Many years ago, I decided to never use chemicals in my rose beds, nor anywhere else on this property. And today, when the roses are in bloom, I can freely eat their fragrant petals without fear of getting sick. Candied rose petals are delightful on this Queen Victoria Cake.
But we’re not discussing 19th-century tea-time treats today. Our topic is roses, and how to keep them in good health without resorting to systemic, honey-bee-killing pesticides. Maybe my all-organic rose-routine will be helpful to you:
Select the right rose. I gave up on hybrid tea roses long ago. They hate the hot, humid summers here, and respond by attracting every ailment known to botanists. On the other hand, David Austin’s “English” series roses have proven nearly disease-free for me, as have other sturdy shrub and climbing roses. Pictured above is the fragrant, sunshine-yellow ‘Graham Thomas’, which I’ve trained as a small climber. Rugosa roses are beautiful and extremely hardy too, although to my eyes they are not suitable in a formal setting.
Consider the real estate. Plant roses in an area that receives at least a half day of full sun. Also, make sure they have good air circulation. Crowded plants invariably attract fungal ailments like blackspot.
And speaking of blackspot…the treatment for this can be found in your refrigerator. Click here for details.
Make the bed. Roses want loose, fertile soil that their feeder-roots can easily penetrate. Loosen the bed to a depth of 12 inches, and amend it with copious quantities of organic matter. My first choice for organic matter? Shredded leaves. (Click here to discover how I gather and shred this free material.) Shredded leaves hold many times their weight in water — a real bonus during times of drought. They also provide food for earthworms. Worms, through their movement, keep the soil well-aerated.
Dig a big, big hole. “A one-dollar rose deserves a ten-dollar hole” is bit of old gardening wisdom that still rings true today. The hole should be three times the diameter of the container the rose came in, and about 12 inches deep. Fill the hole with water to test drainage. If the water drains within an hour, all is well. Otherwise, dig deeper. Roses want plenty of moisture, but they will not tolerate a pool at their feet.
Position the root graft. In cold regions like mine, a rose must be set so its root graft — the knob on its “trunk” — is 2-3 inches beneath the soil surface. Where winters are mild, position the rose so its root graft is an inch or two above the soil line.
Back-Fill. Once the plant is in the ground, back-fill with rich, well-draining compost. Tamp the compost down by hand, not foot.
Make a saucer. After planting, it is essential to make a saucer around the plant. This basin serves as a reservoir for water until the plant is established.
Water correctly! Provide at least one inch of water per week during the first spring and summer. Established roses can do with less water, but their roots should never be permitted to dry out. Water-stressed roses are pest-and-disease magnets. When I water, I set the garden hose at the base of the plant, and let it run slowly for 5-10 minutes. Splashing water and overhead sprinkling are definite no-no’s — they invite fungal problems.
Is your garden equipped with automatic drip-irrigation? You are lucky indeed.
Remember to Mulch. After planting, cover the soil with 3-4 inches of mulch. Here again, I rely on shredded leaves.
Provide Food. Roses eat the same way I do: heavily! I let them dine on Espoma’s “Rose-Tone” — an organic fertilizer that contains beneficial microbes. I sprinkle a heaping cupful around the drip-line of each rose, and then scratch it into the top inch of soil with gloved fingers. In my region, roses are fed monthly from April through July.
Pruning. If you grow shrub roses, as I do, spring pruning is easy. Just cut the shrubs back by one-third to one-half in late March. Climbing roses and ramblers require no pruning whatsoever, other than to remove dead canes.
Dead-Heading. To encourage repeat bloom, and also to keep plants tidy, remove spent blossoms. Be sure to cut the rose stem back to a set of five leaves –the point from which new flowering growth will emerge.
Winter Protection. Although all of my roses are hardy in my zone 5-b region, I still give them winter protection after the first hard frost. To do this, I pour bushels of shredded leaves (obtained from autumn clean up) into the rose beds. Then I mound the material 12 inches up each shrub. The goal is to keep the soil cold, and the rose roots un-stimulated, during freak warm-spells in winter.
Organic Pest Control. A well-cared for rose can easily fend off almost any insect which comes to call. Should aphids appear, I simply blast the rose foliage with a firm spray of water, applied from both above and below. (The brass nozzle pictured above is available in every hardware store. It produces a powerful spray.) This aqua-blast dislodges aphids until aphid-eating ladybugs appear. And they always do appear, because I do not use pesticides of any kind in my garden. Little green worms, which are usually the larvae of the saw-fly, also receive the water blast. Once knocked off, they can’t climb back up. Any that remain will either be paralyzed by braconid wasps, or gobbled up by birds.
Invite the birds. In winter, I keep a well-stocked bird-feeder right outside my writing-room window (above). The window is only a few feet away from the yew hedge that surrounds my roses. The two fountains in the garden also encourage birds. These aviary predators flit among the roses, eating rose-hips in winter, and insects of all kinds in summer. Place a bird-bath near your roses, and believe me, your plants will enjoy better health.
Japanese Beetles. Do these horrid creatures visit your garden, too? Where I live, the JBs emerge in early July and depart 30 days later. Birds won’t eat them, and any spray that would kill them would kill beneficial insects, too. Traps are useless — they attract more beetles than they catch. Milky spore, if applied to the lawn (beetles lay their eggs there), will kill the beetle larvae. Fortunately, healthy roses always recover from Japanese beetle damage.
If you have comments or tips concerning the organic culture of roses, by all means speak up. As always, I love to hear from you.
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More from Kevin’s Kitchen and Garden:
How I Propagate Boxwood
Rustic Bacon and Onion Tart
Limoncello Cupcakes
Erin says
Fantastic post! I almost gave up on the concept of growing roses because the combination of being in zone 5 and not wanting to use chemicals was daunting. I’ve since added a few and your tips are spot on. I do have the worst problem with sawfly larvae, which decimate one of my climbers so it is nearly leafless every year I can’t seem to spray those buggers off for anything.
Dee Nash says
I also grow roses without chemicals. Excellent post and thorough. ~~Dee
Carol Samsel says
I haven’t had rose since the heatwave and drought that was followed by an extremely hard winter a few years back. I just plant one in the fall…from the clearance rack and it is thriving right now 🙂 Keeping my fingers crossed for roses this year ♥
Gloria says
Lovely Sunday morning when you pay a visit! So many great ideas.
Can you tell me the source for your rose bushes? Do you have a great nursery that supplies the roses you want ? Do you use on-line sources?
Thanks for all of the good advice!
Mary in Iowa says
A rose by any other name would smell … like garlic? Or so say the gardeners of the massive rose gardens at Buckingham Palace. The Queen insists on organic methods, and the weapon of choice against aphids is a spray made of garlic powder steeped in drums of water. The smell dissipates in a day or so and the sweet perfume of roses free of the green critters returns. Check out the DVD, “The Queen’s Garden” available from PBS or the local library. The photography of the birds, flowers, bees and other wildlife is stunning.
Thank you so much, Kevin, for encouraging using organic means and advocating for bees and butterflies and all other manner of life. No chemicals have touched the bits of land I’ve occupied since the early 1970s, and I have almost no disease or pest problems. Mountains of compost, shredded leaves, and several proprietary versions of Espoma products make for healthy plants that are unattractive to pests.
My favorite rose source is High Country Roses in Colorado, originally because their roses are not grafted, but grown on their own roots, and subsequently because they are healthy and beautiful. They arrive potted as tiny, unpromising looking things, and by the end of their first summer are full sized shrubs. At least they are in my good, loamy, well-composted soil. In their first season, Graham Thomas and Gertrude Jekyll grew taller than I am. The David Austin rose, “Heritage”, is so exquisite and fragrant that one could waste a whole day visiting it to gaze in wonder at its beauty.
Jody Mandel says
Dear Kevin,
Bonide Fruit Tree Spray has malathion in it. A neurotoxin. Very harmful to bees and other wildlife. You said you eat the rose petals. Aren’t you concerned about eating rose petals sprayed with malathion? I read that it is mildly toxic to humans, but still….
Just trying to be safe.
Jody
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Jody – As an experiment, many years ago I used Bonide Fruit Tree Spray on a rose. You are right — it’s nasty stuff.
Linda A says
Hi Kevin, I’m still learning how to take care of the two climbing roses I have. I want to plant others but will take it slowly for now. So, keep the “rose-growing tips” coming and little, by little, I’ll get better at this.
I bought milk to spray on the black spots, as you suggested in an earlier post. And, last night, after a long day in the garden, I took a bath in the remaining milk! Wow! Soft skin! (I don’t drink milk – might as well put it in the bath!)
Mary says
Japanese beetles are pretty sluggish when they are mating (will see two beetles holding each other). Take a bowl of soapy water (I use a large, deep Koolwhip container and a squirt of dish soap) and hold it close under the branch the beetle is on. Then take your index finger and thumb and just flip them down into the bowl (they do not bite). They will swim frantically for a short time and then drown. They really seem to come out onto the foliage of the plant in early evening. The beetles are really a problem on my raspberry bushes. Over several years my beetle population is declining and I think it may be due to reducing the mating population.
Margo says
Roses run when they see me in the garden center ! I live on an island- zone 10B. All sand.
I have tried many types of roses but it seems the salt in the air eventually kills off the foliage.
I have tried adding compost, use a drip irrigation system, and fertilize them quarterly. Is there a variety that can handle ocean air? HELP! tee hee
Mary in Iowa says
Margo: Rugosa roses will grow happily on beaches, unhampered by salt spray. They’re also beautiful, and the species and some hybrids produce lots of hips the birds enjoy.
Marti says
Thank you for the post. Roses are my favorite flower, my issue is with deer they eat the buds if they are not protected last year put net around each bush by end of season plant was bigger tan net and of course ate the buds, I am zone 5 NE Ohio. Marti
Linda BP says
I’d love to use shredded leaves on my flower beds, but have a question about using the leaves from my trees. Many of the leaves have hackberry galls on them, and I don’t know if the galls will contaminate the soil in the new places that I put the mulch.
The garden shop here says that as long as there are other trees in the neighborhood with this problem, I’ll be unable to conquer the gall problem.
thanks for any thoughts on this!
Tara says
I worry that the Milky Spore will hurt my honey bees.
We have so many Japanese beetles it’s downright heart breaking. I just try to flick them off into a
pail of soapy water.
Hoping someone has some experience with bees and Organic Milky Spore.
Thanks.
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Tara – Based on numerous reports I’ve read, milky spore only affects Japanese beetle larvae. It does not affect honey bees, nor any other beneficial insects. It’s not a poison.
Beverly, zone 6, eastern PA says
To Mary in Iowa – About a year ago, I watched “The Queen’s Garden” show and loved it, so surprising and enlightening. And I saw the Rugosa Roses at the Barnegat Lighthouse on Long Beach Island in NJ many years ago. We should be neighbors, Mary, we are in sync on so many topics. Let’s invite Kevin to move nearby, too, shall we?
My rose collection is mostly antique roses grown from cuttings taken at a nearby cemetery well-known for its historical collection. Our club was encouraged to take cuttings to help perpetuate these heirloom varieties. Not all of them “took” for me, but I did manage to grow 4: Madame Plantier, Felecite et Perpetue, a massive Crimson Rambler and a purplish pink one that a visitor thought was Rose de Rescht. All are mature now, beautiful and grown with strictly organic methods. I don’t fuss with them at all. They were surviving in the cemetery despite careless, even sinister, weed whackers and decades of neglect, having been originally installed by the families of the deceased, planted right at the headstone. It’s a totally gorgeous corner of the world dating back to Civil War times and forward from there.
Janet Metzger says
Thank you! Now I know how to get started. Also I was thinking of doing cuttings from friends’ heritage roses. It is good to know that someone else has done that successfully.
May I use compost for mulch or do I need to use to separate things.
Tawni says
Does anyone have issues with thrips?…Organically what can I do?
Sharon says
When I had Japanese Beetles years ago I planted Garlic around my roses to repel them. I haven’t seen many for years. Anytime I see 1 I just pick it off & destroy under my shoe. My Dad used to carry a coffee can of oil with him & disposed of them in the can where they drowned.
Jan says
I have always grown beautiful roses organically, with no sprays. This year for the first time my roses are a mess. We’ve had a terrible drought here in California, which may have contributed to the problems. I also never got a chance to prune this year (this is also a first). My roses are covered with rust, and I don’t know what to do. Should I just prune them back now, even though they have their new growth on them?
Kathy Keating says
Kevin, do you feed birds year-round?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Hi Kathy Keating – I provide food for the birds October through April. During the warm weather months, they must find their own food. Otherwise they might forget how to survive on their own.
Chris Baswell says
What Austin roses seem toughest in your (which is to say, our) area? Thanks!
MGM says
Hi what is milky spore
Cheryl" i says
Hi Kevin, I have about a dozen rose bushes that have become over crowded. Can I move them? If so, when is the best time? Most of the bushes are pretty big. I’m in zone 6. Thanks for any help!
Natali says
Kevin, You remind me of a hero of a Russian novel, who built the railroad in the early twentieth century. You are also real Hero. I’ll tell about Your garden and about Your website to russian gardeners.
Alvin says
Over in Australia we have sprayed aphids and the like with soapy water rather than blasting them off. After about three sprays over a week or two, they are pretty much gone and once the ladybugs and wasps come in they don’t recover. Like you, we have an organic garden and do a lot of companion planting to control pests that target specific plants. We also use the classic beer traps to get rid of snails – very simple and effective. That said, once spring is in full swing and the lizards, birds, praying mantises, dragonflies, wasps and ladybugs are active the garden pretty quickly looks after itself.
tess brown says
Let’s dont forget about the wonders of using garlic . 2 tablesoons of garlic oil . 1 teaspoon of olive oil , 1 tablespoon of baking soda , then add lemon juice of 4 lemons diluted with 1 gallon of water sprayed on rose leaves lightly , then rinsed off in about 4 hours with clean water will illeviate most annoying insects that eat our dear rose blossoms and leaves . repeat more often in summer months when humidity is the highest. my husband is not as organic as me and he adds 5 tablesoons of lemon ammonia and 3 tablespoons of lemon joy and 2 teaspoons of neem oil to his sprayer which he dilutes his mixtute much more than mine so he leaves it on overnight then rinses at before evening the next day . – to each his own but our garden and yard looks like a garden paradise . we have about 43 rose bushes , 11 fruit trees ( citrus and apple) and we plant garlic bulbs amongst our roses which send up lovely tiny little purple blossoms when they bloom and that scent deep in the ground serves as an organic systemic insect retardent for the aphids and japanese beetles . People always ask what pretty purple blossom that is , and we laugh and say Garlic !
Finola Jennings-Clark says
Glad to find this post – I’m growing roses in the Caribbean, Saint Lucia, and it is either very humid or super hot and drier. Have just started and came here via looking for a black leaf spot cure that didn’t involve nasty chemicals. Grateful for all the advice!
don king says
is there anything can boost the growth of my climbers they seem to be stuck in growing taller.