One of the well known companion plants for roses is garlic.

FataMorgana

GENERALLY, BASILS, THYME, MARJORAM,..MINTS ARE INSECT REPELLANTS. BUT THIS DOES NOT NECESSAARILY MEAN THAT THEY CAN PROTECT NEIGHBORING PLANTS. BUT PLANTINGN IT NEXT TO YOUR ROSES IS NOT GOING TO COST ANYTHING. PER fatamorgana, I WOULD ALSO ADD SOME GARLICS TOO. MARIGOLD IS ANOTHER. PLANT SOME OF THOSE TOO. SMALLER ONES.

Caps LOCK.. This, in the old days was considered SHOUTING

In our garden, nasturtiums have a way of attracting aphids. The insects are quite harmless, just a bit unslightly. Strangely, the aphids on the roses are most often white and the ones on the nasturtiums are black. Don't know why.

I remember reading somewhere black aphids could be a real problem; don't remember why.

Thanks everyone. Think I'll give it a shot and see what happens. Got quite a few basil seedlings so if a few get chomped, it isn't the end of the world.

Never seen aphids om my bsil. Only on roses.

Just try spraying your aphids with soapy water

Careful using soaps. Castile is about the safest and is part of the neem seed oil mixtures you see.

Attracts. Basil is usually the first plant to get infected during an aphid invasion in my garden. Other herbs that are also affected include celery, parsley, and coriander.

In fact whenever I harvest these herbs, the smell of the cut attracts aphids, and I will find them soon on the plant within one or two days.

aphids are NOT harmless! they damage and can kill your plants.

Here, I usualy see aphids eating the leaves of my roses. They aslo tend to stay at the base of flower buds. I released lady beetles a few years ago, and they do a good job at keeping aphids down. I confirmed this yesterday a I saw several lady beetles on the rose bushes. The beetles dont usually eat aphids, but their larve do.

Actually in the old days, caps lock was all you had, there was no lowercase :)

Whoever here said that aphids don't eat mint or basil, could be correct, but SOMETHING eats and loves!! My mint looks terrible! Every leaf is bitten. Same with basil. whatever it is, loves mint and basil! It's hard to find a leaf that something didn't get to before I did!!

Aphids certainly go for my basil. But they don't actually eat it. Desertdance, if there are holes in the leaves of your plants it's not aphids doing it. They are sap suckers. They cannot bite. They will cause distortion but not holes.

Do not usually have aphids, so I am lucky; but then i have no roses. And yes, aphids are notorious, damaging pests of plants in the garden and in the greenhouse.

someone told me to plant basil as insects don't like it.
that's not entirely true of all insects...

We do have Japanese beetles which are very damaging. They like some kinds of basil, some ageratums,hollyhocks, zinnia. They do not seem to bother statice, geraniums, marigods, or impatiens.

So far I have used Sevin to get rid of them...anything else besides capturing them and putting them in soapy water? Was hesitant to use soap sprays.

Ants farm aphids, I guess aphids excrete a sweet enzyme. You might try inviting an ant hill to farm near your roses.

With all due respect to scarletdaisies . . .

Introducing ants will not diminish the aphid population. Ants do "farm" aphids for their secretions. But ants don't kill aphids--they just take advantage of them. If they killed them, there would be no more aphid secretion to harvest. I usually find the aphids by noticing the number of ants on a plant.

I've never had aphids on basil, but from the other responses, sounds like its possible.

desertdance,
Could it be grasshoppers? There are lots of grasshoppers, from teeny tiny to bigger ones, on my mint. The leaves are chomped on, but not to the point of unsightly. I figured they're not doing any harm. Or are they harmful?

We have a ton of spiders, I think because of the ants. I have a phobia (or just a strong dislike maybe) of both. Read about a mixture of equal parts molasses, sugar, and yeast. Mix and put on a cardboard piece near the ant trail. It seems to have helped.

I'm Hopeful! :-)
Shirley

Aphids can spread diseases to plants (including fruit trees and roses).

Also, aphids can weaken your plants. It's not that noticeable when you only have a few aphids, but they do weaken plants.

I plant Cilantro/Coriander as a companion plant to my roses, along with other suggestions in previous posts.

Stacy