Roses are permanent guests in many gardens, adorning them with their unalterable beauty and perfuming them with the sweetness of their fragrances. To accompany them, the choice of perennials is vast and the possibilities of creating enchanting decorations are numerous.
Roses, plants and diseases
Before creating a bed of plants at the feet of your roses, keep in mind that they are sensitive to certain cryptogamic diseases. It is therefore preferable to avoid plants that are too prone to this disease, such as asters or hollyhocks for example. Of course, there are nowadays disease-resistant roses, but don't tempt the devil if you don't have these robust beauties at home!
In any case, never stick too many perennials at the foot of your roses so that air and light can still circulate. Also avoid invasive or climbing plants that could choke them out.
Roses and perennials: the right combinations
The perennials you choose should have more or less the same cultural needs as roses, i.e. sunny exposure, fertile, deep soil that remains cool.
Choose plants with ornamental foliage or prolonged flowering that will take over from the roses.
Gray or silver foliage sets off the roses well, especially varieties with deep red or mauve-tinted flowers. Santolini with its characteristic fragrance and golden yellow pompons, artemisia with its cut foliage, stachys with its fluffy leaves and spikes of pink flowers or Senecio leucostachys will form a perfect setting for your roses.
Some flowering plants go very well with roses, gypsophila and its myriad of airy white flowers is one of them.
A classic combination, the large blue delphiniums magnify yellow or pale pink roses, while the white varieties go well with all shades. Monard, an easy to grow plant with disheveled corollas, will also do wonders at the foot of roses, as will large lupins with spikes overloaded with attractive colors.
Think of liatris, ideal for masking the base of a tall, balding rose bush. Their thick spikes of white, pink, blue or purple flowers will match the color of your roses, and you can add a few lisymaques plants that will bloom at the same time for an opulent effect!
We don't think much about perennial geraniums and yet... They form beautiful clumps at the foot of your roses and come in pastel or shimmering shades that will match them perfectly. Their long flowering period also takes over during the resting period, keeping the decor in all its splendor.
In southern regions, think of coreopsis whose bright yellow will support all the shades of bluish mauve flowers, or lavender which underline with their beautiful silhouettes and their bluish flowers the fuchsia or white roses.
Finally, with a shorter blooming period, but giving a spectacular result, the large irises always make their effect associated with roses. The many existing varieties will allow you to find the ideal color to create a resonance with your roses whatever their color!
