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Advice on plants underneath roses

Olwyn4Olwyn4 Posts: 3

Hi

i was hoping that you would be able to offer some advice please.  I am starting a new rose bed with some beautiful David Austin roses I have just purchased (munstead wood and  Claire Austin - lovely white and dark plum coloured).  what plants would be happy growing in the bed with them and also what would look lovely too.  I'm new to gardening and would greatly appreciate some advice.  Thank you in advance Ollie 

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Posts

  • Bright starBright star Posts: 1,153

    Underplanting with Salvias is a good start Olwyn, not only do they look great together the salvias are thought to offer the roses some protection from the usual pests and diseases that they get. Sarah Raven underplants  her roses in this way. I also plant mine with Alchemilla mollis, geraniums and euphorbia oblongata. I love DA roses too and used to have the Claire Austin in a pot, it was beautiful and quite delicate looking but unfortunately ants started nesting in the pot and the Rose died.

    Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

  • Olwyn4Olwyn4 Posts: 3

    Thank you - they sounds like fab options.  I will have a look at some salvia to contrast with the rose colours.  Have just sent off for a Sarah Raven catalogue for some more inspiration

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,065

    I like to grow alliums with roses.   Their perfume is suppose dt confuse and deter aphids from settling on the roses.    I also grow hardy geraniums such as macrorhizum as its foliage stays below rose flowering height and the flowers come before the roses.   

    For early spring, lots of daffs and hyacinths, followed by aquilegias and oriental poppies, penstemons and all sorts of other herbaceous perennials that will spread the season of interest.   Cyclamen for the end of the year and snowdrops for the beginning.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • lilysillylilysilly Posts: 511

    Hi Ollie, l have both of those DA roses, they are both very beautiful. My Claire Austen took two summers to really settle and grow a strong framework of sturdy stems. It's flowers weighed down the new stems so l used canes to offer support in its first and second season. Now l guess it has a strong root system and is able to send up thicker stems that can get to a good 6ft. This is nice because it's flowers naturally hang down, so you're able to view them from below and smell its wonderful scent easier. Munstead Wood is devine. The colour is so rich and the scent is intoxicating. The young foliage is a great colour too. I have underplanted my Claire Austin with astrantia Roma, and allium Ambassador , also geraniums Wargrave pink and Rozanne, there are also aquilegia that pop up. When l planted Claire Austin, l popped in a clematis Polish Spirit near its base. This scrambles up and through it and offers more interest between flushes. They are both hungry plants and get a regular early feed and mulch with well rotted manure . I also give them a whole can of water each week in summer, even if it's rained . If you are going to order from Sarah Raven there is a free p&p code SP17BE until the 12th of March.

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

    I have a rose bed with Falstaff.
    I underplanted with Verbena rigida which over the last 3-4 years has now trailed around the bed. The combination of deep red and the mauve/purple of the verbena I think works very well.
    Unfortunately I can't find a pic to post atm


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • lilysillylilysilly Posts: 511

    Pete does your Falstaff flower all summer until late Autumn, or does it only have 1 or 2 flushes each season? I was going to buy a climbing one a couple of weeks ago, but got chatting to another customer who said her Falstaff was all done flowering too early in the season for her liking. Her growing conditions are the same as mine so l didn't buy one. I do love the colour and the flower form of Falstaff, so would love to know your experience of it please.

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

    It's a beautiful rose Lily, but - some years just as it's getting into full flower we get heavy rain and all the flower heads droop with the weight of water, then they tend to rot, as do buds that are about to open. If we don't get heavy rain then they look stunning.
    The 1st flush is by far the best, then I get a few flowers and a 2nd smaller flush a bit later in the season. The perfume is outstanding.


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

    Will do verd.
    Rigida is a lovely plant, it just spreads quite slowly and flowers for months on end.
    I've got some pics somewhere...


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,065

    I agree with Verdun about the horrors of roses in bare bMy rose bed in my Belgian garden was a combination of Gertude Jekyll, Sceptr'd Isle and William Shakespeare shrubs with the afore-mentioned perennials and bulbs underneath and nothing to compete with the wonderful rose flowers.  They all flowered before or n late summer and autumn but I did enjoy the colours and forms of their foliage hiding the bare legs of the roses.

    I also had a Kiftsgate growing up a trellis panel and then up and along the house wall and another pair of trellis panels on the western side with a Constance Spry.  She flowered once and was then followed by clematis Betty Corning.   I had clems Princess Diana and Sunset on obelisks at the climber end of the bed and a Japanese acer Sangu-Kaku.   It all worked brilliantly but I found Will S could be a bit nesh in harder winters and needed lots of TLC.  The others were tough as old boots and gave lots of flower and perfume.

    My other roses were grown in mixed beds with all sorts of different flowers and even some ornamental grasses - astrantias, geums, potentilla, achilleas, persicarias,penstemons, hemerocallis, phlomis, helenium, aconitum, hardy geranium and many many more.   Roses definitely need ground covering plants between them and contrasts of form, texture and colour.  

    Borders should be a tapestry and that's what I'll be aiming for when I plant up this new garden.

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
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