Companion Plants for Roses at Berkeley Botanical Gardens

We went to Berkeley Botanical Gardens this weekend. It is a long drive for us, which is why we don't go as often as I would like.

A spectacular grouping of salvia confertiflora. I was so impressed I bought a plant on my previous visit, but it  is not frost-hardy in my Sunset Zone 15 garden, so I lost it to winter.

On the other hand, the gardens have not become too familiar and there is always a surprise discovery or two.

I am pretty sure these masses of zinnia peruviana all throughout the cacti collection are new. Otherwise I am sure I would have noticed them before :)

 I never seem to leave their propagation shop empty-handed either.

This time, Marshall's Memory oregano went home with me. To the best of my knowledge, I now have all varieties of ornamental oreganos in my garden.

 My plan was to start at the rose garden and work my way back.

Marchesa Boccella

 It was a good plan but it didn't amount to anything because I never left the roses.



They were almost all in bloom and so were hundreds and hundreds of companion plants.

I knew then what this blog post would be about :).




 I spent hours going around the garden carefully looking at the plantings and trying to take as many pictures as I could.

Mme. Berkeley

Kathleen

Many tags were either too far away to read or missing altogether, and there is practically no information on this particular collection provided by the Botanical Gardens.

Cornelia with Cupid's Dart and coreopsis

 With all these caveats, here is the best I came up with.

Graham Thomas and hollyhock

 This year the garden seemed to feature more perennials, and some spectacular annual flowers I was looking forward to seeing were missing (cleomes were most conspicuously absent).

But there was still a profusion of cosmos flowers

 Vertical accents were left almost entirely to hollihocks and foxgloves...

Graham Thomas

...with a few taller verbenas scattered here and there.

La Marne with purple verbena bonariensis and hollyhocks.

 I grow all of these companion plants in my garden, and they seem to do well in the same cultural conditions that are necessary for roses.

More Graham Thomas

Most impressive (and at peak bloom) were the low-gowing perennials and herbs.

From left, a heliotrope, an ornamental oregano (most likely Marshall's Memory or Hopley's Purple), English lavender (lavandula angustifolia) and brown-eyed susan (rudbeckia triloba).

They look wonderful with roses, but of the ones I grow, lavender and ornamental oregano especially cannot tolerate the amount of water that many roses require to bloom.

In this garden, roses are on drip irrigation, and hoses are laid to keep water away from less thirsty plants.

Tea roses with a border of lavender

A planting of the blue heliotrope (heliotropium amplexicaule) and several petunias vining enthusiastically through the heliotrope and into the roses was so exuberant it stopped me in my tracks.

I don't grow either of them: petunias look ragged with overhead irrigation and require vigilant applications of snail bait. The particular species of heliotrope planted in this garden seemed to spread everywhere making me wonder if it was perhaps invasive. I do not remember seeing it in nurseries.

Lots of heliotrope (with coreopsis 'Moonbeam')

Most of my garden has sprinkler irrigation, so not all these companion plants would work for me.

Large clumps of Cupid's Dart (catanache caerulea 'Amor Blue'). Mine grows well in the drier parts of the garden.

 However, I came away determined to plant more coreopsis. Despite its bright colors, drifts of these small cheerful flowers create a soothing, painting-like effect of broad bold brushstokes.

And panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay to crown it all. Who could wish for more?