New to Roses

I want to plant some rose bushes in my back yard, but I don't know what other perennials i should plant with them. I'm just looking for some colorful plants to go with them...

I'm actually looking for some unique perennials that would look good with roses. I'm in zone 5, and i'm trying to bring some color to my yard... Thanks!

Your best bet would be to pose that question in the Michigan Gardening Forum. You can consider taking a short subscription to Dave's Garden and have all forums open to your questions. I think the cost for a month or two is just $5.00 and it's a great investment.

Some info on companion plants for roses
http://www.rose-gardening-made-easy.com/design-rose-garden.html

I will only say, roses are not an easy plant. Do your homework, it's easy to accidentally start yourself with high maintenance roses that will turn you off to them instead of getting some nice easy beginner roses to get you acclimated and work your way to some high maintenance ones if you desire. Here's some things to choose the right rose:

A rose that's grafted onto a different root stock requries more care & maintenance, I would look for own root roses to start with for a beginner. Grafted ones start more quickly but are more susceptible to damage, winters, improper care, and improper planting. Where I live (zone 5), they do wonderful the first couple years then slowly decline and die (probably because of my winters and I'm too lazy to cover them with hay). Own root roses, the winter can't kill the roots so they come back but they spend the first couple years building up their roots before putting on a show.

"Disease resistant" I've found means nothing. It's like the term "Heavy Duty"... even tools at the dollar store are marked "Heavy Duty". If it says disease resistant, don't put much merit on it. However, very resistant I find does hold merit.

Generally the hybrid tea roses are the most susceptible and usually what people "think" of when they hear rose. The problem is, the prettiest hybrid tea roses generally have no smell. The ones with smell generally don't look as good as those without. And again, hybrid tea roses tend to be finicky compared to the other types.

I think the best starter roses are those that are marked Earthkind. My favorite is Belinda's Dream, which is pink and own root. The roses it produces are perfect pink, very fragrant, very disease resistant, very big. The best companion plant I've found to go with roses are Viola's the compliment the rose color. With Belinda's Dream my favorite companion is Viola Purple Showers. The deep dark purple at the base just makes the big pink roses really stand out.

If you have Red roses (I have Mr. Lincolns which won a fragrance award. They produce huge amazing red/purple roses and are one of the most fragrant roses. But mine struggle since they're grafted and aren't as disease resistant as I'd like. Out of the 3 I had, I've lost 2 in 4 years and the last is not looking good). For a beginner instead I'd start with Don Juans (a climber which can be trimmed to be a regular rose) is more newbie friendly. Don Juans are own root, pure red to deep red, almost just as fragrant, but easily the best smelling rose I've come across. The flowers are smaller than Mr. Lincoln, but it is very disease resistant and care free... good for beginner). I would plant with yellow Viola's like Viola cornuta Lutea Splendens.

A fun rose that everyone loves is my Fourth of July. It's not a hybrid tea which means it's not as finicky and at a whole different level of disease resistance (mine hardly loses a single leaf to black spot nor gets attacked much) and of all my roses it's the only one where growth over 2' doesn't die off in winter so mine has gotten to be about 4-5' tall. I recommend it, as the petals of the roses are so interesting but as a compliment... and I really haven't found anything that can compliment it. I'm thinking of trying something that's just plain green (like fern or hosta).

I prefer Viola's over Pansies as typically Pansies you get at the garden store are annuals, Viola's typically are perennials. I really haven't found anything that companions as well with roses as Viola's... and bear with my typically my roses don't get above 2-3' because of the winters.

This message was edited Jun 15, 2011 9:21 AM