What is a budworm? You will know the damage when you see it. If your buds and blooms are full of holes, you have been visited by budworms. These critters can damage a whole lot of blooms in a short time so it is important to learn a little more about them and how we can rid our roses of them.
The budworms that attack our roses are actually called tobacco budworms or Heliothis virescens. They overwinter in the south, but they can spread as far north as New England during the summer. Adult budworms are moths that are tan or brown in color with three darker stripes across their wings and they are about 1 inch in length. The eggs are deposited on, in, or under the buds and blooms and they take 2-3 days to hatch. Once they emerge they eat their way through as many blooms as they can. When they have had their fill they make their way down into the soil where they go through their pupal stage to emerge as moths about 22 days later. Warm temperatures speed up some of these processes. Now that we know what they are, let's take a look at some contol measures.
1.
Cut Your Blooms - Since the adult moths use buds and terminal growth to lay their eggs, everytime you cut your roses you are removing a possible incubation site. It is also important to remove "blind shoots" as they can also be a good incubation spot.
2.
Keep Spraying - Although it is difficult to get spray to the budworms inside the bud, it is important to keep spraying. If they emerge from the bud and eat the tissue that has been sprayed you will have one less adult moth in your garden. Bacillus Thuringiensis or Bt as found in products such as "Thuricide" from Hi Yield is a great biological control that works on caterpillars including budworms.
3.
Help the Good Guys - There are many insects and spiders that feed on budworms. Avoiding broad spectrum insecticides such as Sevin will help keep the beneficial insects in your garden. It is also a great idea to encourage birds to visit your garden because they will eat the moths and caterpillars that are causing damage to your roses.
Budworms can be difficult to control but by following good gardening practices and encouraging nature to give you a hand, you can keep them from turning every rose in your garden into swiss cheese. Your buds are for you to enjoy, not for the budworms.
February is the time to prune rose bushes. Pruning a rose bush prepares it for the next growing season by focusing the plant's energy into the strongest canes. By cutting out the diseased, dead, or weak canes, you are giving the rose bush a healthy foundation for new growth. Make sure you have the proper tools before starting and print off our pruning checklist at the end of this article to help guide you through the process. Happy pruning!
What Do I Need to Prune?
1. Make sure your pruners are up to the task
Before you even step outside, make sure your pruners are free of rust and burrs. Sharpen them with a tool sharpener and clean off the rust with a multi-purpose lubrication oil. If your pruners have been neglected for a few seasons, you may need to replace the blade or get them professionally cleaned and sharpened at Witherspoon. By keeping your pruners sharpened you will put less strain on you body and reduce the risk of accidents. Most pruning accidents happen when the gardener is fighting the tool. Make your pruners work for you and stay safe by keeping them properly sharpened!
2. Protect your hands and arms by wearing gauntlet gloves
Rose gardeners know that you will occasionally have to pull a thorn or two or a millon out of your hands and arms legs body etc. However, there are gloves out there that will make pruning season easier on your hands and arms. Gauntlet gloves not only protect your hands, but they also cover your forearms. Trust me, when you are reaching into the center of your Falling in Love rose bush to prune out the center, you will want gauntlet gloves!
3. Have a place for your clippings to go
Imagine this scenario. You have just pruned your entire rose garden only to turn around and see piles of thorny clippings waiting to be picked up and hauled away. If only you had thought to contain the clippings as you go! Having a heavy duty waste bag will save you from the heartache of cleaning up an entire gardens worth of clippings from off the ground.
4. Heal and protect your hands and cuticles
It is easy to forget how much we use our hands until we are painfully reminded with cracked skin and sore cuticles. Make your life easier by taking care of your hands! Use a healing salve or lotion to keep your skin moisterized and healthy during the cold, dry winter months.
5. Witherspoon's Pruning Checklist
Now that you have everything you need to prune your roses, make sure you know how to prune like a pro! We have compiled a checklist of everything you need to know about pruning your roses. Print out this handy checklist and take it with you as a guide!
I know you don't want to think about this, but the winter months are right around the corner. Between the shorter days and the cold weather, it is hard not to long for the warmer days of spring. Let Witherspoon help you get through these tough months! Take time to curl up in your Snuggie with some hot apple cider and the Witherspoon 2014 Rose Catalog. Now is the time to dream about your new rose garden and begin to make your plans for next year.
So grab that cider and sit with me for a while so I can introduce to you the new roses we are carrying this year. We are excited to introduce six brand new varieties along with two varieties that have returned after a long absence!
Brand New for 2014
Happy Go Lucky Hybrid Tea
The charming, old fashioned pure yellow blooms will brighten your day, and since it is such a prolific bloomer, your days will never be dull!! To top it all off, this bush has great disease resistance and a moderately fruity fragrance. (3'w, 3-5'h )
Good as Gold
Hybrid Tea
This rose is not for the faint of heart! With daring golden orange blooms, long stems and a sweet citrus fragrance, Good as Gold is a bold addition to any garden. (3'w, 3-6'h)
Jump for Joy
Floribunda
Luscious clusters of peachy-pink blooms will have you jumping for joy in your garden. Not to mention, the mild apple fragrance and long lasting blooms that will certainly bring a smile to your face! (3'w, 3-4'h)
Sweet Sunblaze
Miniature Rose
Sweeten up your life with this disease resistant mini! The flourishing double blooms are the clearest pink in the Sunblaze family, and with a slightly spicy fragrance, you will have a little sugar and spice which makes everything nice! (18"w, 1-2'h)
Lady of Shallot David Austin Orange red buds open to reveal a stunning old fashioned chalice bloom with a salmon pink center and a golden reverse. This hardy and disease resistant rose will also tantalize your sense of smell with the fragrance of warm tea and spiced apples! (3.5'w, 4'h)
Munstead Wood David Austin Enjoy the mystery of this rose as light crimson buds gradually open to reveal a deep velvety crimson center! This excellent repeater is disease resistant and has a strong fruity fragrance. (2.5'w, 3'h)
Welcome Back!!
Melody Parfumee
Grandiflora
This grandiflora has clusters of deep plum colored buds that unfurl to reveal rich purple blooms which soften to lavender on this prolific bloomer. These beautiful blooms paired with a strong old rose fragrance and disease resistant foliage will have you singing throughout your garden. (4'w, 5'h)
Radiant Perfume Hybrid Tea
If the deep golden yellow color of this roses doesn't draw you i for a closer look, the strong citrus fragrance most certainly will. The long stems are great for cutting and the rich green foliage creates a perfect backdrop for the radiant blooms!
(3'w, 5-6'h)
To celebrate these new additions to the Witherspoon Rose Family, I am giving away a R.K. Witherspoon Rose!!
That's right...you heard me... a FREE ROSE! I know you are wondering what you have to do to be entered into the drawing for this FREE ROSE. It's easy... just follow our blog! At the end of October I will enter the names of all our followers into a randomizer in order to pick a winner! Isn't that easy?
UPDATE 10/16/2013
I have added a followers section to the top of the right sidebar so it should be easier to find where to follow the site! The winner of the R.K. Witherspoon has been notified via email! Congrats and we can't wait to hear from you! Stay tuned for more giveaways!!
This could be your rose!
If you are interested in learning more about our new roses, check out this video introducing our new catalog!
If you would like to receive a 2014 Catalog from Witherspoon
It’s a pleasant sunny fall morning. You take your breakfast on the patio to
admire your rose garden. The morning
light shines down on your roses like a beacon.
As you sip your coffee and chew your food you ponder over the successes
and failures of your roses.
So, what is the measure of your success? Is it that you've had an abundance of flowers
to cut and enjoy? Is that you've managed
to prevent blackspot? Or is it a deeper
understanding of how your garden performs from season to season?
As our Rose Care Technicians prepare to evaluate our
customers’ gardens we think about what it takes to grow great roses. When I hear the words “fat bushes” from the
mouths of our techs I know it means that the rose bushes are huge and often
towering overhead, loaded with leaves and flowers from multiple canes which
stem from large crowns at the base. It
makes caring for roses seem like child’s play when there are few challenges to
overcome.
Our annual evaluation process has many facets. We determine the need for fertility and a
need to rework the bed area using our specially blended Witherspoon Premium Planting Mix for better overall growing performance. We look at whether or not trees are
inhibiting the growth in some way either by way of too much shade or by way of
the tree’s roots invading the bed area.
We also consider perpetual damage by deer, rabbits or voles to identify
the need for repellents or fencing.
These things are mostly environmental, and improvements can
be made to liven up the roses. Certainly
no one can argue that enriching the soil area in which the roses grow will be a
worthless effort. And no one can argue
that your roses will perform much better with more sun exposure. Even installing irrigation so the roses have
a regular water supply is time and money well spent for the result of thriving
roses. And finding ways to keep the
critters from eating that deliciously sweet flower bud means that the rose
remains yours and yours alone.
But what about the cultural tasks in the rose garden? What improvements will be made by yearly
pruning and removing the spent blooms regularly? Let’s begin with pruning. Pruning is a great way to rejuvenate the
rose’s growth allowing the canes to produce an abundance of flowers on the new
wood. This yearly task is vital to the
growth of your hybrid teas, grandifloras and floribundas.
Now let’s look at deadheading. During the active growing season the roses
put on their full display of color.
Their bloom cycle is on about a 30-35 day schedule. By removing the spent blooms you can aid the
regeneration process allowing your roses to perform at their peak. Hybrid teas, grandifloras and floribundas
respond very well to this treatment.
What are some other factors to contemplate when thinking
about evaluating your success? Let’s
consider that some roses simply might not be suitable to your growing
conditions. A particular rose may look
great in someone else’s yard, but it struggles in yours. There could be a host of reasons from soil to
fertility to overall general care. You
may have to acknowledge that it’s just time to get it out of the garden and try
a different rose. Fortunately, we have a
wide variety of roses to choose from in all manner of colors.
I think the most important aspect in determining your
success is the work you put into growing your roses. Take a honest look at your maintenance
schedule. For example, roses are heavy
feeders. Are you really using the right
kind of fertilizer at the right time of year?
When there’s no adequate rain, are you supplementing with the proper
amount of water? Are you actively
deadheading the roses to help them produce more? If the canes are spindly and weak should you
just throw in the towel on that particular rose or keep on fighting to get it
to do something? Is it finally time to
part ways with the unthrifty producers in the garden to trade them out for
better bushes?
It’s not easy to make the decision to remove roses,
especially if they have sentimental value.
Keep in mind this investment in your landscape is something you want to
show off, something to be proud of. The
reward is beautifully performing roses that you can enjoy and share with
others. So, putting in the effort is
well worth it.
It's not quite Fall yet in North Carolina, but the weather is cooling down! Not only do we love the cooler temps, but so do our roses. Check out some of the blooms that are opening now!
Mellow Yellow
Mellow Yellow
Rio Samba
Rio Samba
R.K. Witherspoon
R.K. Witherspoon
Sexy Rexy
Summer Love
If your bushes are not producing enough blooms or if they just need a little extra umph, take advantage of our online sale on Super Bloom! Now through August 31, 2013.
May is an exciting time here at Witherspoon Rose Culture. Color explodes forth from a sea of green leaves and fills our garden with a myriad of brilliant roses.
We celebrate this first bloom of the season every year with a day filled with garden tours, food, and of course roses!
People gathered at the bottom of our Anniversary Garden to begin our guided Garden Tour. They were able to take a stroll through the 2,000 rose bushes in our garden while stopping along the way for rose care demonstrations!
Our rose care demonstrations were taught by our Rose Service Technicians. These guys care for nearly 2,600 rose gardens across the state of North Carolina and into both South Carolina and Virginia! When it comes to rose care, they know their stuff!!
The first stop on the tour was learning how to plant a premium rose garden!
Troy was an excellent teacher! He gave us step by step instructions as he planted!
Brandon was happy to answer any questions tossed at him after his demonstration on irrigation and weed prevention.
Doug taught our class on cutting roses to enjoy in your home!
Each stop on the Garden Tour was filled with all the information one needs to care for roses in their own backyard! Not to mention, the backdrop of 2,000 rose bushes in full bloom!
Just in case everyone's questions were not answered during the Garden Tour, we had a Q&A session where everyone had a chance to "Stump the Rose Guy!" Still no success in completely stumping any of the rose guys! Maybe next year...
There was also a chance to win Witherspoon Gift cards and fantastic sales on over 180 varieties of roses!
All in all it was a great day filled with fun and only a little rain! Thank goodness none of us melted in the rain!!
We hope to see you next year for our First Bloom Celebration!! Bring the family and enjoy the explosion of color!
