9 Companion Plants for Roses That Keep Your Garden Blooming All Season

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Roses are essential in any garden for their bold blooms, brilliant color, and fragrance. They’re especially lovely when part of a mixed border, mingling with other forms, textures, and colors to create a living tapestry.

Companion plants for roses play a role because they hide the legginess of some roses, while their pungent scents may discourage (though not completely eliminate!) nibbling from hungry rabbits and deer. When choosing companions for roses, opt for plants that need similar growing conditions, namely, full sun, which is considered six or more hours of direct sunlight, and well-draining soils.

You’ll also want to select plants with different bloom times so that you have continuous flowers. When the roses fade after their first flush, it’s nice to have perennials to continue the show until the next round of blooms from your roses occurs. Finally, don’t forget to choose plants that will survive winters in your USDA Hardiness Zone (find yours here).

Ahead, our favorite companion plants for roses.

1) Catmint (Nepeta spp.)

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Catmint is as sturdy a perennial as you can choose because it never needs to be babied. With its silvery-green foliage and purple spikes of flowers that last for weeks and weeks, you’ll have a beautiful combination of colors and textures when it’s interplanted with roses. It’s especially pretty paired with red or apricot-colored roses.

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2) Calamint (Calamintha nepeta)

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This lesser-known perennial has tiny, bright, roundish green leaves and petite white flowers that cover the plant in mid to late summer. Its minty scent is refreshing, and its low-growing form, which reaches about 10 inches, provides cover for leggy roses.

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3) Lavender (Lavandula spp.)

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Lavender is a classic English, cottage, or Mediterranean garden companion plant for roses. Plant English lavender for cold climates, USDA Hardiness zones 4b to 9; lavandin, a hybrid that is less fussy and grows in zones 5b to 9; or Spanish lavender, which does well in hot, humid climates, such as zones 8 to 10.

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4) Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla mollis)

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This old-fashioned perennial isn’t planted as often as it should be. With tiny yellow flowers on long stems in spring, it’s a delightfully different plant for your garden. Raindrops sparkle like jewels after a morning dew or rainfall on the roundish, scalloped leaves. It’s especially appealing when planted with white or yellow roses.

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5) Speedwell (Veronica spp.)

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Speedwell, also known as veronica, is a low-growing, mat-forming perennial that gets adorable pink, purple, or white spikes of flowers in midsummer. Pollinators love this plant, too. Once the blooms fade, you’ll have a groundcover that remains green beneath your roses for the rest of the season.

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6) Salvia (Salvia spp.)

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Salvia is a favorite of pollinators and comes in various shades of white, pink, blue, and purple, which makes a lovely accent for any color rose. If you trim it carefully after the first flush, you’ll often get another bloom. Hummingbirds especially love salvia!

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7) Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens)

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Boxwoods are a traditional accompaniment to roses. Their shiny evergreen foliage is handsome year-round. Use them to make a formal low-growing hedge that can be sheared to shape, or leave them in their natural form for a more relaxed look. Choose dwarf varieties if you don’t want them to overwhelm your roses.

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8) Russian Sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia)

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This lovely perennial has soft, silvery foliage and pale purple flowers that make an absolutely stunning backdrop to shrub or floribunda-type roses. The plants bloom for weeks in midsummer. It’s prettiest when used behind pink, red, or apricot-colored roses.

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9) Perennial Geranium (Geranium sanguineum)

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Perennial geranium is a sturdy groundcover that tolerates all soil types. It has pretty pink, purple, or white flowers that float above the foliage in spring to early summer. But the rest of the season, it offers dependable color as an underplanting for roses of any color.

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