Those Society Roses might look nice, but I wouldn't want to bury my nose in one. Or, even spend time around them.

I tried planting some nicotiana as a sacrificial trap plant for whiteflies two summers ago. Accordning to the theory, whiteflies will head to the nicotiana leaving the roses alone. It worked and the nicotiana managed to survive the whiteflies.

We also had earwigs two summers ago on account of the series of warm winters. Usually it gets too cold for them here. I would often find earwigs in light colored rose blossoms, presumably eating thrips. They are scarey at first, but I think they did some good in the long run.

Garlic chives or garlic planted around the roses helps deter insects.

Oooh do I wish the earwigs left my blooms alone. They don't bother the roses much, mostly just sit in them. But I've been out many nights with a flashlight to find them just covering blooms of many, many perennials, which they decimate completely. We have thousands & thousands of earwigs each year, despite many years of control measures. We were afraid of them at first, but it was the baby who made us realize that they were of no concern a couple of years ago, since she likes to play with bugs, including earwigs. She never gets pinched.

Thank you for your advice! I do some amount of companion planting for pest control, but I'm always questioning how effective it is. I don't have garlic out there yet though. Have to get on the ball with that!

:)

Thank all of you who do not spray. I am a hospice nurse, and I can't tell you how many patients I have cared for over the years who have died from cancers or Emphysema caused by and aggravated by exposure to chemicals.

So what if some bugs are eating our plants? Keep it in perspective.

Every time we spray a chemical, even if we are careful of breathing it right then, we will still be exposed to it in the soil next time we want to sit in the garden. Where I live here in East Texas, we are out in the country, we all have water wells, and the water table is very shallow- you can strike water at 17, 18 feet depth in lots of areas. But the shallow water is yukky tasting, so we drill deeper for a more purified water that is in stratus rock.... care to guess why?

Plant some garlic, the nicotiana, maybe some marigolds too, and know you have a healthier environment.

All those sprays that seem to work so great also sterilize the garden of its wildlife! Ever walked through a garden with no bees humming, no dragonflies, no small birds peeping out of nests, no butterflies gliding drunkenly through the air? In areas where there has been heavy spraying for a while, the gardens are totally quiet. No sounds. No movement. A veritable ghost town. A sad, somber place to visit, not at all the natural habitat of WELCOME that our souls really seek.

Remember why we garden in the first place!
Thanks again everyone.
*slinking away in embarrassment for being caught on my soapbox again*

Thank you so much for saying that, wildrose. I've been trying to persuade my neighbor and her gardener to stop using poisons in the rose garden for several years. This year the new gardener has agreed to use the modified cornell formula. I also suggested vinegar to prevent rust, but I didn't check up for a month and the rust has gotten out of control! It turns out he was "spot-treating" with the vinegar and not using the cornell. So now I've suggested sulfur. Meanwhile, my neighbor wants her picture-perfect rose garden back and is interviewing new gardeners, most of whom suggest poisons again (which she is considering, even though her previous dog died of liver cancer and she grows the roses as cut flowers). When the roses are sprayed with poisons, the whole garden smells toxic for a week; it seems counterproductive to grow fragrant plants that you can't smell.

Most of the cities in this area (SF Bay area) promote IPM in-house, and I am amazed that word has not filtered down yet to all the garden maintenance companies. My neighbor has been calling the boutique-type services -- they charge a weekly or monthly set fee, and then any other services (arborist, pre-event cleanup, irrigation emergency, etc.) take only one phone call and, of course, extra fees.

You may soapbox all you like as long as you realize that I was just pining for a bad-bug-free world a bit. My resolve was tested, but not deterred. :)

The choice, as I see it, is between not using chemicals because they have an impact on the environment, or having perfect foliage at any cost, and that's an easy choice for me. I don't show much and the blooms are profuse and I've never even considered that my pest problem is really that bad, when it comes down to it. I garden organically because I choose to. And, as President of my local society, I have been encouraging more frequent discussion of organic rose gardening methods & principles. They talk about Diazinon & Ortho, and I talk about Cornell & hand picking & beneficials.

It's just that I was so surprised to walk into a garden in which there was a distinctly noticable lack of pest problems, when my own pest problems are in full swing. And while I certainly can't speak for the other beneficials, I can tell you that there was no lack of bees or butterflies or twittering birds. How long those critters will live after visiting that garden is another question altogether.....

Rubystar, I know the feeling. I've been tempted to use synthetic fungicides and insecticides. There is a new problem every year with my roses, and it greatly bothers me. This year I had thrips, and they decimated my blooms. Some roses had no bloom at all. I did spray some organic pyrenthrins, but then I thought: in organic gardening you allow nature to have it's course, more or less. That means insect damage. But so what? If they eat 10% of the blooms, that means there is 90% left. And it also means you just have to plant like 10% more roses to make it even. Yeah, another reason to add more! :-)

Rob

I like the way you think Rob!

Yesterday I visited someone who keeps a few roses. She pointed out damage that was being done by those little green worms, not knowing the cause. She said she had sprayed fungicide but it hadn't helped. I found a worm on the leaves so she could see the culprit and show how easy it is to find them & put them in the birdfeeder. Her response was 'I'll just spray some insecticide'! I have a feeling there are many, many people who spray willy nilly, not interested in learning the cause of the problem or an easy solution that doesn't involve spraying a pesticide.

Considering that my roses are directly adjacent to the vegetable garden (it's a small yard with big trees at one end... limited sunny areas), I can't imagine using any of these chemicals. I don't want them ending up in my dinner! Of course, I'm also just starting (inherited a bush with the house), but so far, all I've done is prune and mulch (remember those trees? -lots- of leaf available...) and the rose has paid me back with plenty of growth and blooms.

Hopefully the new yellow will do as well (HT, I think, from BJ's Wholesale Club, but I've lost the tag...)... time will tell. Mostly, though, I think the real growing problem here is winter-hardiness... I have yet to see any fungus damage and the insect-damage has been limited to a little nibble here and there, nothing seems to feast on the roses.

There are advantages and disadvantages to New England rose growing, I guess!

--Chris

Thought this link maybe of some interest

As for us - my daughter Alexis has a chronic illness, I have great nieces and nephews that play in our yard as well as pets. Also here on the Cape the cancer rate is sky high!!!! Very sad - there is not a time I don't hear about someone having this illness which is sometimes fatal. Last year my kids and I sat in our yard not seeing one firefly- and it was rare to see a butterfly. I am a native and there were always plenty of butterflies, fireflies, lady bugs, frogs,turtles, etc. Although Alexis would like to have nice foliage on her roses we will not use chemicals. It's a joy for her to see the butterflies. I long for the days I grew up being outside playing with bugs - nice bugs that contributed to our garden.

Anyone have any ideas on ridding hungry bad catipillars (not butterfly ones) naturally? The Cape has been invaded with them - the parachuting tiny green ones that fly down from trees on webs, the crunch round green ones and the furry grey/black/red eye ones.

"Happy Gardening!"

Here is a link that might be useful: Natural Alternatives

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm More bird baths around to attract birds to eat catepillars. Don't shoo off the crows??????????????

hmmmmm

eggshells to pierce the skin of those that crawl.

I also live on the Cape, and was decimated by catapillars. I used BT and it worked great, because it only kills catapillars. you just want to make sure you don't spray it around your butterfly garden!

I feed our local crows -- meat trimmings in a bird bath. We're avid crow watchers, and enjoy them greatly. They have a fascinating family dynamic. And since we began feeding them a few years ago they've stopped tearing into the neighborhood garbage bags on trash day.

But they don't eat any bugs around here.