Some common perenials with roses are hardy geraniums, Nepeta, Penstemon, salvia (decorative and edible types) and digitalis. I don't know what would work in your specific location. Maybe some native plants are well suited? Your local garden centre ought to know :)

Purple coneflower and nepeta 'Walker's Low'. I'd probably plant a peony because I like their post-bloom leaves...same thing with iris, although there are remontant varieties of those. I plant edible herbs with mine, as well, both annual and perennial.

I love marigolds - such amazing troopers. But I wonder if I could do an edge of day lilies on the border. I have some elsewhere and they will need regular dividing. I am just afraid day lilies may get too fluffy and hinder the sun.

The new Garvinea daisies are some of the hardest working perennials I’ve ever grown. They may bloom for 8-10 months out of the year, except maybe in the hottest of summer and when hard frost hits. They come in various shades of pink, yellow, orange.

I like salvia too for long season of bloom.

BenT,

Those look awesome! That might be it. Should I plant them among the roses or as a border in front of them?

Aren't these Gerberas though? I really love them but they have a very finicky reputation in my area. Hmm...

I’d plant them among the roses, they can get rather big for a border. Garvineas are a new kind of much, much tougher, hardier, free-blooming Gerberas. Regular Gerberas are really only for the green house, at least where I live.

Oh, that would be amazing. I am a big fan of all kinds of daisies and I love Gerberas but when I've tried them in some shallow, over-the-rail planters, they've done very poorly. I avoided them ever since.

Garvineas sound like they'd be worth a try though.

Are they easy to find at local nurseries or would this have to be a special order?

Garvineas are becoming rather popular. Check Lowes and if near Atlanta, Pikes. They are sort of more a ‘quality nursery’ item rather than a Walmart find.

Yeap...Pikes is 10 minutes walk, bane of my existence.

When I visit Atlanta, I make my friends take me to Pikes even though I live 1000 miles away and wouldn’t be practical for me to buy anything :-)

Definitely on the pricey side but it's an amazing place. I go there just to take walks and treat my eyes with cascades of bloom.

Lavender and hardy geraniums

Tall garden phlox (now there’s shorter ones too, but not the spring blooming ones) daylilies, calla lilies, agastache ( I’m trying it this year mingled in with my roses), peonies to name a few. You might could fit a pretty trellis from hobby lobby with a clematis on it.

Geranium 'Rozanne" is a great plant with continuous bloom, which is not usually the case with perennials. Depending on your soil, Walker's Low nepeta can get huge, so I prefer the smaller varieties like Junior Walker. Same goes for Russian Sage. There are many newer, more petite versions are available that make better neighbors.

-Chris

I have assylum and snapdragons.....

Ben I love your daisies ...... do they attract snails like the Gerbas?

As a Georgian you may already know this: verbena Homestead Purple will quickly fill in that large sunny area, without being a noxious invasive. Very drought tolerant once established. Definitely perennial in your area. The electric purple will bedazzle your neighbors and their estate support staffs. Show me a perennial that will outbloom it.

Thank you all for so many excellent suggestions, I appreciate it very much!

I am making a list. I don't know how many of these I'd be able to find at my local nursery right now but perhaps I could order?

Chris,

Is Geranium Rozanne closer to blue or purple?

Also, any idea why all of these rose companion plants seem to err on the side of blue/violet? Is it because they are thought to complement well the reds and yellow tones in roses?

Purple is not necessarily my favorite color in bloom, maybe because you can't see much of them once evening comes. I prefer the bright whites and yellows that you can see at night as well - but two of my roses are yellow themselves.

Rozanne is an excellent choice. Mine are closer to blue. Depends on soil and climate. Blues and lavenders are perfect companion colors for any rose color IMO.

My standbys are much the same as Rosylady's, including orlaya, new this year and it's white. Also campanulas - there are lots of them from ground covers to 3' tall.

A good light blue (not lavender) is Imperial Blue Plumbago. i wish I could grow it, but it's too tender for my zone.

Hydrangeas like Little Lime and Bobo, and there are other small ones, would welcome some light shade if your summers are hot.

Hardy geraniums come in white too. There are so many lovely varities, and their leaves look great. Garden sage comes with variegated leaves too. A small plant can grow to four time its size in a summer and can be cut back without problems.

I have a new rose bed in the front yard that takes up half of the house so it has been a challenge to fill it in with companions . I started with lots of different salvias, Siberian iris, and delphiniums but it is still really empty

So I need a ton more fillers. One of my favorites other than alysum is vinca.,no, definitely not the trailing variety. I have enough of the neighbors vinca to deal with grrrr

But beautiful mounding colorful vinca.

Geranium Rozanne is also a great filler

Trailing vinca is the worst!!!

Boy. You aren't kidding, horrible and invasive.

My other neighbor has ivy , just as bad

I love Vinca (not the trailing kind). I finally found marjoram. I think it's Ingrid in the Antique Roses board who had marjoram in her garden. It gets big and was lovely. I am letting mine get a little bigger before I put it out. I also had rosemary but I moved it and need a new one. I bought a lobelia for the bed too. I have white fortnight Lilly and a startER clump of blue agapanthus. right now my bed just has hard pruned roses with a ring of clumps of baby Aztec grass surroundin it . Once the roses leaf back out I can move the plants into the bed. I have a vague idea of where I'll put them.

I love the pictures with hardy graniums and any sort of daisy/Daisy like flower get my vote.

I think mums interrupt the cycle of thrips so I keep wanting to try those under the roses..

I used to have reblooming irises (until the roof rats and bunnies decimated my garden) and I would think that in your garden they would bloom many months of the year. Here in so. CA I'd have blooms in June, August, September, November etc. and they looked wonderful among the roses. All I did was water them along with the roses, no fertilizer or anything, and they bloomed year after year. I know nothing about your conditions so you'd have to inquire if they'd be suitable for your garden, but if they are there's nothing more beautiful.

Ingrid,

My conditions are classic South: hot and humid in the summer, when it rains it pours, but we can have droughts. :)