companion planting for roses

[funnyperson]

What works well with your roses? I am thinking what to plant amongst the roses to a) complement the colour and scent b) prolong the flowering season of the bed c) keep the roses healthy.

Lavender and applemint will go with my olympic roses from this year. With the other roses (generous gardner, gertrude jekyll, munstead wood, dr du jamain I am thinking alliums, achillea, but have got a bit stuck and it would be interesting to know what works well in your gardens. For example do you plant clematis with your roses and if so, does it choke the rose?

The other question is what to plant in that shady area under the climbing roses where the rose overhangs a bit of the garden bed.

I personally can't bear seeing the stems of roses, so I'm a big fan of lavender, rosemary and Nepeta - anything that covers up their scraggly bottoms! I'd worry with achillea that the taller heads would hit the underside of the roses, and that in winter you'd see scraggly rose bottoms again.

I wonder whether it would be fun to go with something like a massed planting of the 'black grass', Ophiopogon 'nigrescens' [sp?]

I've got alpine strawberries under my climbing roses - their idea, not mine.

Shady area you need perennial geraniums such as Johnsons Blue - have a look on Crocus website and there are loads. Or something to contast like a hosta, or ferns.

How are your roses planted? Singly- in a group? Do they flower all summer of just once? I have a huge Buff Beauty which is about 7 feet across in the centre of a border. Not a lot grows under it TBH. All my other roses are climbers and yes I do grow clematis through them and it works fine- just make sure the stems have a free run at the base.

Heucheras are my lastest ground cover obsession and I am beginning to experiment with dianthus (pinks) too.

Calendulas (ok yellow might jar) discourage greenfly, so might be worth throwing into the mix.

Another vote for perennial geraniums. I can't get enough of them.

Thank you. Which perennial geraniums apart from Johnsons Blue?

Pink Penny flowers like nobody's business and doesn't seem to mind a bit of shade. It can go a bit berserk though.

Elke is beautiful.

Alchemilla mollis is useful for underplanting too. Lovely leaves.