22,153 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
Right, thanks. I found the nasty little critters, but I barely saw them, so tiny. They are apparently all over. I don't have the time and the stomach to squish them, is there another way to get rid of them? What are the "good" predators, where are they coming from? Can I buy some? While the leaf on the attached picture is almost devoured, many new leaves are being attacked right now.
I've seen sparrows eat rose slugs here once in a great while... Wasps eat em when there very tiny. But
after they get bigger nothing eats them here that I can see..
Good predators can not keep up here...
I've used Garden Insect Spray (Spinosad) with good results..
Safer Insectide Soap has been so so this year...
Spinosad can kill bees, etc. and can burn leaves on hot days (contains oil)... Follow directions....
Here is a link that might be useful: Spinosad
Ugh. After repotting 3 of them, I have decided it is a combination of my errors. I did not use cat litter, I used espoma soil perfect ( no longer made but I found it on amazon ) and brand name Turface. I also used Neptunes Harvest potting soil. It is all muck now. Clogged drainage holes. The clay particles were totally clogging the holes. And the heavy potting soil didn't help. I did not create a drainage layer of anything. In pots, I think gravity and water pulled the clay particles down, where they just sat there waiting to kill my roses. See what happens when I post lots of BRAGGING pictures?
My potted things (some roses, lilies, lemon tree, etc.) are mostly in the largest black nursery pots I could find. Those things have huge drainage holes - some on the side only, some on the bottom only, some a combination. Those large holes do allow soil to leak out. It occurred to me one time when I had run out of pot bits with which to block the holes from leaking soil out so easily, years ago (5 +, if I recall correctly) that used up dryer sheets (non woven fabric softener sheets) would make an excellent soil blocker over the holes while allowing water to drain out easily. And I use dryer sheets in my laundry, so I have instant access to dozens of the things... The only time I've had trouble with the sheets is when I've been lazy about repotting and happy, enthusiastic rooters have grown through the sheets. Those times I generally cut the sheets off, but usually, they're still sitting there just a little tangled, but easy to remove during the 'replace the dirt' process.
The one time this hasn't worked well has been with my lemon tree, when something small went IN the drainage holes, tore up the dryer sheets and left bits of them all over the cement slab. Now every time I water the trees, some soil comes out with the water. I don't know if something is living inside the pot, but the lemon tree isn't doing terribly well - but it isn't the fault of the dryer sheets...
Yes, it will survive. I am no-spray and right now many of my roses are near-naked twiggies, but they all come back. I have put down milky spore for the JBs ad that has helped tremendously. So did last year's drought. This year, I'm starting to worry about root rot, the ground is so saturated.
Hi Josh: Fifteen years ago, I grew Peace ... always perfect blooms in my last garden of acidic clay. The neighbors complimented on that rose. In the Antique Roses forum, in the thread on OGRs for high heat, I traced French Romanticas and Meilland roses to their need for high calcium in the soil. Peace is the parent of many Meilland and French roses.
Comte de Chambord is known for malforming of its bloom. When I grew Comte in a pot, I put gypsum (calcium citrate), and every bloom was perfect. Same with planted in the ground, my soil is limestone clay, high in calcium.
If your Peace is grafted, it's possible that the bud-union is damaged in some way, which interferes with maximum water & nutrients uptake. If your Peace is own-root, shortage of calcium will interfere with normal bloom-development.
I had an own-root Jacques that was healthy but stingy ... I also found a big-fat slug in its root ball from the nursery. Slugs like calcium, and snails get their calcium for their shell from the soil. I would check the root ball to see if there's an infestation of slugs or snails, which result in your Peace not getting enough calcium for proper bloom formation.
I also wrote on the role of Calcium in preventing Balling and Botrytis in the English Roses Forum, see link below.
Here is a link that might be useful: Calcium for Balling and Botrytis
I got my Peace from Edmunds 4 yrs ago. Big healthy bush that pumps out beautiful blooms. If your rose has been performing "ugly" for more then a year, I'd give it a toss and try a new one. Every once in a while you can get a dud, even from the best nurseries.
I am trying to fight an unknown bulb weed by removing soil, spreading it out on a plastic tarp and covering it with mulch. I water and when the things sprout, I can easily get them out by sifting. They cant get into the soil below. I am trying to grow any left in the soil and then I will put that clean soil in a different place. The place with the tarp is keeping the bulbs in that part of the soil from getting light so maybe some will die by the time I get there. What about pouring boiling water in a hole to kill off some of them? That worked for me when I had most of the big ones out and just little ones were left. I'm sorry you have to spend precious time on this.
I live in Philadelphia. When I moved into this house, I saw a few "interesting" plants in the former garden beds and didn't think anything about them. Two years later, I was overrun to the point where the plants I wanted were being crowded out.
mericat, you are a hero! Wow. I hope your determination pays off the way you want it to.
This year I decided to dig out all those little corms one section of my garden at a time. I spent hours on my hands and knees, and for nothing. In just a few weeks, new sprouts from seeds that had been sitting in the soil sprouted.
I have moved big rocks in my garden only to find the pinellas I hoped to suffocate still there and growing vigorously after two years! The only difference is lack of color, which they quickly regain.
I spoke with a professional gardener friend of mine. He told me the only thing that will keep it under control (not eradicate) is an over the counter spray designed to kill poison ivy.
Even using the spray, there are problems: 1/ there are literally hundreds of tiny seeds and corms in the soil that have yet to sprout so one good spray wonâÂÂt get rid of the future generations 2/ these plants are so hardy that often one application wonâÂÂt do it. You need to go back after a couple weeks to reapply.
I intend to keep after them with the spray. for me, digging them out was thankless and futile. IâÂÂve thrown my organic principles to the wind and will use the spray if thatâÂÂs what takes to save my garden.
I think mine came from Pickering. It has been a prolific bloomer with sweet smelling blossoms and good repeat and healthy plant for me. I had to move and have successfully rooted cuttings from it, can't yet report on how it fares on its own roots.
Here is a link that might be useful: Viking Queen at Pickering
In my Pacific Northwest climate zone, despite days of peek-a-boo sunshine (even during the middle of "summer"), variations in temperature, rain (we like to call it "a light drizzle of raindrops"), my KO roses thrive. No BS, no disease...they are hardy! :) I have a KO rose planted in my front yard along with spring through fall-flowering bulbs. I am adding a few more KO roses to the front yard.
I have my (arthritic) hands full tending to our small landscaped rose garden in our backyard. I love my OGRs and other non-KO roses. This is my little haven, a place of peace and undulated promise of hope.
KO roses are not particularly liked by one and all. I respect others' opinions regarding the same. I am foraying in a path that seems to work for my life.
Enjoy your KO roses!
As mentioned above the same antivirus defense: "RNA silencing functions as an antiviral mechanism in plants, insects and mammals..."
This 2013 published scientific paper: " Cooler Temperatures Destabilize RNA Interference and Increase Susceptibility of Disease Vector Mosquitoes to Viral Infection"
From author's summary: " Specifically, we demonstrate that RNAi, a critical antiviral immune pathway in mosquito vectors of human disease, is impaired in insects reared at cooler temperatures."
H.Kuska comment. This 2013 paper is additional evidence that Nature has chosen the same immune system antiviral pathway (with the same tmperature dependence) that is postulated in roses, and found in other plants, insects, and mammals.
Here is a link that might be useful: Cooler Temperatures Destabilize RNA Interference and Increase Susceptibility of Disease Vector Mosquitoes to Viral Infection
Kippy - I think I'll give Neptune another chance, used to have it. I think there are some great recommendations here and I am so grateful. There are a couple of Austins I've wondered about I don't think were mentioned here, Abraham Darby and Pat Austin. Does anyone have either of these?
Lol, that's a hoot! I had Pristine for years but it never looked that tasty!
So, Andrea, are you going to repost the right pictures?
I don't seem to be getting anything right lately!
Now I lost the photos I just tool this morning. They are in my computer somewhere. Guess I'll take them again tomorrow.
Thanks for the chuckles. And Kim, maybe I should try making Devil's Puffs.
andrea