Mexican Heather is an annual in colder areas, but reliably comes back in my zone 8a garden and is a great companion for all the other plants, here.

Yes, I grow it too. Very low maintenance, and easy to root when you want more.

I love Mexican heather.. but it's too expensive for an annual for me here.

I'm hoping that my Veronica Aztec gold actually takes off.. I love that plant.... it's still really small right now, but I'm hoping it'll pull through.
http://www.bluestoneperennials...

That one is really nice. Hope it flourishes for you, Toni.

Very striking! It says zones 4 - 8. Would it fry in zone 9?

PPal - Possibly. I know that mine did NOT like being transplanted & struggled pretty badly. Plus it's a waterhog compared to any of the other veronicas I have. I have mine in partial sun (dappled / partial as I have them in the shade of 2 different lilacs.. a Dappled Dawn lilac that needs partial-sun and an Old-Fashioned lilac that's a MONSTER of a plant.. over 12' tall and about 10' around). They did NOT like the brutal sun a few weeks ago & had to water them pretty heavily to get them to come back.

I tried strawberries below my roses, and it worked well the first year, but then became rather weedy after that. I think in my neck of the woods, strawberries do best planted fresh each year - and the feed store offers them in inexpensive bareroot clusters. I think my husband may have offered to take over the roses, which would be A-OK with me, and I'll offer him some of your expert suggestions.

I keep telling my sister that the roses are easy compared to the weeds.

Smiles,
Lyn

I'm wishing I had ordered more of the low-growing variety of lambs' ear (Silver Carpet?)
It can handle the heat plus foot traffic. I accidentally planted the golden veronica that Toni has in my hosta bed and it is happy there. Right now, the groundcover I have everywhere is NUT SEDGE! Oh how I hate that weed. I'm going to have to spray it. I use Sedgehammer in the spring, and now it's time to switch to a different one. Pulling that weed is useless, and it is even overtaking the Homestead Verbena.

I also have Trailing Lavender Lantana planted at the base of my Julia Child and Pope John Paul II roses. It covers a lot of ground, is easy to break off if too encroaching, looks pretty, and smells good, too. Here it is with a deeply clipped PJPII. I marked the trailers so you can see how it weaves in and out of the rose shrub, Mexican Heather, May Night Salvia, Asclepias Tuberosa, Parrot Glads, and even a little bit in the Amethyst in Snow Centaurea to the far upper left.

My lavender died when I didn't wade out through the snow to shake the snow off of the plant last year. It's a plant that cannot go without light for more than a day ... at least up here.

I'll plant lavender again, but it will be under one of the roses by the path to the woodshed. I have to shovel that path anyway, so it will be easy to shake the snow off of the plant.

Smiles,
Lyn

I have lavenders, too, but they are by themselves. These are Lantana, Trailing Lavender variety. They work better as a ground cover than regular upright shrubby kinds of Lantana.

I have vinca minor as a groundcover in some parts of my yard.. mostly along the sidewalk & the driveway. I bought the "Blue & Gold" variety, but it's mostly converted back to the original with a vine here or there that's yellow.



Only problem is that once it takes hold, it takes HOLD. Doesn't let go for ANYTHING. But it's evergreen, blooms almost year round (even in the snow!), and isn't fussy about water / sun / soil.

I'm thinking about using yarrow also as groundcovers.. another good evergreen that grows well for me.

I've got the varigated vinca, too. The previous owner planted it down on the street level and it has climbed up a beautiful stone wall that I can't even get to because of the vinca and is now trying to take over my shade garden ... such as it is.

SK ... I was thinking about planting yarrow and lavenders down in one of the street beds. They seem to have the same water needs and both can handle some neglect. I spend most of my time up on the house pad level with the roses and the street beds are more of an after thought. Of course, they are in front of the house I should care about them more, but that's deer territory, so most of the interesting plants are in back.

I planted santolina at the base of Linda Campbell in one of the street beds, but it does have die back if you don't clear the snow off of the plant. Otherwise, it's a great weed. Since I enlarged the deer fencing for LC, the rose is already twice as tall and wide as this photo taken 6/25 ... no blooms because of disbudding for the curculios

This is a photo of the other street bed where I am thinking of putting the yarrow and lavender.





Kardinal 85 has held up to high 90s and 100+ temps we've had in the last three weeks ... better than Firefigher, but FF is a new plant and needs time before I'll know if it is a rose that I will just like in spring and fall.

I'll try and take some photos tonight. I can't take photos in the morning because the light is just too intense even when I adjust my camera ... and I often don't get good photos of reds.


I haven't figured out what to plant in the tier above the bed. It has to be deer resistant.

Smiles,
Lyn

Lyn - I've found in my experience that, if the deer are hungry enough, NOTHING is deer resistant. Irises are supposed to be deer resistant & my mom loses them every year. I've seen them decimate arborvites & junipers in the winter. Just snagged this.. I love Bluestone.. http://www.bluestoneperennials...

You are so right. So far, they've left the santolinas and the lamb's ear alone.

Mrs. J used to go out and cover her plants every night. Not me.

I don't mind if they take a nibble here and there, but I think I now have all of the vulnerable plants well-caged. The photo above shows the LC bed, and I finally widened the top tier bed to 3' feet and caged the whole bed.






Please ignore the weeds. Getting the fencing up was the higher priority. Of course, the fencing only works when I remember to close the gates I've made on the lawn side of the tier. The other night I goofed and left one open and the roses were deer-pruned. The got all of those crispy blooms I had been planning to deadhead, so it was no great loss. No, they didn't prune where I would have made the cut, but the roses are fine.

For now, I am still working on the rose beds in back. I only water and feed plants out in front. I haven't even taken the time to attack the weeds this year. When I have the back under control, I'll spend more time out in front. There just isn't enough of me to go around to do it all on a timely fashion.

I like Bluestone, too. But I don't have the talent or experience to figure out what goes with what, just yet. Thank God I have plenty of time to think about it before I get to that project.

Smiles,
Lyn

It looks as if it will be tricky to squeeze in between the fences for weeding - or is there more room than it seems?

Actually, the bed is three feet wide. It used to be eight inches ... for real. This is my second attempt at fencing Mrs. J's roses. After I widened the bed, I had put deer fencing around each rose. That was a horrible idea because when I opened the cages, they would try to close back up with me and the rose inside the cage ... not good. Also, the lawn used to slope down to the top of the block wall.

This what I started with ... I have not added any roses to the bed except for 'Mint Julip' where Mrs. J had lost one of the roses she had planted.



Before I widened the bed



I've got breaks in the fencing on the lawn side of the bed in front of each rose. (See the photo above) The fencing is short enough so that I can open the "gate" all the way over the lawn and can step down into the bed to work, so I have plenty of room to move around.

The mass of roots for a rose will shrink if the top growth shrinks. These roses were unprotected from the deer for years and were just limping along. I had to re-work all of the soil and get some compost both in the soil and on top to keep water from immediately draining out of the weep holes of the block walls. Since the roots had shrunk, I had plenty of room to work without damaging the remaining roots. Of course, now they have expanded as has the top growth.

It will always be difficult to work on the street side of the plants, but that can't be helped.

I can't make the bed wider, so even tho' the roses are headed towards being much larger, anything that sticks out of the fencing will be deer candy.

I would have never planted the roses there, but they have probably been there since the 1970s or 1980s. Of course, Mrs. J went out and covered them every night ... well, until she got too old to care for them. She was in her 90s when I bought the house.

As long as I can keep the roses healthy, I am not going to fret about not being able to have a wider bed. I did get rid of a hunk of lawn (It's really weeds pretending to be lawn.)

I got rid of another hunk of lawn when I planted the star magnolia. Then when I do the foundation planting, more will disappear. I've got enough projects to keep me going for a while. Of course, I am open to all suggestions.

Smiles,
Lyn