Wow.

I'm glad I planted my only monada in a pot. I may reconsider even that, because I've had mint jump pots unless they are set on paving.

In any garden, rose or not, I don't like plants that are thugs. Healthy, of course; spreading slowly, fine; but taking over the area and choking out others, not going to be allowed. I've had this problem with certain artemesias, soapwort, and even some freely seeding annuals such as biennial hollyhocks and love-in-the-mist. No doubt there have been others over the years, but these came to mind without effort.

Rosefolly

Creeping Charlie. Came in uninvited and unnoticed. Spread. Spread. Spread. Continues to spread.

Positives: some other weeds can't compete with Charlie. Charlie only takes shallow nutrients and water. Charlie as a mint may be a good reservoir for some beneficials. I haven't lost a rose to RRD in any of the beds where Charlie is established, although I lost some before he came to visit. (I wonder if Monarda might have a similar advantage.) I wish I knew how my late Grandmother had managed to keep Creeping Charlie confined to the north shaded side of her house- when I pull it I remember the plants and their scents...so that's a sort of wierd positive.

My neighbor is always planting what she call "wildflowers" that, unfortunately, like to travel over the fence (or through it) to my yard! Right now I'm digging out endless plants of some kind of wild Agertum that I never planted in the first place. And her wild garlic, which does have a pretty flower, is trying to take over a corner of my garden. Both of those are very hard to pull out--you have to dig down under them to get everything out--or they just start growing again!

On the other hand, I probably should thank my neighbor for a few of the flowers that migrate to my yard since I let them bloom and do their thing.

I also have larkspur and Black Eyed Susan that I planted years ago and they are still re-seeding themselves all over the yard every year. But I don't mind. When I'm weeding, I pull out the ones that started growing where I don't want them to grow, and I leave the others to bloom beautifully in my gardens.

See my wild larkspur in these pictures, for instance:

And another view of wild larkspur:

It's worth it pulling up the larkspur I don't want--so that I can enjoy the remaining ones!

Kate

I am eyeing warily a patch of Campanula punctata 'Cherry Bells' that I planted last fall. I made the mistake of buying three small plants of it before knowing that it was invasive. All three have already doubled in size. It's a disaster waiting to happen. The thing is, I think it's a really pretty plant. What I really should do is dig it up and plant it within a buried pot before it gets out of control. Even with my limited experience with the plant, I think I can already list it is a very bad companion plant. From past experience, I have refrained from planting most types of loosestrife. Oddly, I don't mind the spreading behavior of monarda, it's the mildew that keeps me from planting it again.

-Chris

Though I love caladiums, IN the rose beds they are not good. Esthetically the large leaves don't match and if you change your mind, digging them out completely is impossible. I've tried several times in a very small confined space, and they're still coming up. 'Black and Blue' salvia gets too huge for my garden and sends runners out for a couple of years after it's gone. Purple Coneflowers make massive rootballs that don't play nice with roses. I keep them in pots now throughout the garden, but a few are in the ground at a safe distance.

Sherry

Goldenrod. Spreads like crazy, and the roots form a solid mat, and it just KEEPS coming back.

Violets - tough rooted, spread like wildfire, grow back from the tiniest bit of root, have to be hand weeded, and in my garden, afflicted with horrible pustular rust.

Special mention to spanish bluebells, which spread like crazy, break off at the stem leaving the bulb in the ground, regrow from the tiniest of their (fragile) root hairs or pieces of leaves, regrow even after roundup, and have masses of fleshy, unattractive leaves that choke out anything else that grows low to the ground.

For me it was violets. They were actually choking the roses. I ended up digging out the whole bed and redoing it to get rid of them. Lily of the Valley is very invasive too. I also have to keep after the Creeping Charlie. And after all of that there's the tree roots everywhere. There's always something!

Violets? Seil and fduk, I guess your mistake was not planting the shrinking kind ;)

Hi Sherry! Nice to hear from you.

weirdly, although I swear I have had hundreds of epic plant fails, I cannot think of anything associated with roses. Possibly because I generally choose oafish yahoos of roses - bullies in their own right. Or, I plant them around the vegetable and fruit beds, so they face continually changing, no competition annuals, or finally, I have, for a long time, planted a few tried and tested plants such as many, many hardy geraniums, foxgloves, aquilegias, campanulas, penstemons, thalictrum, geums, phlox and bulbs - none of which are in any way unmannerly. Even forget-me-nots, which seed freely, are unproblematic for the roses. The only dire mistake was not of my making but a neighbourly crossover - red centranthus - evil, horrible weed.

Daisies and bee balm are two of my best companion plants! Maybe it's our short summers? Not enough time to really get into trouble :)

I had to move away from evening primrose many years ago. Planted 3 of the pretty little pink ones and pulled many large lawn bags full of them every year after until I moved. I swear the things didn't even need dirt...would pop up and grow in the tiniest crevice of our concrete drive, sidewalk, patio, everywhere, anywhere. When mom first saw I planted them, she told me they were a weed...I replied "such and such" nursery wouldn't sell me a weed...but yes they did!

Lets face it, most flowers are a weed somewhere. It's that location thing all over again.

I really don't mind things that self sow perennials that spread by rhizomes are much more bothersome to me. Matilija poppy is quickly becoming a problem in my garden, and there is a patch of russian sage that I have been battling for years.

Bee balm, anything from the mint family belong in pots as far as I am concerned.

Last year I made the mistake of planting a gomphrena fireworks as a filler- which was stunning to look at-- but took over everything. I had to hack it back constantly. It also smelled like pickled red onion, so it kind of ruined my rose garden experience entirely.

Adrianne

Campanula poscharskyana was a horrible thug here. It took me 10 years to get rid of it. Salvia 'Black and Blue'--I'm still not rid of it. Both are beautiful--but big trouble.

Fortunately the heat and lack of rain keeps anything from taking over and I have very few varieties of companion plants. The regular golden daylilies seems a good idea but as they became larger they took nourishment away from the roses and now I have only a few small clumps that for some reason aren't going rogue. Alyssum seems like a rather benign companion but I notice when I pull them out that their roots will often go far into the more moist around the roses. Pelargoniums can get large and I have to cut them back, but the flowers give color to the garden and I keep them in the white, pink and lavender range. One of the few advantages of poor, dry soil is that it discourages unwanted thugs in the garden.

Variegated vinca. Don't let it into the beds. Anyplace it touches the ground, it roots. It now looks like ground cover. Blech. I'm also dealing with lots of volunteer arugula, but at least that can be dinner.

..lovely though it can be in the right place (not mine), I'm still digging out remnants of Japanese Anemone 'Honorine Jobert'...

Perilla!!!!!!!!! It's a purple monster that haunts my nightmares. It's an annual, but any plant that matures has three hundred gazillion seeds, and Every. Single. One. Sprouts.

It's such a pretty plant, and it's a great background for most anything (it gets nearly 4' tall here!). So every year I let *just* one or two grow and promise myself I'll keep them deadheaded...

Can't be done.

John

Walker's Low catmint- Who knew it would get so big so fast? And grow into a thick mat that chokes out everything? I lost a few plants to it before I ripped it out and replanted it in dry shade. It turned out to be a good place since the less than ideal growing spot keeps it in bounds and nothing much will grow there.

I didn't plant it, but the neighbors' grass- Maybe zoysia? I was told that it was planted by the original homeowner. It was supposed to fill in fast and choke out weeds, a plus, I suppose, to someone who's yard consists of a few trees and a large swath of lawn. Well, done and done. It left its yard for new lawns to conquer. It spreads by runners and its roots run deep. If you don't get every bit of it, it will be back and choke out everything but established trees and shrubs. Its kryptonite seems to be shade.

I have a long list of flowers that don't play well with others- certain asters, daisy mums, dahlias and black and blue sage, to name a few. I can usually find a spot for them where their qualities are appreciated or at least muted a bit. I don't have a lot of space with enough sun to grow roses so that is reserved for roses and rose-friendly plants.

Almost all of the above have been in--and now out--of my garden. It's a fine line between ground cover and takeover. Did anyone mention lily of the valley? Or mother-of-thyme. morning glory?

Aptenia cordifolia. I rue the day I was given cuttings of this pest. It chokes your plants but still lets the weeds come up!

Tall phlox is the most invasive here. I try to keep it limited and dig some out but it responds to that with being bigger than ever. I think it must be spreading by seed as well as by roots.

Other offenders:

Black-eyed Susan

Salvia guarnitica same plant as black and blue but solid blue

achillea

orange daylilies

hardy ageratum

vinca

plumbago , the low growing electric blue one

I agree with Adam about the aptenia. My mother brought me back some cuttings from Bermagui in NSW; after a year in my garden it was known as Bermagui B---------! My other pet hate other than evening primrose and Kikuyu grass, is Erigeron/seaside daisy, which arrived via airborne seeds from neighbours' gardens. No matter how often one weeds it out, it keeps on appearing in our driveway paving and any small cracks in brickwork as well as the garden beds.

Aptenia cordifolia is actually capable of engulfing whole shrubs and trees. I remember seeing it around some plantings at U.C. Davis where it had entirely covered large shrubs. Terrible stuff.

Native asters have been forever banned from my garden (they looked so innocent!), as well as the Mexican primrose planted by the previous owner which took me 6 or 7 years to eradicate. Anemone Honoring Jobert and geranium Rozanne spread or expand a bit here, but are limited by the lack of water.

Both the city and the university recently planted Mexican Feather Grass (beautiful landscape designs, btw, but with a few troublesome plants), and now all of us throughout the area are getting numerous feather grass gifts from the birds. Mexican (Evening) Primrose is rampant in our neighborhood. I've been able to keep it out of our interior gardens, but it's abundant in the perimeter gardens despite frequent weeding. And Morning Glory from a neighboring property necessitates a vigilant watch -- it will easily smother both grounds and buildings if we let our guard down.

I have lots of weedy plants but the only one that seems to be a threat to weaker roses is windflower, Anemone nemorosa. It seems innocent enough because it disappears after flowering but its rhizomes form an impenetrable mat. As a typical woodland plant it looks incongruous in a planted bed. Last summer must have been ideal for it because the population has exploded. Our woods are white with it and I wish it would stay there.

Vinca, honeysuckle, cowslips, sweet violets, Creeping Jenny are other fairly good looking weeds that plague me. I almost wish I could add lily-of-the-valley but mine have disappeared without help from me. Cowslips are welcome on the outskirts of the garden:

I've had my share of mistakes too. I'm still trying to get rid of some -- vinca minor is probably the worst offender, it should be outlawed! Garlic chives were a gift from another gardener that keeps popping up long after I tried to eradicate it. I was young and naïve when I planted mint.... there should be warnings on the label. I had a variety of Artemisia that was invasive but I finally got rid of it.

Some annoying ones, not quite as bad, are black-eyed susan, white wood asters, lily-of-the-valley, and Queen Anne's Lace.