WOW! Thanks for all the great ideas. Tex, that is gorgeous. Lilies and roses, salvia and roses, and i like the asparagus idea too. My new bed ideas are revising by the moment! Never, ever thought about this kind of flexibility before. I like it.

I've been out of pocket for a couple of months and am just now getting back to checking on Cubits. WOW, a lot has happened to this thread since I asked about companions for roses back in February. I love all the ideas that have come in. I have now planted some daylillies, amarillas, miniature roses, and azaleas among my roses. I'll have to try some of these other plants, too. I love the "crammed look" of Tex's beds. Thats what I'm striving for.

Looking forward to a lot more photos...........Jan

Tex, what are the low growing plants in front of the beds, especially the dark purple ones in the first picture?

I am aiming for a mixed cottage bed look, but having trouble finding good plants for the front of the border.

I moved my irises to the sides of my flower beds because they were getting too much water planted with the roses. The sides are made a bit higher than the rest of the bed to aid drainage. It isn't visibly higher to anyone but a gardener. I have a few lilies. They multiplied, so I have to move a few around. My roses are just getting established, not at full height.

Last year I tried using a natural, non toxic spray program (neems, baking soda, etc.) and added a few veggies in the rose garden. Brussels sprouts and dark purple kale were very decorative. The black spot was not. I am using fungicides this year, so no veggies in that bed.

I have baby clematis with a few roses, we'll see how they do. I also have a few peonies. Once they bloom, I shorten the foliage a bit to get more sun to the plants behind them. The peonies are really tall and healthy this year.

I have star of yelta purple morning glories on trellis against the building, behind the flower bed. They reseed and come back every year, but I always have a few strays to pull out. I don't mind, they do really well in a very difficult spot. I started a couple of other varieties to add with the yelta this year. I also planted some hyacinth beans in a couple places on the trellis.

I had been putting glads and a couple dahlias in the garden, but last year I made a resolution - all plants that need to be dug up to overwinter go in pots. I plan to make a papercrete planter for the glads, better get going on that! (The neighbors will surely get a kick out of that experiment.)

The squirrels planted a couple of black walnuts among the iris. Out they went!

I winter sowed some salvia, campanula and other perennials to eventually try with the roses. First, I have to finish finding room for a couple of roses. I am trying not to have any roses in pots. The logical way to achieve that would be to not add any more roses. I am very logical about most things, but, well......

I love purple kale in flower beds.

Andi - those low growing in the front are homestead trailing verbenas. They're supposed to be hardy in my zone but none of them came back this year. Probably it's because I mixed some low growing Aster Wood's Blue and Pink for fall display and not realizing those Aster Wood's got underground runners and are very invasive. They were all over the bed early this spring. I pulled all of them out and replaced the front with Carpet Roses.

I have made some changes in the bed since then. Aside from the Carpet Roses, I added 4 more rose bushes and planted oriental lilies in every nook and crannies where I used to fill with annuals. I lessened the Irises since they're right in the front and get rather tall and will be adding newer varieties of echinaceas and coreopsis that will be arriving mid-May from a group buy.
Believe it or not, there's 4 clumps of Peony bushes in that bed too. Right now plentifull of buds that will be opening soon. Right now all the roses got plenty of buds and will probably open the same time as the peonies. If you think that's crowded enough, I also have Asiatic lilies on the same bed already budding and probably will be on full display around June followed by the Orientals around July and August. Those Asiatics multiply so fast I have to pull or dig some of them out.

I have another bed adjacent to the one above where I made a complete makeover. Backrow are Dahlias and Hibiscus, Middle and front are rose bushes, some peonies, more than 100 bulbs of Oriental lilies planted and more echinaceas. Hoping for a color explosion this summer. I forgot, I also ordered from Mama Jack's co-op -new Garden Phlox (shorter varieties) they will go in that bed too. Both beds are joined in the corner with 2 Hydrangea bushes.

I just started with Clematis last year. Don't know why I didn't took interest with them before. I now got 12 of them planted along fences and trellises by themselves or with my climbing roses.

I am trying some groundcover roses also. I have baby blanket, magic blanket, roseberry blanket. I am looking for electric blanket to keep them company. I really like the baby blanket, it has cute pale pink blooms. In another bed, I have fire Meilland. It is very vigorous, low to the ground and was blackspot free with only natural sprays last year. That bed (red-white-yellow) has to stay natural spray because I have strawberries growing in front. I have some minis nearby. I want to have a few things in the empty patches.

I will have to look for some trailing verbena. Is it as fragrant as the regular verbena?

Only problem with Verbena is that it's not zone hard to zone 5.. I think 6 is it's limit, mine didn't come back 2 years in a row. But Yarrow is nice, comes in a multitude of colors and you can keep it small and you can't kill Yarrow.

I plant Verbena most years. It never comes back, always have to buy new.