Mix Roses with These Summer Blooms for a Stunning Patio

Key Takeaways:

• Create gorgeous color echoes by pairing roses with complementary bloomers
• Zinnias, sunflowers and dahlias add vibrant, show-stopping pops
• Fragrant flowers like lavender and stock elevate the sensory experience
• Tall varieties like foxglove and delphiniums add striking height and drama
• Fillers like petunias and Million Bells bulk up planters for lush fullness
• Bold tropicals like cannas and Birds of Paradise hint of island luxury
  

How to incorporate other summer flowers with roses on a patio

This is one of my most frequently asked questions from clients looking to take their outdoor spaces to the next level. And you know what? I’m always thrilled at the opportunity to brag about some of my personal favorite pretty petal pairings!

Because let’s face it – as glorious as rose bushes are on their own, incorporating complementary summer bloomers is the real secret to achieving a lush, romantic, utterly showstopping patio paradise. Done right, it’s about intentionally choreographing the most vibrant color harmonies, sculptural shapes, fragrant wafts and eye-catching textures into one blockbuster floral performance.

From vibrant annual stunners that deliver season-long pops of pizzazz to elegant perennials with architectural presence and cult-classic floral fragrance, I’ve tried just about every combination under the sun. And over the years, I’ve honed in on some real tried-and-true favorites that never fail to dazzle and delight.

So if you’re ready to experience a master-class in rose garden design, pour yourself an ice-cold lemonade and get ready to take some notes!

How to create a balanced color palette with roses and companion flowers

The absolute cardinal rule when it comes to combining roses harmoniously with other flowers is intentionally crafting a balanced color palette. This ensures your blooms won’t fight for attention or create a jarring clashing effect. Rather, you’ll be composing the perfect floral symphony with each variety enhancing and playing off one another’s tones in the most delicious way.

My personal favorite approach? Use soft, peachy roses or antique pastel varieties as my base. Then, have some real fun color-echoing and accenting with flowering Annuals and perennials that pick up on those rosy shades while offering contrasting pops. It lends such an utterly lush, dynamic effect.

For example, I might start with a base of peach-blush ‘Disneyland’ roses to set the tone. Then echo those warm tones with fiery orange celosias while introducing cooling lavender accents. Coral zinnias and purple veronica spikes add further complements while chartreuse Lady’s Mantle unites everything through its neutral brilliance. Simply smashing!

Of course you can go the opposite route too, choosing richly saturated red or magenta rose varieties as your centerpiece anchors and softening the scheme with accents of white, pale pink and chamomile yellow. Just know that you’ll need more discipline in keeping your variety count in check to avoid an overly chaotic, hot mess scenario. Let me know if you need some professional coaching!

What are the best flowers to combine with roses for a vibrant summer patio?

• Zinnias (rainbow array of high-voltage shades, blooming all summer)
  
• Sunflowers (iconic summer bloomers for adding sunny, nostalgic whimsy)
  
• Cosmos (delicately beautiful and prolific bloomers in jewel tones)
  
• Dahlias (gloriously statement flowers with intense, saturated hues)
  
• Cannas (bold, shamelessly tropical foliage and flowers that amp the drama)
  

When you’re craving loads of summer sizzle and flower power, these types of high-impact, vibrantly-hued bloomers are my go-to rose sidekicks. I mean, just look at those fiery zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos and dahlias above! Talk about injecting some serious exuberance, playfulness and head-turning verve.

Zinnias in particular are one of my desert island picks for guaranteed summer-long color. You just can’t beat the eye-popping array of citrus, raspberry, purple and melon shades they deliver. And they’re true blooming machines! I love to dot mega planters and raised beds with these guys for a wild, just-picked garden aesthetic alongside ombred roses.

For a more formal, lush tropical flair, look no further than the dramatic leaves and shamelessly vivid floral displays of luxe Canna lilies. They effortlessly summon island glamour when combined with long-stemmed hybrid roses and bold Bougainvillea. Pretty much paradise brought to life!

Ready for a total game-changer? Give this post a quick share with your flower-loving friends. I guarantee they’ll be drooling over these stunner combinations!

How to style roses with fragrant summer flowers for a sensory patio experience

There’s just something so utterly swoon-worthy about wandering out onto a sun-drenched patio and being enveloped by wafting clouds of floral perfume. It transforms your everyday outdoor living room into a full-on aromatherapy retreat! Creating this type of intoxicating multi-sensory patio experience is all about combining your rose bushes with some unbeatably fragrant warm-weather blooms.

For me, lavender has to be the ultimate queen when it comes to floral aromatherapy. Lining paver pathways with billowing lavender bushes and loosely weaving their purple spikes throughout rose beds is guaranteed to turn your patio into a Provençal paradise. Fennel, stock, and nicotiana are equally potent options for amping the mesmerizing scent trail.

Of course, certain rose varieties like the iconic ‘Mr. Lincoln’ and old-fashioned cabbage types are fragrance superstars in their own right. So I love to double down on the olfactory delight by fashioning entire borders and large patio containers devoted solely to these intoxicating, perfumed treasures. Just be sure to position them near your main sitting and dining areas for maximum impact!

When styled thoughtfully and with purpose, heady roses intertwined with aromatics create such rich, multi-layered scent stories. You’ll swear Chanel’s top perfumers formulated the bespoke ‘fragrance’ themselves. What’s not to love?

Which flowers add height and drama to rose arrangements?

• Foxgloves (eye-catching towering spikes of bell-shaped blooms for vertical pop)
  
• Delphiniums (stately, upright flower spikes in bold indigo and purple hues)
  
• Hollyhocks (towering columns of velvety flowers for an old-world cottage feel)
  
• Mullein (tall fuzzy spikes that add whimsical textural contrast)
  
• Ornamental grasses (feathery and graceful plumes that sway in the breeze)
  

As much as I adore the romance and goblet-shaped charm of rose flowers, I’m equally smitten with adding height, movement and architectural structure to garden designs. Luckily, these statuesque bloomers and ornamental grasses do all that and more when incorporated with roses!

I’m talking flowers that can stretch up to 5-6 feet tall, sending dramatic spires and feathery plumes swaying above your standard rose hedges and shrubs. Not only do they upgrade the entire composition to a grander scale befitting the most lavish English estate, many of them also provide built-in armatures to let cascading rose canes billow over. Major fairytale vibe achieved!

Naturally, classic delphiniums and hollyhocks fit this look to a tee with their towering presence and ultra-romantic cottage flair. But don’t overlook dramatic players like mullein with its dense, fuzzy catkins or regal foxglove spires packed with tubular bells. Even statuesque grasses like pampas and hardy fountain grass deliver equal meadow-inspired impact while gently rustling in summer breezes.

However, if you choose to weave them in, these statement “thrillers” are the perfect accent pieces for transforming basic rose beds into lush, organic, insanely swoon-worthy floral masterpieces. Prepare for full-on patio envy from your neighbors!

What flowers work best to add volume and fullness to rose planters?

• Petunias (prolific warm-weather bloomers in vibrant shades, perfect for spilling over edges)
  
• Bacopa (cascading draping stems covered in dainty flowers, great filler)
  
• Million Bells (smothered in tiny blooms on lush, trailing stems)
  
• Creeping Phlox (low, spreading mats drenched in starry flowers, great ground cover)
  
• Verbena (long-blooming clusters that keep the color coming in hot shades)
  

Let’s be real, as much as we all adore rose blossoms, those upright shrubs and bushes can’t do all the heavy lifting when it comes to crafting lavish, overstuffed patio containers and window boxes. That’s where these teeming, scrambling, generously self-sowing bloomers come in! Their ability to tumble, drape, and effortlessly weave between your star attractions is what achieves that gloriously full, bursting-at-the seams floral maximalist moment.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of using powerhouse bloomers like petunias, bacopa and verbena to bulk up my rose centerpieces. Their constant stream of fresh buds and trailing habit create such lush, full “fairytale beards” that cascade down the sides. Absolutely magical!

For carpeting the surface and blanketing any bare ground showing through, you simply can’t beat creeping phlox and chambray Million Bells. These guys quickly spread into dense, woven tapestries of tiny flowers amid your rose canes for a fully finished, sumptuous look.

The result is a lavish, almost overflowing floral display that looks like a million bucks! And you don’t even have to be an expert pruner or rosarian to pull it off. These workhorses take all the labor out for you.

Which bright-colored flowers pair well with roses for a tropical patio feel?

When crafting a gorgeous rose-filled patio space that channels full-on tropical paradise vibes, my number one rule is embracing gloriously rich, heated shades like tangerine, hot pink and punchy fuchsia. You know, those sunset-drenched, mouth-watering floral hues that look as if they belong draped over a Moroccan riad or Havana cabana!

Roses in fiery crimsons and sultry corals immediately set the tone of sweltering, joyful luxury. But to really kick up the languid, island romance a few notches, you need to punctuate them with additional accent bloomers in those same blazing tones. May I suggest hibiscus, canna lilies and bougainvillea as lip-smackingly irresistible options?

I mean, seriously – is there anything more quintessentially tropical than a cascade of those giant, crimson hibiscus blooms spilling down an outdoor staircase? Or a surreal hot pink bougainvillea arbor draped in goblet-shaped rose blossoms? Every jaw will drop within a 5-mile radius! And those Canna lily’s sensuous, polished orange and scarlet spikes add even more drama and rhythmic repetition.

For those that prefer a slightly cooler spin, try accenting magenta and cherry-hued roses with vivid shades of purple like annual vinca, Clematis or beautyberry. So many possibilities for show-stopping, head-turning looks! Your patio will be absolutely destination-worthy.

How to style roses with sunflowers for a striking patio look

Few flowers spark as much nostalgia and sunshine-filled glee as big, bold sunflowers with their warm golden centers and bright yellow petals. They just have a way of reminding you of hazy childhood summer days spent lounging outdoors without a care in the world. Is there any better patio companion to intersperse amongst your rose bushes for creating that dreamy, carefree summer ambiance?

I certainly don’t think so! That’s why I make a point to incorporate sunflowers – both the classic tall varieties and more compact patio-friendly types – throughout nearly all of my rose garden designs each year. Not only do their cheerful faces exude pure summertime joy, but their sturdy columnar forms and branching habit make them ideal for adding height and structure to otherwise rounded rose shrubs below.

My favorite way to compose these radiant duos is to first establish a visual anchor with a row or defined bed of surging sunflowers soaking up all the sunshine. Then, I’ll allow billowing drifts of old-fashioned roses and floribundas in complementary golden, peach, coral and russet hues to weave and scramble playfully through the sunburst centers.

For added throwback romance, I might even add in trailing stems of retro bloomers like multi-hued nasturtiums, love-lies-bleeding or fragrant nicotiana. Together, they create this utterly dreamy, pastoral tapestry that hits all the nostalgic notes while still feeling lush, sumptuous and artfully designed.

How to create a rose and herb patio display for a multifunctional space

As a landscape designer who constantly preaches about the importance of creating “rooms” and destination areas within your outdoor living suite, I’m a huge proponent of carving out dedicated garden zones that purposefully marry form with function. And you know what might be my absolute favorite hardworking hybrid space to design? The good old rose and herb patio garden!

You get the incredible fragrance, romance and color Pay-off of show-stopping rose bushes and floral accents. But you also get all the incredible practical, edible and sensory benefits of a lush kitchen garden filled with useful herbs, veggies and aromatics too. Two jaw-dropping uses in one gorgeous, multifaceted space!

The key is to treat those rose centerpieces as you would a bordered parterre garden bed, cutting them into defined geometric or free-flowing shapes using brick, stone or wrought iron edging details. Then, matrix in your medley of savory herbs like lavender, rosemary, thyme and sage around the rose canes while leaving plenty of negative space for trailing vines, groundcover herbs like sweet woodruff and chamomile, and even a small kitchen garden plot.

Incorporating unexpected edible accents like artichokes, blueberry bushes and flowering kiwi vines adds even more delightful decorative flair while blurring the lines between ornamental and utilitarian gardens. So productive yet aesthetically pleasing!

Just be sure to position it all near your main patio dining and lounging areas for maximum impact. That way you can truly revel in every passing breeze perfumed with notes of rose, sage and lavender while savoring a chilled glass of rose sangria loaded with fresh berries and citrus.

Conclusion

As luscious and statement-making as rose bushes can be on their own, thoughtfully incorporating complementary summer bloomers is what truly unlocks a patio garden’s full luxurious, sensory-drenched potential. It allows you to craft the most vibrant color medleys, inject fresh shapes and textures, amplify fragrance and essentially choreograph an ever-changing floral symphony right in your own backyard!

So don’t be afraid to get creative and go bold by intermingling roses with zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers and cannas for a vibrant tropical-inspired look. Introduce soft, romantic accents from lavender, foxgloves and hollyhocks for heightened drama. And always be looking for ways to pack in layers of trailing petunias, verbenas and million bells around those rose centerpieces. The key is embracing a spirit of botanical maximalism.

Most importantly, have fun playing designer and getting your hands dirty! Experiment with different floral recipes and color palettes that personally speak to your unique style and vibe. You might be surprised at just how quickly your simple patio transforms into an absolute lush paradise. I guarantee jaws will drop with envy all over the neighborhood.