Any ideas would be appreciated.Thanks,Jody
Any ideas as to what to plant with a bunch of red roses?
How about some clematis to wind through them? They look great in a color that contrasts with the rose blooms -- you can choose a variety that gives you a combination you like. - Mary
are you sure there red roses and not elephant with red toenails hiding in your rose bushes?????
Huh!!!!
I have always been fond of red and white together - either white Sonata Cosmos, daisies, white dwarf zinnias, white verbena, or alyssum if you want groud cover... imagine how well red roses go with white babies breath.
Its working if you can't see the elephants....
ely =)
Elyearcrazy, Blooms once offered to lead a safari looking for elephants in the grass blades of a sward with tweezers. Maybe we should take her up on it. Who knows what we'll find?
JodyC, if it's the kind of red that leans toward the blue end of the spectrum, like crimson (versus the kind of red that leans towards the yellow end of the spectrum, like scarlet) silvery leaves are beautiful (it's too early in the morning for me to deal with scarlet, unless it's the color of elephant toe nails).
When playing with one color, it becomes fun to experiment with contrasting textures and shapes of foliage, so.....you might consider the following types of silver leaves -
little bitty woolly leaves of Thymus lanuginosa (woolly thyme) creeping out into the path from the larger woolly lamb ears...
off to the side and back, perhaps the silvery Miscanthus 'Morning Light' - you need a large enough mass of roses to balance the bulk of this one - a colony of white daisies might be nice emanating from the miscanthus - it could be a white anthemis or feverfew or dwarf shasta, etc. - keep them low so as not to overbalance the roses...dwarf cosmos 'Sonata' (I'd go with the mix, here)...
purple sage echoes the black tones in a deep, crimson rose (nice contrasted with the reblooming white iris 'Immortality')
white lavender (not just one plant - take cuttings - in fact, lavender is gorgeous all by itself, with just the roses to accompany it, if anything) - or any color lavender or mix the colors
other silvers that come to mind are artemesias (A. schmidtiana is a low, finely cut, silky plant - it might need a hair cut in August)...A. 'Powis Castle makes a larger clump that's not too invasive...'Valerie Finis' is well loved - there's a relatively fool-proof white sage that would make a nice accompanying colony to the artemesias: Salvis coccinea 'alba'...and face this grouping down with a carpet of dwarf, white snapdragons.
white arabis (nice edger/carpeter)
white columbine
White violas (pansies lumber a bit too much for me in this context)
white dahlias - incurved cactus type
white nicotania - dwarf forms
all the flowers that Zarebeth mentioned
silvery species of marubium, teucrium, scented geraniums
caryopteris, white buddleia
Some of these plants need overwintering indoors as cuttings taken in late summer, like the scented geraniums, silver teucrium
Others have been short lived in my garden and have been kept going by digging in a "mother plant" of each type into a spot protected by a cold frame in the autumn - propagate cuttings in spring. It's not the cold so much as the crush of snow and ice that does them in. These especially need to be grown with good drainage: woolly thyme, lamb ears, purple sage, lavender, some artemesias, marubium.
May I second the motion for a variegated ornamental grass???? LOL :) I don't know how large your rose planting will be, but if it's a sizeable shrub rose planting, my vote is for Miscanthus sinesis 'Cosmopolitan'. So striking!!! What a fantastic color and texture compliment that would be :) BTW, both need full sun and the grass is adaptable to soil moisture/dryness.
huga,
That grass sounds so nice, I had to look that up in plantfiles- and there's no picture! Do you have one?
I like ground covers like verbena and scaevola with red roses, anything purple.
I love all the ideas here for white and siver plants tool You are all so inspiring!
An old classic with red roses, going back to Victorian flower bed designs, is catnip. Beautifull mounds of blue/purple color, blooms earlly in spring lasts till first frost and no maintance required.Also spreads for good ground cover. I have it with my ruba rugosa roses and I think it looks terrific. Gil.
what about white lantana? blue that is a good idea.....
Snipper, maybe you could have a little talk with my cats - they don't seem to understand that catnips are "for pretty" (except they do leave the tall, thuggier Nepeta siberica 'Souvenir de Andre Chav-something' alone).
If the roses were white, I'd stay with the silver and all white companions, but on second thought, with crimson roses, I'd put the companions in the whole range of palest blush pink to deeper rose to black maroon.
But about scarlet - both the crimson range and the scarlet ranges are wonderful with chartreus-y greens - green and gold stripes echo from grasses to liriope to hosta (the little 'Kabitan' and big 'Frances Williams') to many others - how about Canna 'Pretoria' in the vicinity of a large scarlet shrub/climbing rose? It would be a crime not to put one of these yellow/green striped grasses near this canna. Purples would be very welcome here.
This would be a fun place to let bright scarlets, orange/apricots, lemons, purple/violets loose and thug it out - all these colors come together in a single plant: Canna 'Pretoria'. I always wanted to grow Lychnis chalcedonica 'Vesuvius', and this would be the perfect excuse for it's dark purple leaves and burnt-orange flowers (Grow Lychnis coronaria, with its woolly silver leaves and "magenta" flowers over in the blue-red patch.) Euphorbias include similar colors and bring an other-worldly flavor to the garden...Helianthus angustifolium makes a huge fountain of delicate, thin, willow-shaped leaves with a profuse spangling of yellow daisies at the end of the season (maybe let it flop over earlier poppies that have gone dormant?) This is another nice foil to huge, tropical leaves - those elephant ear plants, maybe? Black-purple Taro (colocasia sp).
A couple of chartreus-y plants that come to mind are lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) and some coleus. There are relatives of coleus in genus Plectranthera with velvety, thick succulent shades of pale sea green. Plants like Canna 'Pretoria' that contain all the colors of green, yellow, orange and purple would bring a little decorum to this hubbub.
Elyearcrazy, Oceangirl, lantana, scaevola, verbena - these also would make weed-smothering living mulches round and about the thugs. The purples/blues/violets would go well with the oranges - need a cream in there somewhere.
Y'all, this is one of my favorite subjects. Hope I haven't been too windy. Can't imagine any other subject I'd rather toss around with other gardeners.
I have some daisies in with my roses; the contrast is very nice.
Here's a pic from a google search :)
http://www.big-grass.com/Miscanthus%20sinensis%20'Cosmopolitan'.html
Here's a pic of a photo from a book I have on grasses. This is NOT my photo, but instead a photo of one of the pics in the book Grasses: Versatile Partners for Uncommon Garden Designs. Author is Nancy J. Ondra. This is a great pic because lookey there! The 'Cosmospolitan' is right next to a climbing rose!!! :) Hope this helps!
Huga
Love all the great ideas,please keep them coming.Thinking of going with red and white theme.Like the grass and hosta idea too.Maybe some red and white daylilies,also red/white and red and white lilies.I'd like to have all perennials.Nothing I have to dig up for the winter.I have to many irons in the fire for that.lol.Thanks & Hugs,Jody
Guess what I bought this evening.....
Yup! You guessed it, Miscanthus 'Cosmopolitan'!!! LOL :) After posting those pics and looking online for a good photo for you, I just knew one would look great out front! LOL....
Mine is going to be close to shasta daisies and 'Strawberry Fields' Gomphrena. Again, the red & white type theme there. I'll also have some purple coneflower pretty closeby. It's a rather eye-grabbing grass. I'm very excited about mine. I needed a good, strong vertical there and this grass will certainly get the job done! LOL -- they get pretty big, you know :)
Take care,
Huga
Hi all :) Here's a pic of my 'Cosmopolitan' later that same year (late September, I think).
So, I have to know what you wound up planting??? :) Any pics for us???
Jacci
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/544716/
This message was edited May 17, 2006 11:41 PM
Jacci...It looks great..I never would have thought of grasses...My Mom knowing nothing much about plants,bought me a gallon pot of Silver Miscanthus and I bought a clump of Zebra grass off of ebay but I'm not sure it's going to live,bummer cause I love the look,with the horizonal stripes...Most of the roses are planted,but I have been under the weather most of last year and this year too...I never have gotten around to the underplantings...I did put some Lillies in and I ordered 24 lavender plants from Ritcher's,two differnt kinds...I haven't received them yet..my daughter-n-law and sister are coming down tomorrow to help me put in my veggie garden,it's already pretty late,but still early enough to reap veggie's in about 8 weeks...Maybe I will have photo's next year or later this fall...I haven't been feeling good enough to even weed...I get so depressed,I'm thrilled my family is coming to help me get some of my gardens in order...:-)
Oh, Jody, I really hope you are feeling well soon. I'm so sorry to hear that you have been ill. I hope you have a wonderful time with your family :)
Huga
Thank you we had a good time..well I did...they dug 43 holes to plant my asparagus a foot deep and wide...I couldn't thank them enough...
That's love :)
Yep it sure is...:-)
Bad Jody !!! what are you doing being sick? I have yellow varigated euonomous with my red roses and love it. here is a pic with a pinkish rose. I am trying some golden delicious sage this year it is a golden foliage with scarlet flowers a nice contrast, planting it with my yellow daylillies
Hi ya Carol, How are you doing? Your flowers look great...I just got your e-mail,but I'm not awake enough yet to answer you..lol..I'll e-mail you soon...
White geraniums looks really nice with red roses. Also, white roses look really nice with red roses. (g)
Gwen