The planting of roses along with other types of flowers might be a better choice for a garden than just planting roses alone. Having only one species of plant in a garden is often frowned upon as a "monoculture," and for good reason. A single species that gets hit with a pest infestation or some kind of disease could be entirely wiped out, leaving nothing in the garden at all. Floribunda roses might be hardier than, say, hybrid tea roses, but it's still not a good idea to plant the garden with just one type of flower. You're safer to put other flowering plants in as well.

When you think of planting roses along with other flowers, though, you have to take new factors into consideration. One of those will be height. For example, floribunda roses generally don't grow much higher than two or three feet. You likely wouldn't want to choose petunias as their companions, unless you pick a variety that grows along the ground, because you're likely to get nothing but a big mash-up of flowers. You might prefer to put something like alyssum below the floribundas instead.

You could plan different arrangements for the shrubbery too. For starters, by planting roses more closely together and clipping the foliage in specific ways, you can produce a rose hedge. If you line your walkways with hedges like these, even going out for a walk would feel (and smell!) like a small stroll through a bower. Placing roses to climb a fence in back of some lower annuals in beds around the circumference of the property could also provide additional beauty to your garden layout.

When setting annuals between and among your roses, you might create a rose garden design that's different from what you've been prone to do in the past. You could place more shade tolerant roses along walls where you've never had them before, and show off the colors of your roses by creating a contrasting background color with your annuals.

Planting roses and other types of flowers together can be a great experiment in creativity, and will not only help to protect your garden from disease, but it can revive your own enthusiasm as well.

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Rose gardening can definitely be challenging to those that are not blessed with a green thumb.