Plant clematis with your taller shrub roses– it makes a wonderfully interesting feature for any garden. The clematis will climb and intertwine with the rose and beautiful blooms will peak out here and there among the roses. When you combine the two plants it creates a very natural look, as if the two plants might grow together like this in the wild.
This is a very easy project for anyone who grows clematis or roses. If you have a hardy, established shrub rose, just plant a new clematis at the bottom of it. While the clematis is still young you may want to train it at first, tying it to the rose in a few places, but as it grows it will start to climb the rose on its own.
Clematis will climb most shrubs and trees, but they just look really nice on roses. On a larger shrub or a small tree, you could try this same technique with mandevillas, which are a little heavier than clematic and wouldn’t work very well on delicate rose shrubs. If you want to go even larger, a wisteria will also climb, but only try this with a fairly large tree. The wisteria would overtake and eventually kill a smaller plant.
Thomas
Park Seed Company