Hey again, it's Jason from Fraser Valley Rose Farm
Well, someone asked me recently for some recommendations for companion plants for roses
And I'm happy to talk about that
This time of year while there's lots of time for you to order your seeds
Lots of time to get your shopping lists together and get your plans together for your beds for the spring
So I have some recommendations of some of my favorites. I want to put up some pictures. Let's look at those now
We have Echinacea with is characteristic drooping petals
Hydrangea to class up the joint a bit
Trollius because it looks like a giant buttercup
Eryngium for that silvery blue
Hemerocallis because daylilies go with anything
Melittis because it's common name is "Bastard Balm" and Amsonia because it's tough
Beautiful and not everyone has it in their garden
Salvia for repeat bloom and so many varieties
flowering Allium because Graham Thomas said not to
Astrantia to help attract beneficial insects
Lamium for something bright to grow down low
iris sibirica as a vertical accent
Limnanthes because they attract hover fliess and hover flies eat aphids
Physostegia, which is not nearly as obedient it claims
Heuchera for fancy fancy foliage
Physocarpus because it's a stunning backdrop
Digitalis and digitalis and digitalis
Iberis to come in with the earliest of roses and
Asters to accompany the final flushes Agastache are so easy and go with anything
Achillea, like this or like this
Rudbeckia to brighten any planting scheme
Geranium because it's a classic combination
Dictamnus for something a little out of the box
Rogersia if you're not afraid to be a little bold
Crambe for early sprays of white flowers and Gaura because they look like floating butterflies
Campanula with many many forms
Hypericum for both flowers and fruit
Cleome just because it looks cool
Nepeta because anything blue looks good with roses
Penstemon for another full season performer. Viburnum because it adds class anywhere it goes
Nigella an annual but it'll probably self-seed
Acanthus for those amazing flower spikes
Lysimachia, but maybe not every lysimachia
Lavandula because what could be more romantic than roses and lavender
Thalictrum for a fine textured foliage of flower
Delphinium - d'uh!
Verbena
squeeze it in wherever you want and
Finally Pennisetum because there deserves to be an ornamental grass on this list
well
There are so many good reasons to have
companion plants in your rose garden not the least of which is that everything that was on that list will do a good job of
Complementing your roses as they bloom both in bloom form and color and bloom timing
So you fill in those gaps throughout your season
But the other thing is that the more diversity you have in your rose garden the generally the better
The healthier roses will be it comes down to that issue of monoculture
So if you have one full bed
That's fully dedicated to roses when one gets a pest those pests have an easy time spreading amongst the same species
Whereas if you have a whole bunch of different species in your gardens, it actually tends to be more resilient in those pest levels
They tend to support those beneficial insects much much better
And so your outbreaks are less frequent and less severe
There are some families of plants that are really really good for this and I included some on the list above
For instance. The mustard family is a great cool season
Crops or has a whole bunch of cool season plants in it. So it covers that front end of the
Beneficial insects supporting and beneficial insects just as your roses are starting to bloom
I had things on the list like Iberis and Crambe but there's all sorts of other small annuals and perennials like Aurinia or
Aubrieta that also will fill in those gaps
Another really useful family is the carrot family because they are characterized by having these little small
but numerous flowers that do a great job of supporting beneficial parasitic wasps and on the list I had
Eryngium and Astrantia, but you could also look at something big and flowering like angelica or all sorts of little herbs like dill and fennel
Another one. That's a great one is the Daisy family which does a fantastic job of supporting
pollinators and on the list I had echinacea I had Aster you could look at something more finely textured in flower like
eupatorium as well
and finally
let me put in a word for the mint family because those aromatic leaves will deter pests from your garden and I had on the
List things like Agastache and salvia
But a lot of herbs things like rosemary oregano or even the silver leaved
Stachys that I'm putting up on screen right now are in the mint family
So the point of this would not just be to stick to one or two
Families to but go wild add a whole bunch of diversity to your garden because it will stabilize those pest populations
experiment a little or
Experiment a lot and if you have some successes, I'd love to hear about it
I'm sure other Rose growers would as well, so leave those in the comments below. All right
Thank you so much for watching. And again, if you have any questions leave those below and I'll do what I can