Companion Plants for Roses

This is a somewhat arbitrary list of suitable companion plants for roses.  I chose them based on what I like to use, but also included a few that are widely recommended even though I don't care much for them.  Pretty much any perennial or annual could be used with roses, really.  I give preference to plants with blue flowers, plants that attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, and evergreens.  This is an expanded version of the list I handed out at my Companion Planting presentation at the April 2010 meeting.

There are two ways to use roses with other plants:  in shrub borders, and in herbaceous borders.  Roses in shrub borders blend in with the other shrubs.  This is an excellent way to use those once-blooming roses and all the large shrubby antique roses.  Avoid most hybrid teas and grandifloras, as they tend to be too rigid to blend in, but otherwise pretty much any kind of rose can work in a shrub border.  David Austin roses work especially well here.

In herbaceous borders roses become the focal point when in bloom, as they are larger and more upright than most herbaceous plants.  Hybrid teas and grandifloras work well here, along with tree roses.  Again, this is an excellent way to use those David Austin roses.  Any other kind of rose will work as well.  I like to use the roses to hold up perennials that otherwise need staking - delphiniums, foxgloves, gladioli.

Climbing roses make great backdrops for either shrub or herbaceous borders, and can be trained on obelisks and swags to create focal points in either type of border.

Now here's a short list of some garden plants that I've found to be too invasive to be a good idea in rose gardens.  Most made this list by spreading from the roots, making them hard to control, and creating a physical block to water and fertilizer for the roses.  Some just simply spread uncontrollably from seed or bulbs.  Note that some widely-recommended companion plants, marked in the above list, can be about as problematic.  Note also that this list is developed for the Olympia area! these plants may not be as aggressive or problematic in other areas, where an entirely different list may be appropriate.

Arrhenatherum, oatgrass
Arum
Bamboo (all bamboos run eventually)
Buddleia
Centauria montana
Cortaderia, pampas grass
Crocosmia, montbretia
Irises:  stinking (I. foetidissima), walking (Neomarica gracilis)
ivy (any)
Lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis
Lychnis coronaria, Maltese cross
Monarda, bee balm (mostly just because it mildews and flops)
Muscari, grape hyacinth
Nasturtium
Pennisetum, fountain grass
Phalaris, ribbon grass
Phygelius, Cape fuchsia
Physostegia, obedient plant
Romneya coulteri, Matilija poppy
Rubus calycinoides (pentalobus)
Scilla, bluebell
sedums
strawberry
vinca