22,796 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Neem oil is better than most for an organic solution. It is toxic to bees so spraying towards evening after bees have gone to bed is helpful. I do have bumble bees that spend the night on blooms. Watch spraying in hot weather I did in past burn my foliage even thou I started at dawn. It may have been very humid and wasn't dry by the time the sun hit. I just don't remember. Best of luck to you and your new roses.
No, and we shouldn't. Not only are they not all worth saving, but there is finite space for them. You have to throw out the out-grown wardrobe to make room for the new, even if the out-grown is still useful. You simply pass it along to someone else who wants it and can use it. Kim
Thanks for sharing that link. His roses are amazing. It's a good thing the ground is still frozen it makes me want to dig mine all up and plant marigolds or something. I just got done reading a link someone posted about the alfalfa tea he brewed with the fish head ect. I was laughing so hard I had tears..I wonder if these pics were from before or after.
You'll have too read the other two links on there when you recover from the big stinking mess just as funny. I reread this probably once a year and laugh as much as the first time. This was from before but he grew them for a long time like this. I always wondered thou if after a spring show like this if they were capable of blooming again in the same year.
I have decided to up my fertilizer routine a bit this year. Spraying with Neptunes liquid fish/sea weed maybe every 3 weeks. Perhaps brewing a bit the alfalfa, fish and cotton seed meals are in the shed. I usually apply dry as brewing is a lot of work. I'm still happy with my bloom and have seen pictures of bloom of other organic gardeners whose roses look pretty darn good.http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=21.227584
This happens to my roses like 2x a year. I cannot explain what causes them to form this way, but it seems to affect many different varieties and usually around the same time. Some varieties (elegant fairy tale, sugar moon, mr Lincoln)are more prone to it than others. I live in south Fl so cold or frost damage is certainly not the culprit.
I read once that too much alfalfa can cause this to happen, and I think there is a coorolation because one year I used copious amounts of Rose Tone (which contains Alfalfa) and that was the year that I had it the worst. (I no longer use rose tone and I've seen a significant decline). Not to say that Rose Tone is bad, I believe it to be a good product, but I used it in pots and perhaps it was too concentrated.
Have any if you seen a cooralation between using alfalfa meal and phyllody (or near phyllody) like Hoov says?
Joe, I'm glad that you're watching for spider mites and know to wash them off if they show up -- that's a real hazard of routine insecticide use. The cheap inorganic fertilizer that's included in the 3 in 1 does not improve your soil; I hope you added compost and an organic mulch this spring.
I understand the various Medics thrive in soil that's low in Nitrogen, so your soil report goes a long way towards explaining this chronic infestation. If left to grow and turned into the soil when they come into flower, well before the seeds set, these helpful 'weeds' will add nitrogen to the soil from those nitrogen-fixing nodules Sam mentioned. For more Nitrogen, you could also add ordinary (green) garden compost and/or alfalfa in some form, as I think (?) others have previously suggested (unless I'm getting your threads mixed up with someone else's - that's quite possible!...)
Looking at the soil report, alfalfa may be a good choice since it's relatively low in Phosphorous, which you apparently have too much of, as well as adding those fantastic natural growth-promoting hormones Jeri has described on another thread. Around here you can buy bales of alfalfa hay which makes an excellent mulch, since it gradually adds the nitrogen and other beneficials as it rots down, while at the same time discouraging further airborne weed seeds from taking root. Getting the nitrogen levels up as per your soil report, by whatever method/s you choose, should naturally discourage the Medic. There are plenty of high Nitrogen organic alternatives, including blood meal (NOT blood and bone though), cottonseed meal and coffee grounds - Google for more ideas and find out which are available locally and affordable or free.
Other Medic-friendly conditions you may need to address are insufficient soil aeration and moisture retention, which could arise through a lower than optimal level of organic matter in the soil. Amending with any solid organic materials will improve the soil's physical STRUCTURE - as distinct from its chemical make-up - making it less hospitable to the Medic as well as being beneficial for your roses in all sorts of ways! (An organic mulch that rots down over time, like the alfalfa hay, would do the same thing, only more slowly.)
I hope this helps. Look, there's rarely if ever just one 'correct' or 'final' solution to gardening problems, so don't expect to be presented with some single, simple magic formula - I may be quite mistaken, but I sort of get the impression that's what you MAY just be hoping for. Please do forgive me if I've misunderstood!
What I'd suggest is, if it makes sense to you, to try the above, see how that goes, then decide on your next step. For example, if you find more Medic seeds that are already buried in the soil start coming up through the mulch next year; you could simply do the same thing again; i.e. turn them into the soil when they come into flower along with any remaining decomposed hay (or whatever) mulch, before applying fresh mulch. However, as always, I'm sure others will have other excellent alternative suggestions, corrections, and additions to my thoughts.
Good luck!
Comtesse :¬)
It looks very nice now, but I really would encourage you to snip off any new buds that come along. There isn't much mass to the rose yet and it really needs to build up a framework of branches. Blooms on a small, struggling rose are going to slow it down since it will spend a lot of its energy on blooming instead of growing.
I never thought to grow roses indoor except mini roses from grocery stores. Mine never did survive anyways. However on valentine's day, I did buy some florist roses and I notice that after a week, some of them start leaving out. I was going to try to see if they would start to root out but dismissed the idea. Although I love roses, I always feel they should be grown outdoors and I regard them as the crown of Summer. If I am surrounded by roses all year round, I will probably take them for granted. I find that during the dreary winter months, the thoughts of seeing them in the spring just melt the cold winter weather away.
I don't know about bugs, but my soil always acts very badly when indoors. I think I'd have to try some kind of special mix to keep it fungus-free. Or practically never water it or something. I do much better with houseplants bought in their own soil that need to be kept dry :)