I would think Alstroemeria hybrids would do well. That are great cut flowers. You just have to pick the right colors to compliment your roses.

Sultry, we can grow all the cool weather annuals here that look gorgeous with roses, but we have to start them in the fall for winter and spring bloom. I grow snapdragons, baby's breath, Queen Ann's lace, larkspur, catchfly, phlox, columbines, hollyhocks, dwarf foxglove, etc. they all look great with roses. We can't grow most things that don't bloom until the second year, as they rot in our summer heat. I grow a lot of Louisiana Iris also that look nice with roses. For our hot summers, about the only thing I find that do well for me are cosmos and zinnias. I'm sure I'm forgetting some of my favorites, but thats all I can think of at the moment.

I also like ferns in rose bouquets and grow lots of different kinds.

norizam, I haven't heard of Angelonias so I had to google them They are really pretty . I like the purple and white ones they would add a nice texture to the bouquets. I will have to find some. Sorry to hear about the rodents terrorizing your garden. We get a lot of crazy critters here too. We used to have a lot of wild rabbits but now our pair of Sebastopol geese seem to keep them chased off now. They 'patrol' the yard on an hourly basis. Even our dog is scared of them lol.

Adam, Wow those Alstroemeria are really gorgeous and lots of bright colors too! The yellow ones look particularly nice with your pink roses. I looked those up and I think they would be easy to grow here. Thanks!

floridarose, I am in NE FL -in the Duval county area so we get several freezes every winter (Dec- end of Feb) so a lot of the winter growing flowers and crops will freeze here if they aren't hardy. I have a greenhouse for my tropical stuff.

My roses here don't seem to bloom too much in the winter so it is probably better to grow cutting garden plants for spring,summer, fall blooming. It sucks here because it freezes -so not too much winter gardening but still get the heat and humidity just as bad as the rest of the state in the summer lol. I am seriously trying to talk dh into moving further south! This moving things in and out of the gh is getting old!

I do like the Louisiana Iris. I noticed there are a lot more varieties than there used to be. They should be okay in the wetter areas of the yard too.

Here are two species easily grown from seed which go well in bouquets -- 'Orlaya grandiflora' and 'Cynoglossum amabile'.

:-)

~Christopher

Alstomeria is pretty. In fact soo pretty that I bought them 2 days ago. But when I research further on google, I found out that it doesnt bloom in the summer in central Florida where I live. It seems that the weather here (Orlando) is too hot and they would stop blooming around June or so and then go dormant. I might have to return them back to the store..

The yellow one in the pics is called Ariane, and it blooms all summer. I think most of tune new varieties would if you keep the water up to them.

Mine is a blend of yellow and peachy color. I really love that color. My other suggestion is Euphorbia "Diamond Frost". It is supposed to be tolerant to 30F (I think). Another one I am hoping to try is Snow-in-the-Summer. I only shop at local hardware,so it might be hard to find it.I love the dainty, white fillers..

I just want to put in another vote for Euphorbia "Diamond Frost". It is a tough ever-blooming plant that survives most of the winters here if the roots are protected with leaves or mulch. I have had to buy replacement plants a couple of times, but I am perfectly happy purchasing them because of the many months of blooms they provide. They are excellent container plants as well. I also grow several different alternanthera plants whose foliage compliments rose bouquets very nicely.

Molly

I like the delicate flowers on the Euphorbia Diamond Frost. I think I will dedicate some of my veggie garden space this year to growing more cutting flowers.

norizam: What is the name of that gorgeous pink rose?

Aqua eyes: Hmmm, your avatar pic looks so familiar -I know I've seen it before lol. Do you frequent BYC forums?

I also have an Amazon parrot. He is a Yellow Nape Amazon. The Amazons sure are talkers! I think ours learns new words everyday. Especially off the TV lol. Here he is doing his little trick where he hangs from his beak and kicks his feet lol.

Yes -- my previous name there was the same as here (AquaEyes), but now I go under the name 'Rosa moschata'.

:-)

~Christopher

Ahhh I knew I saw it somewhere, because I always remember Amazons lol.

I am flgardengirl on byc but I haven't really been posting there that often anymore. I think I've been there 5 yrs now because they sent me that 5th yr anniversary thing.

Hi

That pink rose is Clothilde Soupert. She is a real work horse. She keeps me going when I want to quit growing roses.Disease free,pest free, constant bloom,fast repeat,easy to root (have 12 and counting).Other flowers that I have in my yard are African Bush Daisy, Salvia Mystic Spires, Salvia Coccinea (sp? many colors) and Mexican Bush Salvia(Salvia Leucantha, available in purple,pink and white). They are perennials and bloom all year long, plus they do well in my sandy, un-amended soil. Oh, did I say that they root easily? ;)

Prior to global warming, we regularly got down to low 20s and teens as we're in a cold pocket here. Since global warming, we can still get down into the 20s several times a winter. None of the plants I listed froze. I used to live in north Florida, but I don't really know how cold you get up there since global warming. Two I forgot are poppies and nigella.

I'm really surprised your roses don't bloom well in the winter months. That's when mine are at their loveliest. I hope you find some things that do well for you. Have you tried Asters? Certain Dahlias do well for me here also.

Zinnias go to bloom very quickly from seed. I think asters are a good choice too, but they take much longer to start blooming. Here is a recent bouquet I made with some zinnias and roses.

A filler that is not a flower, and I don't know whether it's common in your area, are the grayish leaves from the butterfly bush. Looks lovely with any color rose, and always there to pick when you have the tree in your yard.

Lovely bouquets, everyone.

Must admit I don't put fillers in my bouqets, heck sometimes I stick to just one rose like Belinda's Dream, but when I do use a filler, Curly Willow works great and grows fast if you have room for a tree. We planted a cutting and 5 years later had a 20ft tall tree.

norizam, I will have to look for Clothilde Soupert. Every picture I've seen of her is just beautiful! You know that's when you must have that rose lol.

floridarose, We get into the 20's here once in a while. Seems we had quite a few freezes this year. I have a greenhouse for some things. The good thing about growing roses is they don't have to go in the greenhouse.

I keep mine in pots for now so maybe that's why I don't get as good of winter bloom. I am starting over with roses here in FL. I had tons where I used to live but it was a very different growing experience there. I am learning how to grow them here in FL and its all different . Nematodes, sandy soil, tons and tons of bugs, humidity, you name it lol.

Which dahlias will do well here? I saw some in bags at Lowes- Dinnerplate Dahlias, I think. Would those work? I had no clue Poppies would grow here I thought it was too hot. WOW!

I would probably have to stake dahlias like i do the sunflowers, I bet so they don't fall over.

SoFL Rose, I just got a bunch of different zinnia seeds. Do you just plant the seeds straight in the ground or start them indoors first?

kingcobb, The curly willow branches do look interesting! I think I saw some of those at Michael's (craft store). How large do those trees get (total mature size)?

Ingrid, Are you talking about the Buddleja davidii types of butterfly bushes? Yes we can grow those here. I had never thought of using their foilage. I think that would be a great filler. I can always use more butterfly and bee attractants in our yard. They are the reason that I really try not to spray anything...that and being on well water lol.

*Beautiful bouquets!!

KIngcobb, that photo makes me sick with envy. I'm so gutted BD isn't available in Oz.

Yeah its a great Rose. Surprised no one imports it with the similarities between yalls climate and ours.

Curly willow will get fairly good sized when mature. similar to weeping, but taller.

I sowed 2 cents zinnia seeds from walmart on Sunday and they are 1" tall today (thank you!! to SoFlRose). Now I will be looking for poppy seed. I too thought that poppies don't grow here. I had 2 butterfly bushes last year but they died. I read somewhere that they dont do well where I live, but I do miss the butterflies that visited us while they were alive. I use peat pallets for the seeds because I keep forgetting where I put the seeds if I sow them in the ground.

As for Clothilde, she balls sometimes but I dont mind it considering the amount of blooms she puts out. She definitely worths every cents of the $16.00(and that includes shipping). There is a pink version as well, and a climber( which I am considering buying). There is a post recently where you might get cuttings.I think it is "before you buy.." or something similar to that.....

Just remember, in most of Florida, we can grow any cool weather annual here, but we start them fall/winter. Zinnias, nasturtiums, and cosmos will freeze if started too early, but nothing else I listed above is cold sensitive. The dwarf dahlias do better than the big ones, but I have grown both. They start very easily here from seed. Foxy foxgloves are easy from seed. Poppies hate heat, so start them in the fall and they do great. I grow Shirley poppies and California poppies. Once the heat kicks in, I pull them out. They're not cold sensitive--at least not Florida cold. I direct seed most of my annuals. I forgot to mention that many of the things I listed will self-seed for years after your initial planting.

We can grow most perennials that bloom the first year and just treat them as annuals, as our miserable summers are too much for some of them, i.e., Summer Carnival hollyhocks, Foxy foxgloves.

Anyone know a good heat resistant snapdragon variety that may do well in zone 10?
I'm looking for a good pale pink snapdragon that has long blooms (not the bedding ones) for cutting and I cant get the ones i usually grow in pink. I grow, and have had excellent results with Aromas snaps but not so much with rockets series. (twinny did well for me too, but they are more a bedding type, not long stemmed for cutting). I tried Montego but the flowers are not as long as I'd like them to be, just two to three blooms per branch. I have a feeling the tall snaps don't do well here, because we don't have a long enough cool season for them. I've had much success with the "knee high" and dwarf types but never the tall ones.

SoFl, I love Madam Butterfly snaps. They're the open type bloom, not quite as tall as rockets, but great for bouquets. They do well here, but so do the Rockets. Do you start your own, or do you buy them when they hit the stores here? They usually arrive too late in the stores to do well because about the time they're hitting their stride, the temps get too hot. I start snaps in the fall with my other annuals, and get lots of bloom before summer.

I used to have a local nursery that had flats of snaps, 48 plants to the flat, for ten bucks, and I put in at least 7 flats every year. I had the most amazing bouquets during those years. Unfortunately, the lady that owned the nursery retired, and I cannot begin to start that many on my own. I haven't found any other nursery that sells by the flat like that. I find it frustrating, too, that the stores don't get annuals in early enough for Florida. They have us on the same schedule as states north of us, which is absurd, so it's start your own or do without.

Yeah I have that problem with Delphiniums. They always sell them late in the season and by the time I get them home they last like a month before getting heat stressed and poop out. I will try the madame butterflies. I have not had luck with rockets, but I think I'll give them another try next year because I'm tenacious and I wont give up. I find that I learn more and more each year and have more success every season so I'm sure I'll get it eventually. (Never had success with Larkspur until this year and even though my plants are not crazy huge or perfect, they are blooming like mad!).
I also find that certain hybrids do better than others down here. Some zinnias just get mold and look horrid, while others do amazingly, so its alot of trial and error. South Florida seems to be pretty much ignored by most major growers so we really need to just do our thing down here and try for the best from our own experiences and using these forums.

SoFl, I have never had any luck with direct sowing snaps, but they are easy to start in a container. They transplant well into the garden when they're only a couple of inches high, but I've found I have to feed them a lot with a concentrate. I use a triple 20 I get at my local fertilizer company and put in my hose end sprayer. They're really slow to mature if I don't do that.

Cosmos Cupcakes is simply stunning with roses and loves hot weather too, the white one was voted a favorite at the RHS Garden Wisley UK!