Don't grow it currently but have grown it (and a zillion other types of hardy geraniums) before and this is one of my favorites. Low growing, makes an excellent groundcover and has a relatively long bloom cycle. It is specifically recommended for underplanting roses :-) Gets some decent fall color as well.

I would not consider it aggressive. Mine never self seeded very significantly and the clumps do have a maximum spread.....about 3 ' or so

since she grows it.. what gal said ...

the only qualification i might think of.. is what kind of rose ... if you were growing hybrid Ts for flower production ... i might not be digging around in the root zone ... my goal would be to perfect the rose ...

on the other hand.. if we are just talking about the more common landscape roses ... meh.. who cares ... they probably wont care about the competition .... if there ever was any ... the goal being.. to fill in the bed ...

your goals often dictate what you eventually do ... dont you think ...

ken

ps: looks like a largish clumping plant ... if your plants arent resistant to various rose diseases ... the reduction of air movement.. might complicate your rose care ....

It's a Burgundy Ice floribunda. It's still fairly small as I bought it online in the fall of 2016 but it is bulking up nicely.

No rose diseases so far. My main interest is helping keep weeds down while adding interest to the bed.

The geranium doesn't grow tall enough to interfere with air circulation for the rose. And low, spreading hardy geraniums are frequently recommended to underplant roses as they share the same growing conditions and compliment each other nicely. Nepeta, catmint, especially the smaller more compact varieties are also recommended for this purpose.

Yeah! Off to order some geranium online.