How to Keep Your Rose Garden Free From Pests
April 13, 2008 by The Gardener
Filed under Gardening, Roses
Starting a rose garden does require hard work and you have done it all: conditioning the soil, choosing the right type of rose and have even planted them now you would like to keep your rose garden free from pest attacks and disease infestation to see your healthy roses bloom through out the season. While rose gardening may seem a bit of an uphill task, but following some simple steps, you can keep your plants healthy and your garden a happy garden.
There is a fundamental truth about gardening in general and that is wet plants are extremely attractive for fungal diseases. So you must keep the flower beds neat and tidy by regularly removing the dead and fallen leaves from underneath as well as clean the garden of all unhealthy debris. This simple exercise can keep fungal infections away. To prevent mold and rust from attacking your plants never water the leaves, stems or flowers. This can even damage the roses.
When you prune your rose bush, remember to clean up the central area. This will allow fresh air to circulate and keep fungal diseases at bay. Though rust is not fungal by nature but behaves much the same way and is considered very harmful for rose plants. These types of disease conditions can be rectified by using fungicidal soaps and pruning of the infected stem. Also keep the pruning shears clean as infected shears can carry the disease to healthy parts of the plants. You could also use simple craft glue to repair any cuts made during pruning. This will keep your plants safe from many other types of insects.
Insects like aphids, beetles and caterpillars are very fond of attacking rose plants. Easy prevention can be obtained with early season spraying of dormant season oil immediately before the spring blooms start. Of course, there are other ways of getting rid of insects also. To get rid of beetles and caterpillars, the easy way is to try the traditional method of picking them up by hand and throwing them into soapy water. The best time to do this exercise is early in the morning and is considered one of the best ways to keep your roses safe from insect attacks.
In case you find pulling out the insects by hand is not quite something you prefer, you could buy insecticidal soaps from your local garden store. If used according to the labeling instructions, these soaps can be very effective in keeping your garden safe from harmful insects. Before using these soap solutions, remember not to use any strong and harmful pesticides which could damage your garden, in stead of bringing relief. The other point to remember is that there are a lot of beneficial insects which live in your garden, and they could also get killed if strong pesticides are used.
One of the fundamental truths behind organic gardening is that pests are part of nature and they will be part of your garden too. One way to ensure insect-free gardening is to choose the specific plants which are suited to your climate zone and soil. The plants can themselves resist the disease attacks and ward off insect infestation. The other trusted way to keep your rose plants safe is to practice companion planting of garlic and onion near your rose bushes. These companion plants keep your rose plants safe from insects.
In the matter of rose gardening, you have to be a little alert. With proper vigilance, you can easily protect your plants from disease and insect infestation and see your garden bloom throughout the summer.
Rose Maven recommends MiniGarden.com, PlantWebsite.com, and Williger.com.
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Very insightful post. I am going to link to it in my new blog.