I have mostly antique roses, the chinas and teas, with a couple of noisettes. Most of these are trouble free, except that a few have been problematic because of thrips.

The other roses I grow are some David Austins, new this year, and not much of a problem so far. Some have thrips, but most don't show the damage too much.

I do have a dozen hybrid teas. They are pretty (without damage), but I am not willing to spray every week or two with chemicals in which I need a respirator and long sleeves, etc., in this awful heat. It's too hot for that even at sunset, and I am tired of it all. Several are infested constantly with thrips.

Are there sprays, or other products that you have used with success, where I will not need to "suit up" to use them?

The chili thrips seem to be gone, or at least drastically reduced now, but I'm still having horrible problems with the "normal" kind. I'm discouraged. I haven't used Orthene, or any other spray since March, and I don't want to, unless it is not harmful to me (so I can spray in my shorts and sleeveless tops),or to the beneficial insects. I am starting to get a balance of beneficial insects, so the main issue at this point is thrips. Orthene has only been used once in the past year, although a couple of times last year I used Conserve.

I'm sure blackspot is lurking, but that can be solved with planting mostly the tough OGRs.

Sandy

On the blackspot..I keep taking off the bad leaves..I also recently put newspaper under my roses and then some mulch..BS is a spore..so I thought if I covered it up.

I have gotten about 5 pounds of coffee grounds from Starbucks for free and added it to my soil. It is true that diseases and bugs attack the weaker roses. I also purchased some Serenade..it is a good bacteria that you spray..and so far not much BS this year

I think the worst thrips offenders can be dealt with by way of shovel also, OGR or not.

I'm wondering how to treat the ones that may have a problem once in awhile. Maybe the answer is nothing.

Just curious if anyone has found a product that is reasonably safe that works.

Sandy

There is a commercial organic product called ‘Fungus Pharm’ that uses soybean oil as the active ingredient. I’ve not used it, but have made a similar spray solution to treat my Flori, HTs, Austins since mid June. I like what I see so far. Black Cherry has been spotless, and so is the florist rose Monica. Othe HTs such as Peace improves, although still spotty. Molineux and Jude are also clean. No foliage burn in 90F+ temp. Still I will need more time to observe them as the air is very humid, and we only get little rain (drought!).

From what I read in horticulture articles, soybean oil is more effective to control blackspot than other horticulture oils, so I wanted to give it a try. The advantage of using the commercial product is that it has long shelved life and is convenient. But if you want to try and like to mix your own, I can post my formula.

I also like to experiment with systemic biocontrol using beneficial fungi, maybe sometimes next year.

The bulk of my rose garden will still be carefree and disease resistant roses, although it’s nice to grow few HTs for cut flowers, or expanding my Tea roses collection.

It contains castile soap and citrus oils. It has almost no scent to it, and is not too heavy.

The makers of Fungus Pharm also make Flower Pharm and Rose Pharm sprays for insects.

The Rose Pharm contains Peppermint Oil and the Flower Pharm contains Cinnamon Oil, plus they have glycerin and cottonseed oil.