Stop and, Well, YOU Know What To Do!

Of course roses are the most romantic flowers ever!  However, there is a distinctly unromantic side to them.  They are lunch for Japanese beetles, aphids, rose maggots, and leafcutter bees and prone to a host of diseases such as rust, mildew, and black spot - not to mention the dangers of their maintenance, due to the thorn issue.  Although they really aren’t thorns but rather prickles…look it up in Wikipedia if you really feel you must know the difference.  Oh, I could go on and on.  But I won’t.  Because despite all their issues, roses are my very favorite flowers!

They really are not difficult.  You just have to understand that many things find them as attractive as we humans do.  Are they blooming?  Does their scent make you swoon?  Then forget the holes in the leaves and the aphids clinging to the stems.  There are only a few diseases that will actually kill your rose bush – as with people, keep them healthy and they won’t get sick.  Although people don’t consider them drought tolerant, roses actually are.  Choose a strong rose – the older species are especially great – plant and water them right and once established, they can go for long periods without water.  Granted, they will not bloom as much without weekly water, but they don’t need as much as most people think.

Here are my important points for easy rose care:

§                     Don’t EVER use a systemic rose food or poison.  Not only is it dangerous to you and your family, it upsets the natural balance of eat and be eaten in your garden.

§                     Plant them up to the bud union.  There should be no stick part between root and branching showing above ground.

§                     Feed them with a good organic rose food such as Dr. Earth at winter cleanup, spring bud break, and mid-summer.  In Southern California you can feed one more time in early October for lovely December blooms!

§                     In So Cal, prune in January, remove ALL the leaves, and only cut them down by about ½.  Take out any weak or crossing branches.

§                     Roses get lonely.  Plant them with low growing flowers that attract other insects, such as Sweet Alyssum, Salvia, and Columbine. 

§                     MULCH MULCH MULCH!!

§                     Water deeply.

§                     Enjoy their exquisite deliciousness!  They can tell that you love them!