that's just me. :)

I let this side establish a bit before adding the undergrowth and I would suggest anyone do the same

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This side was planted at the same time

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Sometimes I wish I could of "rented" the rust colored under plantings for a couple seasons. Granted watering/feeding this side is very very easy, but the outcome (which looks best in fall) just isn't what I thought it would be with a sever lack of other seasonal colorings hidden by the rust foliage plants.

Happy Hunting

Many of my roses are in mixed shrub borders, so among them are planted Hydrangeas, viburnums, forsythia, grasses, you name it. In a few areas I've got them spaced with daylilies and iris as well. I'm rethinking the grasses; the ornamental grasses here often get lax and then I'm hacking them back to keep the roses clear...not a great choice except for the Karl Forester upright types.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Musings

Hi Julie

I'm in a very different climate, and I don't know if the plants we grow here will work in your garden. One of by best new discoveries have been geraniums. Some of them bloom non-stop here, from early summer until frost, but most have a shorter midsummer blooming period. Some can be cut down after the first flush is finished, and will then form new buds. I have planted lots of different varieties the last two years and they work really well with roses.

I have a small garden and have sneaked in a few herbs in one area; lavender, parsley, lemon balm, rosemary, and thyme. Oddly enough it works well with smaller roses.

Among the medium sized shrub roses I have planted gladiolus bulbs. They sort of stretch up in the back of one of the beds and I think it works all right. Here they usually bloom in August-September depending on when the bulbs are planted.

I also have a montbretia next to some smaller roses (Marbree, portlandica and rosa officinalis, I love the orange color late in the season, and it works well with the hips.

I have a few leggy climbers where I plant sweet peas. I the taller varieties +- 9 feet. Sweet peas bloom from late june at least until September here. Summers are fairly cool and wet here and they just keep on blooming. I have a feeling the climber grow and bloom a little bit extra when they have sweet peas at their feet. It can get a bit messy but I don't mind.

If it wasn't for the slugs I would grow more dahlias. As long as they are fed and watered, they bloom non stop until frost. In stead I have lots of snapdragons both tall and lower varieties. I like them, and luckily snails and slugs don't. As long as they are watered and fed some organics once or twice a year they keep blooming. After the top growth have finished with the best blooming I cut them back a bit and new buds appear quickly. In areas where the winter isn't too hard snapdragons are perennials.

In some beds I also have marguerites, pansies, violets (the last two in spite of the slugs), pelargonium, lobelia and alyssum borders,

My choice of plants have become a bit old fashioned the last years. It hasn't been entirely intentionally, but choice of plants have been influenced by slugs, snails and other troubles.
I have a few rosebeds with bare soil between the rose plants, and it has it's advantages. Adding fertilizer and compost later in the season is much easier. However I tell my self that it's good for the soil to be held by living plant roots, and I use solid organic fertilizer two-tree times a year and it's not impossible to get it in between the plants. If I get very ambitious I water with seaweed extract, and I have a few plants that get extra care like that.

In spring I have tulips, different narcissus varieties, primulas, early iris. The narcissus leaves tend to be totally devoured by slugs before the bulbs have a chance to develop and mature after the flowering, and I have to figure out a way to prevent this. Tulips are not nearly as affected by them as the narcissuses.

I hope I didn't wander too much from the main subject, and that it might give some ideas.

Best of Luck with your plant search :-)

On the south side of my house, I planted a row of standard roses with lavender Provence. I wasn't so sure if they will work together as one needs more water than the other. But so far they turned out alright.

I've termed my garden, which contains mostly old roses and Austins, a Mediterranean cottage garden, meaning that my roses are interplanted with a variety of plants, shrubs and even trees which mimic the English cottage garden look but grow well in my Southern California climate. The largest plantings are two cypresses, two lavender crape myrtles and a dwarf purple crape myrtle, and two white butterfly bushes. Smaller plantings include pink and white pelargoniums, lavenders, thyme, marjoram, repeat-blooming irises, day lilies, sea lavender (Limonium perezii), penstemons, sage, white alyssum and lamb's ears. I try not to crowd the roses and there are spaces (at least for now) between all the plants and roses.

I wish you great luck with your garden. You've made a wonderful start with so many roses and I'm glad you've already realized at this early stage that roses alone are not that interesting. The birds and bees, lizards, frogs, and other wildlife also really seem to enjoy the variety of plantings.

Ingrid

Most American gardeners seems to abhor a vacuum, so fill every available space with something. Once upon a time, we had 400 hundred roses in the back yard and more behind the fence. We grew roses - climbers, minis, and the rest of the spectrum, but never ever filled in the blank spaces with other things. We always felt we wanted to grow roses. If we had wanted to grow flowers, ie., other things, we would have. Ya see when you spray to maintain your roses, you just can't grow other stuff, because of safety or compatibility. I love rose gardens, but have never liked to have every inch of space filled with something just to have it filled. Being tacky wasn't my thing, and it isn't now. So, y'all do whatever makes you happy, that's what's important.

I like the way the low horizontally-spreading gumpo azaleas look with roses, and posted a picture at Help Me Find of floribunda Fragrant Wave used that way. The hybrid tea-like plant form of Fragrant Wave doesn't appeal to me much at all, but the azaleas set it off well enough that its form doesn't look so objectionable, I think. And I think that some larger, heavier leaved plants like the rhododendron (foreground) and camellia (background) add good contrast to the tiny-leaved gumpos too. The gumpos work like a carpet to tie the other plants into an overall landscaping scheme.

Gumpos that are grown in very much shade don't stay as low as those in this picture, but they will grow horizontally if planted in very much sun, which this spot has for several months.

The one disadvantage doesn't involve looks, but practicality. If you ever have droughts--we do!--then you can't just water gumpos deeply to encourage the roots to grow deeply and hold off on the water for a long time until the next deep watering. You'd like to do that for the roses, but the azaleas surrounding them will perish under that regimen; azaleas _can't_ send down deep roots. And gumpo azaleas are about as shallow-rooted plants as you can imagine. Rhododendrons don't do well without regular watering either.

Camellias can be encouraged to send down deeper roots if you go about it carefully, though I don't think they rival roses in their degree of potential drought tolerance.

My favorite perennial combination with pink roses is Dusty Miller.

Best wishes,
Mary

Here is a link that might be useful: Vertical floribunda with spreading gumpo azaleas underneath

Roseman, if having an assemblage of other plants growing along with roses is tacky, then we would have to condemn just about all the great gardens of England as being so. Monoculture can often end up being boring, whether it be cabbages or roses. I don't mean to criticize your style of garden, since in your garden you have only yourself to satisfy, but the amount of toxins you must be using is worrisome. A garden to me should be a place of many living things, plants, animals and people, with plants that will grow in your particular climate, and that does include roses, without having to be constantly sprayed with harmful products. Beneficial insects, frogs, birds, lizards and other wildlife have no protection against chemical poisons and will die. Only you can decide whether the pleasure to you is worth the price that has to be paid by them and also by you and your children and grandchildren.

My heavens what fabulous suggestions! And the photos are magnificent. Was offline for a few hours and missed tons!

nastarana: That's an interesting combination. I have some ensign seeds which I've yet to plant. I just might try that especially with some of the deeper colored roses. Ad thanks for the suggestion of Moonflower. I'm presently trying to get some established along a fence and something keeps eating it - which just so happens to be located adjacent to several other climbing roses. Thought it was one of those plants requiring weekly clipping and much to my surprise, it's not nearly as tenacious as anticipated. I am sure I should be quite appreciative, although I really wanted those white flowers for summer.

hoovb: All points make total sense and WOW what interesting plant suggestions!! Coprosma is absolutely lovely. I hadn't thought about Limonium perezii but I think that would work really well amongs an herbal setting as well. A couple of weeks ago I did start some Moroccan daisies and have purchased a few gaillardia - several cutting varieties (which don't seem completely happy at this point - which is a huge disappointment). I have a low growing spreading variety in the garden already but really wanted something that would get taller and wouldn't require daily clipping.

flaurabunda: Thank you so much for the great pictures and the laughter! Silvermound is absolutely beautiful. So glad you included the picture as the Artemesia I'm familiar with is nothing like that. Your garden is absolutely love and thank so much for sharing.

mrlike2u: Many, many thanks for the beautiful picitures. The contrasts between the two are really quite remarkable and has made me realize I'd better start concentrating on height limitations. While I really like both images and see huge benefits with both designs, I'm trying more for the concept in your first image as I want to be able to regularly cut the flowers and bring them into the house. It seems that might be extremely difficult if the plants, no matter how beautiful, get so large I have to use a ladder to get to them. Unlike Flaurabunda above, I'm a wee little girl who on a good day, with heels and a hat can get to 5'5", if I'm lucky and following ballerina etiquette. By the way, what is that bronze colored plant? It's really gorgeous and makes a really stunning display in your garden. And what's the name of the rose in the first photo? It's fantastic!

professorroush: Love, love, love the idea of including plants like hydrangeas and viburnums amongst the mixture althoug I've not figured out how best to do that yet. I also picked up a climbing hydrangea, Limelight and a Snowball Viburnum in the process of adding roses to the collection. Thanks for the link to your blog as it's a wonderful reference tool I'm looking forward to going back to. I've learned the hard way to exlcude grasses from the garden as they very quickly get out of control in my climate (and they can be brutal to try and remove once established).

taoseeker: You know, it's quite interesting...I'm just getting into geraniums. I've stayed away from them for years but am realizing how incredibly easy they are to grow. There are many fragrant varieties in the garden but I've only added ornamentals this year. 'Rozanne' was referenced earlier as one to consider and looks like a really pretty periwinkle blue flowered type. Now one suggestion I find intriguing is the inclusion of the gladiola bulbs. How does that look and do you have them strategically placed around the roses or randomly placed? And do they generally bloom at the same time the roses are blooming? You didn't reference where you're located but in Aug-Sept roses are still going very strong here in California. And that's a really interesting combination (sweet peas and roses). I would be fearful I'd never see the sweet pea blooms if they grew among the climbing roses so how does that work out? As much as I love dahlias, for some reason I've kept mine sequestered in and among annuals rather than mix them directly with the roses. However, it would be really great to see how well that works out. Now, I do have some marguerites, primulas and pansies growing around the bed of one of the dedicated rose beds and must admit they're really quite lovely together. Your references are really quite intriguing and engaging. For example, I have narcissus in a border area where I plant a bunch of annuals but hadn't thought about planting them among the roses because they spread so quickly which I honestly assumed would make them quite difficult to get to if among roses. By chnace, do you have any photos of the two together? I've even intentionally kept them out of them (narcissus) out of potted roses. Thanks for the many wonderful and interesting recommendations. If you have photos of any of them from within your garden, I'd really love to see them.

toffee1: Did you plant the lavender with climbing or shrub roses? I really like the herb combination, especially lavender. Have a neighbor who did a combination of lavender with a grayish-lavender flower (similiar to Karl Lagerfeld) and it's absolutely stunning. Would love to replicate it but the lavender is so massive I'm afraid that's all I'd be able to plant. The neighbor has an entire front border dedicated to it with just a couple of the lavender roses floating amongst them. Really quite pretty.

ingrid_vc: Ingrid, bingo! I'm really trying for that English cottage garden type-of-look (cozy, charming, pretty, graceful, functional and beneficial). Probably a bit too much to ask given all the plants I need to get into the ground but it certainly can't hurt to try. The combinations you've identified sound really quite lovely and seem to hit on all most of the recommendations above. Would love to see a photo if you have one. By the way, can I assume you have the alyssum and lambs ears as your ground cover? I really like the concept of inclusing Silvermound amongs the plantings as it sounds like it would compliment alyssum (which grows in every crevice of the garden) very well. And I agree, roses by themselves just don't pack the punch I want considering I'm dedicating so much space to them. I've tried that already and was only temporarily satisfied because as they're deadheaded and I'm waiting for new flowers, I'm terribly impatient and want more flora in the meantime. Thanks again and please forward a photo if you have one.

roseman: Indeed, I'm a very typical American gardener - I simply must generate as much from every inch as possible. Anyone with hundreds of acres who can afford to dedicate an area to just roses is incredibly blessed but in my tiny garden, I need to get as much out of every inch that I can. Since I only use organic amendments, 'spraying' doesn't become an issue for me. Frankly, pesticides are strictly forbidden anywhere near my property.

carolinamary: Now that's really interesting!!! I've never even heard of Gump azaleas but just looked it up and they're quite lovely. I'll see if they're even available here in California. Thanks for the great recommendation and reference.

I'd skip the gladiolas, nothing wrong with them except they tend to attract and foster Thrips, which is a bad thing.

roseman here in CA lots and gardens are tiny compared to other places, so we must take advantage of every square inch we have, and we don't have to spray all that much because there is no blackspot. It's just a different situation.

Julie, you had requested a picture of my garden and since I have quite a few I thought I'd send several. I hope these are of some help to you.

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Ingrid

Cottage Garden, I've just started with a number of OG roses in my back flower bed. Right now I have native grasses, Penstemons, cuphea, ornamental garlic, thyme, some Opar's Jewels (old old plant, invasive but easy to pull out) and a couple of crinums. Plan to add more, just don't know what yet, I have to take our heat into consideration. Perhaps some sage or day lilies.

Ingrid, I always LOVE to look at your garden, it's so beautiful and interesting! (I think I have your cat's twin, who is presently asleep right in front of the computer).

Thank you, ogrose, I'm flattered that you like my garden. My cat is a Maine Coon, who is sleeping in the chair next to me right now. Whatever would we do without our beloved fur balls?

Ingrid

I would suggest you look at whatever perennials you have in your zone. Should be lots. Pick something you like that covers up the bottom 25% of your Roses and then mix and match for color, texture and form.
I'm three years into a new place and I use sage, lavender and some other herbs quite a bit.
They also help keep the weeds down.
Hope this helps, and have fun.

Irises, lilies, daylilies, lamb's ear, columbines, paludosum daisies, cosmos, larkspur, pelargoniums. And other stuff. Mostly irises.

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Renee

hoovb: Excellent point about the glads. We've recently had a thrash of some sort of rust that has desimated the flower production (which I'd conveneintly forgotten about). So, your point is well taken.

ingrid_vc: Lovely, lovely, lovely roses! I'm very happy you gave me the heads up on the photos as they don't seem to come through in email and I would have been incredibly disappointed to have missed all this beauty. Is the deep purple rose Ebb Tide (see the third photo)? Which roses are planted in the last photo as well? Looks like a purple one and two different pinks? Asking in case I have them in my pile to plant and will take note of how yours are growing and will plant them accordingly. And, you appear to be on a hillside with lots and lots of land (lucky lady). And yes, I msut agree your kittie is quite cute. He appears to be the steward of the garden (and I'm not quite sure that look he's giving you is providing you permission to take photos of his garden!). Thanks so much for taking the time to share your great photos! There's nothing quite like a nice photo.

ogrose: Thanks so much for your response. I would love to see how you've used your perennials like the ornamental garlilc and Opar's Jewels. By chance do you have a photo? My struggle at the moment is how best to interplant the perennials and the annuals as I've always kept the perennials in a separate bed. Now, with all the great suggestions, I'm seriously considering interplanting but don't want to plant in such a way that it makes it difficult to plant the annuals, remove them and plant more. And quite candidly, until this point, my perennial bed has been sparse as I'm quite the impatient gardener and want flowers NOW and have no real desire to wait. But, seeing all these incredible pictures where the two are married nicely, I'm confident I can do it without being disappointed.

chuck_billie: Love it! And I completely agree. That's exactly what I'd like to do. It seems you've quickly figured out I really only want to see the flowers (less the bottom portion of the bark). Sage sounds like a big winner in everyone's garden so I'm looking for all kinds now. Thanks so much for the great suggestions.

hosenemesis: Absolutely gorgeous! You have the garden I'm trying to create! You've meld the entire concept brilliantly with the inclusion of the groundcover, the path, the roses, the annuals and perennials, the fruit trees' gentle presence in the background without becoming an obstruction. Absolutely lovely and just what I want to achieve. Now, the little sprays of daisies...did they casually spread or did you strategically place them that way? I actually purchased some daisies for just this purpose and wasn't really sure if I'd use them as an end placement or dispurse them but I love the way they're intermingled. And I'm assuming the lovely slender stems and greyish-white leaves are lambs ears? Whatever that is it accents the others beautifully. Is thte tall white plant in the second to the last photo larkspur? Give me an idea of what you were thinking and planning for when you put your garden together as it looks well loved. Are you happy with it and if not, what would you change or do differently after all the work you've put into it so far? I really think you've accented your yard beautifully. Really appreciate the photos as words alone wouldn't do it justice.

Cottage garden, I was ecstatic with my garden this year.

It was all an accident- I planned a hot red and orange garden that turned out so ugly I had to turn to this forum for help. The good people here suggested Julia Child and some lavendar to tone it down, and so they can take the credit (thanks all!).

The daisies self-sow, yes, that is lamb's ear, and yes, that is larkspur. And I cut down the fruit tree :o
Renee

Renee- Lovely garden, nice work. Are those shrub roses or hybrid-teas?

Renee, your garden belongs in a glossy gardening book; it's picture perfect! I especially love the last picture with the combination of roses, irises, lamb's ears and those darling little daisies.

Ingrid

Ingrid, please tell me more.

Toffee, the red is Showbiz floribunda, the florescent salmon is Marmalade Skies floribunda, and the butter yellow is Julia Child.
To the far left in the second photo you can just see St. Patrick HT, suffering from botrytis and stoicly blooming on.

By the way, all of those adorable daisies, larkspurs, nasturtiums, and crown pinks are long gone. The irises are almost all done for the year. There's a lot of very attractive dirt being featured in the garden right now.

Renee

Renee, I think we just have to accept that our summers are not kind to plants. It's more a matter of trying to keep things alive rather than having a show garden. Fortunately the leaves of the day lilies, irises, penstemons and lamb's ears still look attractive. Two of my reblooming irises chose this time to do their stuff and of course those blooms lasted for about five minutes. Still, when I think about winters in Minnesota I'm quite content!

Looking at your pictures again, I think you have enough green plants to have a beautiful garden even now.

Ingrid

So many beautiful gardens!

I live in a much different zone, with hot summers that are short and long, cold winters. That being said, I like to plant butterfly bushes, blueberries, lilacs, peonies, lavender, salvias, bee balm, daisies, geraniums, dahlias, verbena...as well as cosmos, petunias, pansies and lots of alyssum in with my roses.

Here is a picture. I don't know if you can make all the individual plants, but you get the idea. On the right, there is the butterfly bush and lots of petunias. The little pink rose is a Lavender Lassie. There's also a Trier nearby, but it's still pretty small :)

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And here is a picture of the corner of one bed, with lots of lavender. I just got my rose bands this year, too, so some of them are still pretty small.
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The bee balm here likes a little shade, but it's planted next to a rose (you just can't see it in the picture, sorry) and they seem very happy together.

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Ingrid, what are the silvery plants here?
Also, where do you use your majorjam...? just as a filler?
I think you may be slowly converting me to sea lavender. I see it in the store and don't like it that much, but I think in the environment, with other things, it looks very gorgeous.

I am loving the idea of grasses with roses - they provide movement and grace and are a good foil against clumpy shrubby bushes. I also like tall airy plants so these are some of the things I like to have with roses. I also like to see no soil but have a frothing cloud of tall swaying plants.
Grasses: stipa gigantea - golden oats - lovely with the sun shining through at evening. Stipa tenuissima, hakenochloa, miscanthus variagata, pennisetum orientale, festuca glauca, heliotrichon
Perennials: foxgloves, penstemon, gypsophila, thalictrum, siberian iris, hardy geranium Rozanne,G. Brookside,G. Orion,G.Russell Pritchard, etc. campanula - various, paeonies, astrantia, cow parsley, chaerophyllum, selinum, asters, linaria
annual: cosmos, corncockles, cornflowers, ox-eye daisies, nicotiana affinis,N.suaveolens, orlaya, ammi majus, larkspur,
Shrubs: exochorda, philadelphus, deutzia gracilis, lavender, artemisia
bulbs/corms: narcissi, gladioli nanus, gladioli 'The Bride', cammassia, galtonia, dierama,ipheon, erythronium,

Renee - I have to ask just one more question about your garden. Do you know the specific type of daisy you have planted? I had a rose garden out my last house and now I'm making plans for one at my new house. I just love how the daisies fill in below the roses.

Ingrid - What is the tree w/the purple flowers in your last picture?

Laurie

Laurie, those are annual Paludosum daisies. They self-sow here.

lavender_lass: Wow, another person with such an expansive garden! Unfortunately, I can't make out much detail in the first two photos (think it's the resolution of my screen) but I can definitely the beauty in the bee balm. What's next to the bee balm a columbine (and if so, which)?

Ingrid_vc: I totally forgot to mention the sea lavender too. I've intentionally walked away from it at the garden center thinking I'd never know how to use it but your photos illustrate their beautify wonderfully. I've never actually seen them so tall. How are they as cut flowers? They're really quite gorgeous.

campanula: You make me want everything you've listed. Do you have any photos you can share? I'll bet your garden is wonderful. I love looking at grasses in the gardens of others but don't have enough space to allow them to become the plant they want to be. Years ago I planted one and it spread so fast and so large that when I went to remove it, I nearly needed a forklift. I'm in Southern Calfiornia where many uses grasses to accent the front of their houses as they're quite drought hardy and they look amazing. I, on the other hand, wouldn't have room for all the roses and other flowers I need in the garden if I were to grow them. Please do post some photos, if you have a chance, as I know we'd all like to see those beautifies if you have them growing in your garden. Thanks for the great recommendations.

I think my camera probably isn't helping :)

Most of what's blooming in the first picture are a lot of cosmos along the back, with a few roses in the middle with a lot of petunias. There are other flowers in there, too, but it's not a good enough shot to make them out.

In the second photo is a Madame Plantier (not blooming) by the corner of the house and the little pink flowers hiding behind the first lavender is Gartendirecktor Otto Linne.

It is a columbine by the bee balm, but all I remember is that it was purple and I got it a few years ago. I had a few plants from last year, that I moved into a temporary bed, when we redid the garden beds, and then moved back into the garden. The bee balm is from Michigan Bulb...I know, but it's been a wonderful little plant :)

I wrote an answer yesterday to all the questions about my garden, and it was quite long, and it's disappeared! This is the second time that's happened to me within a week.

More briefly, the purple tree is a dwarf crape myrtle, which has bloomed quite a lot this year. The silver plants are dusty miller, lavender and a plant I don't know the name of. The dusty miller became very woody the second year and the purple-flowered one grew larger with an empty spot in the middle. Both are now gone. The only silver ones that work for me are lamb's ears and marjoram and lavender is partially successful. The sea lavender is a very good cut flower and can also be dried very successfully. Marjoram grows into a 3 foot shrub with tiny white flowers all along the stems that the bees love. I have two planted in a narrow bed along the walkway where they spill over and one in a triangular bed with roses and other plants, and it's closest to Lavender Simplicity and a day lily.

Ingrid

I'll get some majorjam this fall, Ingrid. :) thanks.
I have some lambsear that I'm trying hard not to kill. I love them and hope that they will survive.

Right now I have some Lilacs and Lavender. Next year I am thinking of maybe putting in some Bells of Ireland

Here is a link that might be useful: Link

Do you guys have any suggestions regarding the use of companion plants that can help fight or prevent diseases and infestations that roses are prone to? I read that using garlic, chives, leeks can help prevent aphid infestations. What is your experience? Also, wanted advice on plants that attract beneficial insects.

A few of my favorites:

• Hardy Geranium or Cranesbill
• Salvia: either faranacea verticillata or officinalis
• Astrantia
• Clematis

Here's a link to a great guide on companion planting you might find helpful.