ROSES: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the not so bad...

Well, there aren't really any ugly roses, at least not to me.  The 'bad' roses are the ones that are prone to black spot, powdery mildew, rust, aphids, etc.  These roses are bad for our evironment because we have to regularly spray them with chemicals to keep them looking good, and these chemicals end up in our soil and ultimatley in our water.  So, if you have to have a few roses in your garden I've listed some in my next blog entry.

Also, roses are not the most environmentally correct plants because they tend to like lots of water. And as we all know by now we are, as good stewards of our earth, supposed to want to minimize our use of water.

So, when you get to pruning your roses (this month or next) take the time to decide which of your existing roses is prone to disease and maybe get rid of it.  I probably would not add it to the compost pile if it had previously been treated with chemicals.  Also, if your rose is not in full sun it is more prone to disease.  So after pruning your rose that is currenthly planted in the shade (summer shade), now is the ideal time to move it to a sunnier spot.

Hope this helps, please email me if you have any questions.

Click the following link for a list of a few disease resistant roses.