JW: It seems inevitable that even the most gorgeous plants and flowers will develop some problems, leaving gardeners baffled and frustrated. I'm Judy Wagley. This is “From the Ground Up!” Mindy Rosenberger from Hummingbird Roses Nursery is here to help when pests and diseases affect your roses. This is thanks for joining me today, Mindy.
MR: Thank you. My pleasure.
JW: Can you help us out?
MR: I sure can. Some of the things to look for now, a lot of varieties that are being bred these days, they're trying to make them a little bit more disease resistant, but there are literally thousands of varieties of roses out there that are just stunning and beautiful. And I would not say don't grow them just because you don't want to see black spot on your rose. It can be maintained. You know, you can put a fungicide on it, which I do to keep my roses healthy and keep try to keep black spot at bay. I do it once every two weeks, but there are other varieties out there, Judy, also that just don't get it. They're kind of seem immune to it. So it just really depends on the variety that you have.
JW: Mindy, what is “black spot?”
MR: It is a disease spore that when your rose, gets in a really humid environment. So your summer is really hot and humid--it's more prone to getting black spot. Or that kind of thing, or if you over water-- like overhead-- like with a sprinkler that hits the leaves. And a lot of people groundwater their roses, like at the base, with soaker hoses and stuff for that purpose alone. So that the leaves do not get wet and to help prevent disease a little bit more. So if you over water, overhead water, or you get a lot of rain and a lot of humidity and you don't spray-- you maybe get some black spot on some of your roses.
JW: And can that spread to other plants?
MR: It can. It depends on if you clean your pruners after you prune them. You know-- use the disinfectant wipes. If you do not clean your pruners once you dead head a plant that has black spot it can transfer to the rest of the plant and it can just get overtaken with it. Or, you know, it might be a mild case of it, but I use just usually a basic fungicide. Like I said, every two weeks for one time, and that stays on top of it pretty much. And I don't have a whole lot of problems.
JW: What about pests then, like Japanese beetles?
MR: Those are stinky little creatures, and they do arrive, usually around July, early July. They say that they only last for three or four weeks and then go away, but that just simply isn't true. I found most of the time they'd stick around until the fall. They do love roses, they love a lot of different plants, but roses are one of them. That they do love, particularly a light-colored rose like a white or a cream color. Or if they're fragrant, they're not stupid-- they like the smelly ones that smell good and they will devour the blooms. The good news is I don't use insecticides in my own personal garden because I love the birds, and the earthworms are vibrant for a healthy garden. And so when I have 500 roses, eradicating Japanese beetles is impossible. So what I do is I just deal with them for the summer. Some people though, if you have a few roses-- go out in the morning and with a bucket of hot soapy water, and while they're still sleepy because they like to sleep in late, you can just tap them in the bloom where they're hiding—into the bucket of soapy water, and that will kill them. So if you do that on a daily basis, you can keep track of, you know, control over how many you have into your garden. But when you have a lot of them, that's just not possible to do.
JW: So you would recommend for the home gardener then to do that with the soapy water?
MR: I would do that. I also would not recommend those Japanese beetle traps. I know commercially they say you hang them and then they'll go in there instead of on your plants. But that's just inviting more in.
JW: Inviting them in. So with the black spot and the Japanese beetles--once we take care of those, are we pretty much good to go with the roses?
MR: I think you are. The only other thing that I would say to look out for--and it's not really prevalently known, but I wouldn't be doing my diligence if I didn't mention “rose rosette disease.” There's a lot of research being done on it now, and I don't know if you have ever seen a picture of a plant with rose rosette disease. It gets very, very, very thorny, and it appears to have, like a witch’s broom that protrudes out of the top of the plant, and it's contracted by mites that fly in the air. So if you're in a really windy area, it's possible you might get a mite that's flying in the air, and that's how your rose is going to contract it. This disease--in the Southern states, it's more prevalent, but it is in been found in Michigan.
JW: Fungicide for the black spot, soapy water for the Japanese beetles. And you'll have beautiful roses.
MR: You will, you will!
JW: Mindy Rosenberger from Hummingbird Roses Nursery. Thanks for joining me today for “From the Ground Up!”
MR: Pleasure. Thank you!
