Companion Plants for Formal Rose Gardens
These plants are low-growing or ground-covering types that look good used as borders, edgings, or skirts of flowers and foliage beneath modern bush roses. They help hide the rose plants' leggy growth without shading the leaves or competing too much for moisture or nutrients.
PERENNIALS AND BIENNIALS
SPRING
Ajuga reptans
(bugleweed, carpet bugle)
Alchemilla spp. (lady's mantles)
Galium odoratum (sweet woodruff)
Heuchera spp. (coralbells)
Iberis sempervirens (edging candytuft)
Lamium maculatum (spotted dead nettle)
Myosotis scorptoides (forget-me-not)
Ruta graveolens (rue)
Viola cornuta (horned voilet)
SUMMER
Artemisia schmidtiana
'Silvermound' (silvermound mugwort)
Campanual portenschlagiana (Dalmatian bellflower)
Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer)
Coreopsis rosea (pink coreopsis)
Geranium spp. (cranesbills)
Lavandula angustifolia (lavender)
Nepeta x faassenii (catmint)
Santolina chamaecyparissus (lavender cotton)
Stachys byzantina (lamb's-ears)
LATE SUMMER AND FALL
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (leadwort)
ANNUALS
Ageratum houstonianum
(flossflower)
Lobelia erinus (edging lobelia)
Lobularia maritima (sweet alyssum)
Nigella damascena (love-in-a-mist)
Torenia fournieri (wishbone flower)
