Sometimes it takes a couple years for those salvias to fill out. You could add any of these to fill in the empty spots.

catmint, lavender balloon flower, ice plant, white and/or cherry-pink 'Profusion' zinnias

Thanks Denise! I got distracted describing the salvias and forgot to ask about plants that will fill in the gaps, without being a menace to the rose (crowding it out, or stealing too much moisture). Do you think the plants you listed are good for that?

Also forgot to mention that I stuck a cutting of Cape Leadwort/Blue Plumbago in one corner of this bed. Sooooo, this whole "empty spaces" thing might be a moot point this summer. Or I might decide to move it before it goes crazy. Right now it's only a couple inches tall, but the plant I broke it off of is huge.

Thanks for the recommendations...I'm off to Google them now!

lindseyrose,
you know that a strong enough solution of orange oil to kill fire ants will kill the plants, right? Last year when trying to rid my tomato bed of fire ants, I called Safer Insecticides, they sell 'organic' fire ant killer...they told me to not get the orange oil close to the plants or it would kill them.

Pam

I bet some white vincas, spiderwort, hot pink New Zealand impatiens, Laura Bush petunias...the tidal wave petunias are lovely too, or regular cape plumbago would be pretty next to the roses and leadwort.

Pam

I would recommend the legume family. Roses take a lot of nitrogen. I'm not sure if Oxalis fixes nitrogen but it seems to. That would be my choice.PJ

There is a plant whose old name is Boneset. Some kind of eupatorium. This comes back every year, spreading a bit, but can be yanked out and shared easily. It has fuzzy blue flowers and is literally covered in butterflies all summer.
It is about 12" tall maximum.

got my names mixed up - not Boneset, but Mist flower.

Oh yeah Mist flower, that is the plant that the Monarchs stay on more than anything else
That would be an excellent choice

I recently planted ruellia around some Knockout roses. The color combo (purple and magenta) is nice, and the size variance is good, since the Knockout rose bushes are smaller. Don't know if that will help you; how big is your Belinda?

I have used lavender as an edging in front of roses. It did well and looked fantastic.

Be careful of planting blue mistflower around roses especially if you have lots of organic matter in your rosebed - as most of us do. That stuff will take over everywhere. As one elderly gardener I know says, "It will try to take over the world!" He says that about passionvine too! hee-hee!

I think the plants I listed will be mannerly enough to be planted around your rose. Some of them are annuals. The catmint is a mounding plant and stays in bounds - not like a regular mint that trails off into everything. The ice plant is definitely front of the border because it is very low growing and would look pretty as a third/lowest layer in front of some of those other plants.

Denise, I would love for both of those plants to take over and they won't. Maybe it's when you *don't* want them too, lol

On the Salvia, I am in Dallas with full southern sun, and have tried salvia greggi, Black and Blue Salvia, Victoria Salvia. Black and Blue does a 2 foot by 2 foot bush, but does not overwinter. Victora comes back every year and stays 2.5 foot x same. In the salvia greggi, the violet color was consistently disappointing. On the strong pink color goes wild, growing to a 4 foot x 4 foot bush. It can be cut back and will just regrow in a season. I had good results with Lipstick red, too, 3x2 foot in one season, but it did not overwinter. So it depends on how bushy you want - it sounds like that around Belindas Dream, about 4x4, you would want at least a 2x2 filler. Anyone else have a specific color of saliva greggi that did well?

terry

My mom has got salvia all over--she even has a 'problem' with it reseeding in the lawn. I do think I remember that they did not get large until they were in their third summer. I know she has some red, some pink, and a HUGE midnight blue (usually about 5'x 4'). She has sweet potato vine (the brilliant lime colored one) underneath and it's planted next to butterfly weed, a hybrid cream colored lantana, and artemesia (on that one, you'd definitely want to research how vigorous different varieties are....Mom's lives through the winter and eventually grows onto the porch and covers the sidewalk--I just cut it back last weekend). She also has some cigar plant, and some wedelia in the front as a edger--but it's yellow and can be quite vigorous. So far it's been well behaved.

My grandmother used to plant plain old moss roses or portulaca to edge the front of her rose beds, and my sister fronts her antique roses with lavender.

Have fun!

You all are awesome. I peeked more carefully at the salvias yesterday night, and despite their lack of impressive growth, they are still there and seem to have healthy foliage (for the most part). So, that much is good. I didn't know the orange oil drench could kill the plants, so it's a good thing I kept it away from the rose plant, and I guess I got off lucky with the salvia that I did pour it under.

Someone asked how big my BD is, and it's about 2 feet x 2 feet right now. I would love to see it get twice that big, and hopefully in this second year, it will.

All those are great ideas, and I even have a couple lime green sweet potato vines in pots right now that I should probably put into the ground if I want to keep them alive (I don't have a good track record with pots).

Is there something I can add to the soil to encourage blooms on teh salvia? Are they maybe getting too much direct (afternoon) sun in the summer? I'm about to treat the rose with alfalfa tea next week and I suppose I could share that with the salvias, too.