I love catmint , specifically walkers low. It does get big and spreads gently around the base. I loveeeeee the smell so much!! Another excellent plant is geraniums. I have Rozanne geraniums under my climbers and boy is that a fantastic plant too.

I bought a bag of Allysum seed and forgot to plant it Kristine! Hope it’s good next year. Your photos always look beautiful with it .

I second hardy geraniums. Lisa

The first photo in this link is what I'm going to do next spring.

I didn’t grow hybrid teas, but I did grow David Austins and various shrub roses, and I also underplanted with hardy geranium and catmint. I guess it’s a thing?

Those of you who use ground covers to underplant with, do you consider that your mulch? Or, do they grow through the mulch? I don't think the Feverfew seeds I want to try next year will grow through my pine bark mulch since it does a pretty good job of suppressing weed seeds.

I grew only perennials in my beds, so I just mulched around them. I used compost to mulch except for the front edge of the beds as they were so closely planted that the mulch wasn’t visible anywhere else.

See this thread for ideas

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5240523/favorite-companions-plants-perennials-ground-covers-living-mulch#n=47

Here is different options I planted this year-

Purple fountain grass

Decorative sweet potato vine, lantana, vinca, cosmos flowers and for blue color Russian sage.. also lavender is great

Nadya,

That 's a nice bed layout you have there. What varieties are you growing? Where are you?

You have to be on the lookout for air circulation being curtailed by any perennial or annual planted between/among your hybrid teas. After all, most hybrid teas are columnar, non-spreading bushes, which is why they can be planted so close together. Any additional plants, especially taller ones will surely increase fungus issues to the detriment of the roses.

A hybrid tea bed has different requirements than the general rose population. Traditionally, hybrid tea beds are limited to hybrid teas only. With hybrid teas it is not the beauty of the individual bush's form that appeals to the eye, which generally does not exist with skinny, 'stick' hybrid tea bushes. The beauty comes from each individual, classic hybrid tea formed flower, combined with its neighboring blooms, with the bushes grouped together enmass, in a cohesive hybrid tea bed.

My recommendation is white flowered, wax leaf begonias, in a variety that grows no more than 1" high. They take shade (from the rose bushes), or sun and grow equally well under both conditions. They're low enough not to cause air circulation problems, yet dense enough to cover the ground, and somewhat conceal the 'naked knees' (leafless lower cane sections). They are not aggressively rooted, or disease/insect prone. Nor are their fertilizer/water needs high.

The white begonia blooms are the perfect foil for any color of rose bloom, very effectively setting the blooms off, not distracting the eye from the 'main focus', the beauty of the hybrid tea blooms. You could also try other begonia flower colors, a well as bronze leaved wax begonias instead of the green leaved ones. Personally, I like white flowered bronze leaved wax begonias a lot.

Moses

I love blue plumbago (ceratostigma plumbagoidines) which has bright cobalt blue flowers starting in mid-summer. Towards fall the leaves turn red. It's a very low grower even here in SE Virginia. It's reliably perennial and spreads slowly.

Nepeta mussini (catmint) gallops here. Easy to grow, hard to control.

Thanks, Moses. I am in zone 7 (Northern Virginia). The varieties in the bed are all pretty common:

Dreams Come True

Perfume Delight

Neil Diamond

Fragrant Plum

Gentle Giant

Sugar Moon

I get what you're saying about air circulation. I just thought that two feet is quite enough air! And because roses don't bloom 100% of the time, you have to admit a bed of spaced spiky columns can get to look a bit sad on occasion :) Is air circulation assured by nothing except empty space? What about a non-dense low plant? Like not 6'' low but maybe a foot low?

I have shrub roses elsewhere and planted hardy geraniums under those with splendid results, it really does look great.

Diana, your beds look splendid! The one with fountain grass is my favorite.

I've read reviews about Nepeta that it can be hard to controlled. Saw a new variety in a magazine called Cat's Pajamas? (whoever comes up with these?) that's more compact and bright blue but who knows what the reality is.

My other roses underplanted with blue salvia and geranium. Some lavender too but I'm not replanting it next year. It's super pretty when it blooms but it only blooms a few weeks. I need something with reliable color all season long! The geranium, however, has been a great little soldier.

I have some of our shrub roses underplanted with catmint Walkers Low also...And one has Rozanne geraniums also...lol.. Sorry I have no hybrid teas...

Rozanne geraniums

I almost forgot my newest favorite underplanting. Nigella, or, Love in a Mist is light and airy, so it doesn't prevent air circulation, is blue, which in my opinion goes beautifully with all roses, and although it's an annual, it prolifically self seeds, but not in an overly aggressive way, at least not here. It's about a foot to 18" tall. It's a good bouquet filler and even the seed pods are nice in arrangements. It also comes in pink and white.