Rose Doctor to the Rescue - May 2006
What To Do In Your Rose Garden in May
As many of us that are used to having a garden full of blooms by now are wondering, “What tricks is Mother Nature playing on us this year and how should we handle those tricks?” I have found out that spraying your roses for those Hoopla Beetles does not work after all, so take a cup with you and pick them off one by one and squash them as you do so. If you walk your garden daily for the beetles, you can also find out what other insects you might have wondering around in there. Then you will know what to spray for.
Walt Diana Kilmer in their backyard
Both are Consulting Rosarians and Horticulture Judges
Diana is also an ARS Acreditied Arrangement Judge
One of the most important things one needs to remember when spraying is always stand where the spray will not blow back on you and to wear protective clothing and goggles to prevent any thing from going into the eyes. Now there are lots of other factors to also remember when spraying your roses, one is that you read the instructions first and please follow them, don’t add more thinking it is better, for this is when your roses get foliage damage. Make sure that you have watered the roses by deep soaking them prior to spray-ing or feeding them to prevent having the foliage burned around the edges.
The product that we use is called Spinosad, and it works well for the thrips and mites and those loving little green things called aphids that I dearly hate. Each of us will have a favorite type of product to spray or feed with, so this is just letting you know what we use in our garden. Walt does all the spraying using a solo back pack that holds four gallons of mixture, but they now have a solo back pack that is just two gallons, so this is wonderful for the lady that has to take care of her own garden.
With summer coming and the heat right along with it, I find that using a triple 15 or triple 16 slow release pellet on the rose plants works very good. Using a slow release type of food for the roses is good during the heat for they still get all the elements and minerals that keep them going. However, this type of food does not cause them to push a lot of new basil breaks or cane breaks. If you over feed your roses at this time of the year it causes them to push too much new growth which will become fried with the summer heat. I normally apply the slow release the last week of May, but this year the weather seems to be a bit mild so it could go down during the 1st feeding in June.
If you have any questions, please e-mail me at:originalsbydiana@juno.com. Happy Rose Growing!
Webmaster's Note: Diana is also a certified ARS Horticulture and Arrangement Judge.
