Companion Plants To Roses

Q: My group of Master Gardeners would like to rejuvenate the rose garden at
a county park. We will remove several diseased ones but would like to plant
those areas with companion plants to roses. Any suggestions? 

A: You’ll get much better advice from the Greater Atlanta Rose Society,
atlantarose.org. Their rosarians offer free advice to the public and they have
great experience choosing rose companions. If you have lots of roses, you
must be ever-vigilant about spotting rose rosette virus. Removal of the sick
rose is the ONLY cure. I see so many rosette-infected roses in my drives
around metro Atlanta that I despair of it ever being controlled. For that reason,
I fear that roses may soon become only short-lived perennials in our gardens. I
have pictures and research at http://bit.ly/GArosette.