Kim is so right. I must have bought alyssum at one time but it's been so long I don't recall. It never goes away, and this spring, after abundant winter rains, it was everywhere. It eventually deteriorated and I pulled it out, although remnants remain where it's shadier and it still looks good. I have mulch everywhere and also grow companion plants around and between the roses.

Fragaria vesca (wild strawberry) and Phyla nodiflora ("turkey tangle fogfruit" -- weirdest common name ever!!!!, interesting pink flowers now) will plant themselves via runners under roses if planted between them, so no digging required, and are fairly easily pulled away during winter when and if you want to mulch. They are both native to California and Texas. I have both in a couple of places -- under Lyda Rose, Grandmother's Hat, Jacques Cartier, etc.. Mulch alone is, of course, less work overall, and more of a weed suppressant.

O, I must get things to the point that I can try alyssum!! but I still have too many weeds. The thing with a huge garden like mine is that you need SO much mulch...

...growing roses without ground covers would be a foreign concept to me... but different climates have their own challenges and practicalities... and of course with a small garden it's easy to do...

I grow the frog fruit, or better said, it grows itself. It has a shallow root system and sends runners . It can grow ANYWHERE, from solid caliche hardpan to highly amended fussed over dirt.. From cactus bed to rose bed, from solid sun to solid shade. . Another one is Tahitian Bridal Veil , AKA Gibasis geniculata likes partial sun areas. It will grow from a stick left on the ground. One will need to control it .It does spread but I loved the baby breath like flowers on it. It is a passalong plant in the older neighborhoods of Austin. I collected mine from a dirt ally way in west central Austin. Trandescantia sillamontana might also be a shallow rooted easy to grow by root layering around a rose plant. I must be truthful, I do not grow roses anymore because of where I live and how much water I have for gardening. I am just talling from past experience. I also used purple Wandering Jew. I never knew one was not supposed to do ground cover with roses. They all did fine.

Well I certainly don't grow it on purpose in my rose garden, but I have TONS of tropical milkweed...... it seems to like growing in the roses better than in the butterfly garden.... but it makes it hard to spray the roses, because I don't want to spray the milkweed because of the butterflies.... I either pull them up and put them in the butterfly garden or cover them when I spray which is way too much work.... but they DO seem to attract whiteflies and aphids.... I wash the aphids off, but water just makes the whiteflies reproduce even more....

I also have snapdragons and petunias.... but they are in pots in the rose bed... but I think they have actually rooted into the ground.

I use to use Alyssum, but it finally died out. I might do an edging of it this fall.... I really don't want to plant anything in the actual bed, because I still get weeds EVEN with mulch... Mostly grass weeds... sedges, torpedo, turf grasses (that grows through runners) can't get rid of the grasses.... I try pulling it but can't seem to get it all and then it just comes up from the runners and roots...

However, I LOVE the beautiful pictures that people post that has the peonies, irises, delphium growing in their roses... however, those don't seem to grow here in Florida... very sad... because those are my kind of gardens.... so keep the pictures coming so I can live vicariously :)

I'm trying something new this year for weeds in my front flowerbed. After hand pulling as many weeds as I could from my front bed when the ground was soaked, so roots would come up easier, I spread out layers of newspaper (3-4 page layers) between all the plants on one side of the bed (to test the approach). We then covered with 2"-3" brown cedar mulch and wet it all down with a hose. So far so good.

I read somewhere this approach is used by farmers along their garden furrows and thought "What have I got to lose? Nothing else is working." I swear weeds can even find their way through double thick black plastic sheeting! Newspsper blocks warmth and some light. Then as it breaks down it actually boosts nutrients in the soil for future plantings. I have no idea how long that process takes, but perhaps it will last the rest of the summer/fall season?

It has been a couple weeks now and that corner of the bed is looking totally weed free! It survived our heavy winds and rain last week, too. I was afraid the wind would whip it all up and make a mess I'd have to clean up. Fingers crossed. I bought more mulch to do the less-weedy side of the bed in a few weeks if this appears to work well. I mean, all I do with old papers is recycle them through the city. Might as well put them to some use if it works.

You still get the paper?

My mother did that for years and it does work!

my problem is "something" is going to grow, and I can't afford enough mulch to cover a half acre garden. yes, there is my small house, a 14'x21' green house 25'x30' veg.garden and a small chicken yard and a few out buildings, but it's still a good size garden. and no matter where you are in my area, you will fight Bermuda grass and this year crab grass is everywhere. My arthritic knees and hands are constantly yelling at me. The newspaper works wonderfully well for St. Augustine, but nothing beats Bermuda.

Cardboard boxes , dismantled and laid flat, works well for me (even for Bermuda grass). No it may not look nice, but when my roses are blooming, I don’t notice anything around them that might look ugly.

BenT, I wish the cardboard boxes worked against my St. Augustine grass..... Unfortunately, the runners of the grass just runs underneath cardboard and eventually as the cardboard starts to decay the grass is there..... I keep adding cardboard, but it seems kind of futile..... don't know how it is going to work against the torpedo grass.... I am trying that now.... It sure isn't like the grasses I grew up with in Missouri that if you left something on the grass for a day it started to die out... here after four or five months you can lift the cardboard up and even if you have pulled out all of the St. Augustine BEFORE laying the cardboard, there is now a big patch of it under the cardboard... it is white because it didn't make chlorophyll - but it is there just the same....