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ROSE CARE FOR MAY
by Betty Mott, Consulting Rosarian
by Betty Mott, Consulting Rosarian
Look at the magnificent blooms brought to our April program by eager participants! Please bring your garden roses and join the fun of entering your roses at our annual show at Corte Madera Town Center on May 9th. The room we are using is in part of the old Good Guys space so park in the most southern parking lot. Blooms will be accepted from 7:00 - 10:00 a.m. when judging begins. Remember to bring blooms with as long a stem as possible with plenty of foliage and a name. Remember, 70% of the points go to the bloom. There will be plenty of help to get your bloom on the show table.
Not only were the blooms fantastic for our April meeting, the foliage was impressive. I took some of the blooms home and looked over each specimen. There were 57 blooms with only two blooms showing foliage challenges and not living up to their high ARS ratings. One of the seven ‘Altissimo’ blooms had pale green foliage and a bloom of ‘Royal Sunset’ was showing the early stages of rust.
The pale green foliage on ‘Altissimo’ is usually a sign of nutrient imbalances. A rose with either too much or too little of any nutrient will suffer. There are 16 nutrients that a rose needs, thus 32 possible imbalances of nutrients. Fortunately there are only four of these imbalances frequently observed. These are listed in the ARS Consulting Rosarian Manual with colored pictures to help with diagnosis.
The common deficiencies are nitrogen, oxygen, iron, and water. In iron deficiency the leaves will have the opposite look of oxygen deficiency. The interveinal areas show chlorosis while the veins remain green. It is rare that iron is actually deficient in the soil. But instead, somethingthing is making the iron unavailable to the rose. Possible causes are high or low pH, poor aeration of the soil, high soluble salts or excessively high concentrations of manganese, zinc or phosphorus. Foliar sprays can give temporary relief if they contain iron. In my garden the iron deficiency showed up on a miniature rose in a container. I pulled out the rose added organic matter to the soil and repotted it back in the same container. This took care of the problem.
The second challenged foliage was on ‘Royal Sunset’ which had bright orange spots on the leaf undersides and brown spots on upper leaf surfaces. Rust is common in mild, wet weather (65- 75 degrees) including humid and foggy days and heavy morning dew. Some rosarians prefer to use drip irrigation emitters rather than overhead watering for this reason. Pick off and destroy infected leaves or use a preventative fungicidal spray or mixture of baking soda and horticultural oil applied every 7 to 10 days. Pruning out the center foliage of very dense bushes will help reduce the moisture levels and prevent some infections. However in my garden, I have two roses growing side by side with only one getting rust. If you can live without the rose replace it with one that is not prone to rust. There are 14,560 different roses to select from according to Peter Schneider’s 2009 Combined Rose List.
If you notice drill holes in your flowers, or drooping green buds, you most likely have Curculio beetles. With its distinctive huge black snout, dark red color, and ability to fly off, catching this pest is not easy. They appear on my roses when it is sunny, flying to and returning to the rose unless
you remove them.
The female drills holes into the buds and inserts the eggs setting up the next generation. Destroy the damaged flowers, buds and stems. Some say they prefer light colored blooms, but they found their way last year to my ‘Topaz Jewel’ a yellow hybrid rugosa , ‘Mlle Cecile Brunner’ a light pink polyantha, ‘Playgirl’ a single petal medium pink floribunda and ‘Alchymist’ an apricot blend once blooming shrub. You must be diligent checking bushes daily and swatting them into the soapy mug until you no longer see them on the rose they are attacking. Enjoy watching them sink to the bottom of the mug. Fortunately, they have a short cycle (May and June) and eventually disappear.
Bird feeders in the garden bring help in removal of caterpillars, bugs, ants, scale, beetles, larvae, termites, wasps and aphids, with the added benefit of free entertainment watching the squirrels and their acrobatic stunts as they try to reach for their share of the bird seed. Just yesterday I noticed these small grey birds jumping through ‘Jeanne Lajoie’ flying off with tiny green caterpillars in their beaks.
I consulted with Wendy Dreskin, a naturalist and bird expert to verify what I was seeing. She confirmed species that will be seed eaters later in life will feed their young on a high protein diet of bugs. In Marin, our backyard birds in action include; female Anna's Hummingbird, Red-breasted Sap Sucker, Nuttall's and Downy Woodpeckers, Pacific Slope Flycatchers, Black Phoebe, Violet-green Swallows and Barn Swallows. The Scrub Jay’s diet ranges from 70% animal matter in April to 5% in January. The animal matter includes bees, wasps, grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, moths, ants. Another big consumer, the Oak Titmouse, eats about 57% animal matter (wasps, caterpillars, beetles, true bugs, ants) while the Western Bluebird tops the list with 74-100% insects depending on season; grasshoppers, crickets, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, beetles, secondary true bugs, ants, wasps, cicadas, earwigs, flies, isopods, and snails. Put up a few bird feeders, eliminate chemical sprays, and you can truly sit back and have time to enjoy the roses!
With all these days of heat and sunshine rose gardens are popping into full bloom everywhere. Remember to deadhead (remove) spent blooms. This helps keep the plants looking good, encourages the formation of new flowers, and reduces the opportunity for Botrytis Blight.
Most likely your drip irrigation systems have been turned on. Keep checking for leaks and read your MMWD Water bills to monitor your water use.
- “Of all flowers, Methinks a rose is best.”
From Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare
A YEAR OF ROSE CARE:
January
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Last Modified: 5/18/09