Aphids: Vampires of the Plant World

What Are Aphids?

Aphids are small, soft bodied insects that feed on plant sap.  These sap suckers can be green, brown, black, or even pink, but regardless of their color they are all after the same thing. I know you are thinking to yourself, how much damage could these little guys do? Large colonies of aphids sucking sap from the rose bush cells will cause blooms to become deformed and they will not open properly. Unfortunately these vampires of the plant world are not deterred by garlic wreaths or wooden stakes, so let's explore what the home rose gardener should do to protect their blooms.

Use a Slow Release Fertilizer

Aphids are heavy nitrogen feeders.  This turns well fertilized plants, such as roses, into a well-stocked buffet line for sap sucking insects. In order to fertilize rose bushes without providing a large meal for aphids, we need to feed the bush with a slow release fertilizer.  Quick release fertilizers will push a large amount of nitrogen into the bush quickly making it a tasty treat for aphids.

Invite Beneficial Insects to the Party

Ladybugs, Green Lacewings, and Pirate Bugs will all enjoy feasting on your Aphid population, but they tend to be fashionably late to the party. They show up after the Aphid population has already exploded in the garden. In order to encourage the beneficial insects to show up earlier, we need to create a welcoming environment before the Aphids take over. Here is a quick list of companion plants that will encourage these beneficial insects to to make your garden a home.

Ladybugs Common Yarrow Ajuga Marigold Dill

Green Lacewings Fern Leaf Yarrow Dandelion Golden Marguerite Coriander

Pirate Bugs Corn Soybeans Grapes Alfalfa

Water Hose Riot Control

I know this seems counterproductive for rose care, but spraying the colonies of Aphids off the rose bush with a garden hose is a simple cost effective way to get rid of Aphids.  You get the same effect with a spray bottle set to the stream function to blast those buggers off the bush. Make sure you keep up with your fungicide application if you go this route and it is also a good idea to do this in the morning so the rose bushes have the rest of the day to dry.

Last Resort Insecticidal Soap

Aphids have soft bodies that have openings called spiracles that they use for respiration.  Insecticidal soaps work by covering these openings and suffocating the Aphids.  It only takes an hour to work, but it might take multiple applications to get the problem under control as it only works when the soap makes contact with the Aphid.  The residue left by the insecticidal soap is non-toxic so it is safe for local wildlife.

Helpful Hints

Thistle, Mustard Plant, and Milkweed will only encourage Aphids to populate a garden. Keeping a rose garden clear of these weeds will help control the Aphid population as well as other problem insects.

Spider Mites:  A Mite-y Problem

Mites are the third member of the team that is out to get your garden (fungus, insects, mites).  These critters are a difficult problem once they are established, but there are steps that can be taken to ensure they don't get comfortable in the rose garden. The mite that we deal with most often is the Two Spotted Spider Mite.  Spider Mites are in the arachnid family and are almost invisible to the naked eye. They can easily be seen with a magnifying glass and unfortunately the results of their feeding on your roses can be seen easily with the naked eye.

Spider Mite Symptoms

	Generally leaves will lose their brilliant green color and become faded and brown.  You can often see their webbing on the underside of the leaves.
	The underside of the leaves will also look dusty because of the dirt and debris that get caught in their webs.

What Can I Do?

1.	Keep the roses watered - The best way to avoid any issue is to keep your roses healthy.  In the heat of the summer rose bushes need 5 gallons of water per plant per week.  Well watered buses will be able to handle any stress, including Spider Mites, better than thirsty plants.
2.	Use your hose - If you check the bottom of the leaves and see that you are beginning to get spider mites, spray the tops and bottoms of the leaves with your hose.  I know this seems counter-intuitive because leaves are supposed to be dry as much as possible, but the spray from the hose knocks the Spider Mites off the bush and they cannot crawl back on.  Make sure to do this in the morning so the bush can dry off and keep up with your fungicide application.
3.	Miticides - There are several miticides that are available to homeowners to help control mite problems.  Products such as Avid, Neem Oil, and pyrethrin based sprays are effective to reduce the spider mite colonies.  These should be used in conjunction with the steps listed above for greatest effect.

Keep in mind that if your garden is next to brick or surrounded by rock or concrete you may have more mite difficulties.  These surfaces hold heat well causing a very warm microclimate that mites love.  Wash down these surfaces with water as much as possible. Spider Mites can cause you major headaches in your rose garden.  However, with a little bit of diligence and a lot of vigilance you can keep them out and keep your roses beautiful.

Help!! There Are Holes in My Roses!

Budworms:  This Bud is NOT For You

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.

A Long Winter's Nap

The annual task of preparing your roses for winter is upon us.  

As colder weather settles in the rose bushes naturally continue to shut down.  Some of you will find that the roses are still pushing new buds, and if the frost does not burn them, you’ll still have some roses to cut and enjoy.  Certainly folks in warmer areas will see this taking place.  It definitely makes you want to enjoy the last of the color that the roses have to offer.  You’ll take every last bit you can get from them, right?!

That being said we still want to aid the dormancy process by cutting the roses back and providing a protective covering over the graft.  In this natural state of things the bushes go in to a resting period as a result of shorter days and a decrease in temperatures.  Our North Carolina climate affords us the opportunity to enjoy roses longer in the growing season and beyond, often until December.  By then the cold has done enough damage that it’s simply time to cut them back. 

This process can be done now for areas with colder climates than North Carolina.  In fact our customers in the mountains tend to do theirs sooner rather than later as compared to the Piedmont regions or regions on the coast. 

The great thing about the December cutback is that no special pruning skills are required.  You can simply cut any canes that are higher than the height of your waist as your standing next to the rose bush.  How simple is that?  By doing this we are only looking to remove any tall growth that might be weighed down and subsequently damaged by heavy snow or ice.   The real pruning comes much later and we’ll get to that early next year.

This waist high cutback can be done to any of your hybrid teas, grandifloras or floribundas.  We are often asked what to do if the roses to be cut back are already waist high or shorter, in which case they can be left alone.  We do, however, give climbing roses that bloom on new wood a heavier treatment.  

Cut back roses waist high

We start by cutting the height down to the level of the structure on which it is growing.  Then, we remove all but 5 or 6 of the strongest vertical canes.  Finally, remove the laterals (side canes) from those 5 or 6.  It will look quite skeletonized, but that is the desired effect. 

All your roses should look like the bush on the left after cutback

The next thing we do to the roses as part of the overall winterization is to cover the graft with mulch, known around here as mounding up.  We prefer mulch as opposed to pine straw since mulch is a heavier insulator; pine straw is too loose and does not pack well.  Mounding protects the rose bush from winter wind and cold.  Having adequate protection will keep the rose bush, and more specifically the graft, from drying out.  You can simply pull up the existing mulch that is already on the bed with a rake.  No need to buy more mulch unless there’s not enough to mound up! 

Mounding mulch up over the graft.

If you’re concerned about any fungal spores that may be lingering on the mulch from black spot you may want to consider removing all of the mulch and starting with fresh.  Applying a dormant spray in January will help with lingering fungal spores, but if you’re black spot troubles were pretty severe, then replacing the mulch is suggested.

 

The bush on the left is completely winterized

The act of winterization is such a simple process.  Cutting back the bushes could not be easier and mounding them takes mere minutes to do. 

Sincerely,

Sandie

Attack of the Japanese Beetles!

Beetles... Beetles... and More Beetles...

There’s nothing like a leisurely walk through a rose garden in full bloom.  Vivid colors and a sweet rose fragrance beckon you into a garden alive with romance and Japanese beetles…WAIT!  WHAT?  There are few things that will frustrate the home rosarian more than Japanese beetles.  So what are we to do?

Before you head out into your garden with your handy flame thrower, let’s take a quick look at some options for keeping these unwelcomed garden guests under control.

Option 1: 

Cut your blooms early and bring them inside!

How easy is that!  Japanese Beetles are drawn to color and fragrance, so if the color and fragrance are in your home instead of your garden, the Beetles will head elsewhere to find sustenance!  One thing to remember when cutting your blooms early is to make sure the sepals have fallen; otherwise you will have a beautiful bud, which never opens, sitting in a vase until it droops into oblivion.  So break out all of your vases and get ready to arrange to your heart's content!

Option 2: 

Hand collecting the Beetles

Ew!  I know!  Just keep in mind they don’t bite!  Head out early in the morning when the beetles are sluggish.  (They are probably hungover from all of the sweet roses they noshed on the day before… jerks.)  Hold a jar full of soapy water under the bloom and shake the beetles off into the jar.  The soap breaks the surface tension of the water so the beetles drown.  I know it seems gruesome, but your plants will be skeletonized if you do nothing!  So keep that in mind! 

  


Option 3: 
Japanese Beetle Killer
(Chemicals such as Sevin, Bonide, Etc.)

This one is pretty self-explanatory right?  You spray the chemical and the bugs go away.  To an extent this is true!  However, the spray does not prevent Japanese Beetles, it merely kills the ones that are already chowing down on your bushes!  This is a good option if you are squeamish about touching the beetles, but you have to be consistent with spraying!

Option 4: 

Milky Spore

Milky spore is a soil dwelling bacteria that infects the beetles in their larval stage.  Even though you cannot SEE the Japanese Beetles when they are in the larval stage, they are still underground feasting on your grass roots!  While applications of Milky Spore will decrease the number of grubs that survive in your yard, if your neighbors are not treating their yards, it can be fruitless! 

Options to Avoid!!

I know it is tempting to place one of the Japanese Beetle bag traps in your yard, but resist the urge!  It does such a great job of luring beetles to it, that it will attract even more beetles into your yard!  Just think about it!  If you are trying to get the color and fragrance out of your garden in order to discourage the beetles from devouring your garden, why would you place a colorful bag with a floral lure to draw them back in?  Now if you could convince your neighbor to hang one in their yard…well... you get the idea! 

Things to remember!

Japanese Beetles emerge from the ground in June and they only live 30-45 days above ground.  While the beetles can be spotted anytime between June and October, the main “season” lasts only six weeks. It may seem like an eternity if your roses are being devoured, but have hope!  Your roses will grow back!

Home Rosarians Unite!

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Buggin' Out this Summer

Buggin’ Out this Summer

 

Ah, summer.  Time to hit the sand and surf and bask in the sun.   Ha, the insects that like your roses are thinking the same thing!  So what’s a rose gardener to do about it?  There are really two choices: tolerate or eliminate. 

 

 Japanese Beetles

 

Ask yourself first what is your tolerance level.   If there are only a few wayward Japanese beetles flying around and they aren’t really bothering your roses, then is it a priority to eliminate them?  However, if there are literally dozens swarming the rose garden having themselves a weekend long kegger in your backyard, then you might want to eliminate them. 

 

Japanese beetles begin as grubs in the soil, feeding mostly on the roots of lawn grass.  When they mature and emerge from the ground as beetles, they feed on our gorgeous roses and a variety of other ornamental plants.  They are also doing their mating at this time, so that weekend kegger has just turned into serious debauchery. 

 

 

There is more than one way to tackle this particular pest.  A product called Milky Spore has been identified as a disease of the larval stage, or grub stage, of the beetle.  This bacterium, developed by the USDA, is available in powder form to be used on the lawn while the beetles are grubs.  It can take many, many years of repeated applications in order to decrease the population. 

The more popular way to tackle the beetles is by spraying them when they are adults feeding on your plants in summer.  And while there are a variety of sprays available we recommend Bonide’s Japanese Beetle Killer. 

We already have the beetles on our radar here in our ServiceDepartment at Witherspoon.  The many years of experience dealing with beetles has engrained a mindset of anticipation of their arrival across the state.  We’ll be using different products in our spray tanks that aren’t available to the homeowner, making our visits to our customers’ gardens the most effective possible. 

By the way, we do not recommend the use of the typical “beetle traps”.  They contain pheromones that actually attract more beetles to come hangout in your backyard; and if you’ve already decided that your yard is not a beetle playground, then you don’t want to put those traps out. 

Thrips

 

Another troublesome pest of roses in summer is thrips.  They are troublesome because they are so small and they get into the rose bud before the bud even opens up!  This poses an even greater challenge for us as Rose Care Technicians in our customers’ gardens because we simply cannot penetrate the buds with our spray like the thrips can. 

Thrips are in the buds because they are seeking that sweet moisture inside the flowers.  This causes the flowers to become dried out and distorted leaving you without beautiful blooms. 

It can be quite a frustrating experience having thrips in the rose garden.  They’re much like the biting no-see-ums on the irritation scale…you can see (or feel) the damage, but can scarcely see them to stop them.  

However, we use some good products in our tanks against them!  Hopefully with all the wonderful rains we’ve had lately their populations won’t be quite as high as we’ve seen in year’s past.

 

 

Spider Mites

 

In our last post from the Service Department we mentioned briefly about spider mites and the use of predatory mites against them.  Spider mites are quite destructive and leave the plants in a stressed and weakened state.  Their life cycles have such a rapid rate of maturity from the time they hatch to the time they are mature to reproduce. 

A female can be mature enough to reproduce in as little as 5 days! 

The image here is quite an extreme case of spider mite damage on a rose.  Our customers and technicians have seen cases as bad as this.  Hot, dry weather is the preferred environment for spider mites.  They stay on the undersides of the leaves, creating webs of protection against predators.

 

 In Conclusion
 

Our efforts in reduced insecticide use and the introduction of the predatory mites in our customers’ gardens have shown signs of success!  We hope to continue the use of predatory insects even against other pests such as thrips. 


Sincerely,
Sandie