Rose-Companion Pollinator Bed

A 10 x 6 ft full-sun bed built on a secret most rose gardens miss: bees can't use most roses. Doubled petals bury the pollen. Plant a single-flowered rose instead and it becomes a pollinator plant - then surround it with the classic companions that feed everything else from May to frost. Romance and ecology in the same bed, no compromise required.

The plants

• 3×

  Rose 'Ballerina' Rosa 'Ballerina'

  Single, open-faced pink sprays with the pollen right there on the table - watch it on a June morning and count the bees. Repeat-blooms to frost, shrugs off blackspot, and looks like a cottage garden even standing alone. The rugosa 'Hansa' is the swap if you want heavy fragrance with your single flowers.

  3.5 ft
• 5×

  Purple coneflower Echinacea purpurea

  The native workhorse that bridges rose flushes - when 'Ballerina' pauses in the July heat, the coneflowers keep the buffet open. Leave the seedheads; goldfinches work them all winter.

  3 ft
• 3×

  Meadow Sage 'May Night' Salvia x sylvestris 'May Night'

  Deep violet spikes timed to the rose's first flush - the pairing every English garden book promises, and it actually works here. Shear after bloom for a September encore.

  2 ft
• 5×

  Allium 'Millenium' Allium 'Millenium'

  Purple globes in July that stay mobbed for weeks - reliably the busiest plant in the bed. Bonus: the oniony foliage is the closest thing to a deer and rabbit force field you can plant next to roses.

  15 in
• 5×

  Catmint 'Walker's Low' Nepeta racemosa 'Walker's Low'

  The classic rose skirt - hides the rose's bare ankles, blooms lavender-blue for months, and hums with small bees all day. Sterile cultivar, so it stays where you put it.

  18 in
• 3×

  Anise hyssop Agastache foeniculum

  Vertical violet exclamation points between the coneflowers, working from June to September. Licorice-scented leaves are the quiet bonus every time you weed.

  3 ft