My favorite rose bush, showing off its beautiful blend of colors late last summer.
With Valentine’s Day came the first warm, sunny weekend day of the year, and my first chance to do my annual pruning and fertilizing of my rose bushes.
When we bought this house, I was absolutely delighted by the two dozen rose bushes that surround the property. From a distance, the flowers are colorful and beautiful. It’s only when you look at them up close that you see the problems.
Since day one, my roses have been plagued by every disease and pest known to backyard horticulturalists: black spot, powdery mildew, rust, aphids, thrips and spider mites. Not every plant has every problem, but each plant suffers from at least a trifecta of issues. The irony of it all? Half of the problems are reported to be due to too much water, while others are the result of dry conditions, yet I can somehow manage to have both problems on a single plant. How is this possible?
Two years ago, the infestation and infection was at its worst. Believing that all problems can be cured with a healthy dose of research and knowledge, I started The Rose Project. Last year, I spent countless hours researching cures — both natural and chemical — for my floral ills. I was utterly convinced that I would become so educated in the ways of rose growing that I would be able to write the definitive ebook about backyard rose growing in the dry western region. I babied my roses, spending a few hours each week caring for them. The result? They were no healthier than when I had ignored them the year before, and the idea for the ebook fizzled out after I realized that I clearly had no idea what I was doing.
This year I’ve hacked the bushes back further than ever, leaving only old growth behind without any leaves to pass along the diseases of previous years. This will either kill the plants or set them on the road to recovery; I’m hoping for the latter. I have a calendar reminder for a weekly pesticide application that will hopefully thwart the thrips and their other buggy counterparts. And I live in hope that by next Valentine’s Day, I’ll have unlocked the secret to rose gardening.