@Victoria Sponge I'm looking forward to your garden this year, I always admire that fun little bridge and you have some lovely roses and other plants.. I want to see how your Triomphe des Noisettes develops as a grafted plant, mine was own root..
Regarding rose sawfly eggs, they’re laid in the canes.
I go out and squash any I see, at least the bright orange bodies are easy to spot. If I’m quick enough, I can gently crush the eggs lain in the canes as well. I also keep an eye out for the tell tale signs of skeletonised leaves and black dotted leaves (baby sawfly 💩), and trim off those leaves complete with the baby wrigglers and put them somewhere for the birds, or stamp on them with my shoe. I have around 150 roses so perhaps the damage gets spread out and it’s not really ever devastating, just unsightly and some cane loss.
Regarding roses being easy/difficult…the reality is some people are just terrible gardeners. They don’t have whatever it is that makes you green fingered. You can be a complete novice at gardening and know nothing yet still have green fingers. Some people just never will. It doesn’t mean roses are difficult.
I used to have a beautiful garden, however mental health problems took that all away. During COVID lockdown lots of my friends and neighbours found themselves with plenty of spare time on their hands so they turned to gardening. I had the opposite, no "time off work", extra stress and anxiety. My poor garden became sad, neglected and unloved. I'm slowly finding comfort in growing again, and I'm working on my self-confidence. In the meantime, those friends who had the time and energy to spend in their gardens a year or so ago, don't anymore. There are a lot of fair weather gardeners out there. They try their best. Just saying...
I think the important thing @TracyP is just to take your time, don’t pressure yourself, or feel guilty if you aren’t up for gardening on a particular day/week/month…the garden will always be there, and even if it looks neglected, the bones are still there and I’m sure the wildlife are loving it!
Re the garlic spray, it is meant to deter aphids, hence planting alliums among the roses but I believe it won’t work on sawflies, nor will any pesticide apart from a product called Spinosad (sp?). The latter is a controlled substance normally only available to registered agricultural growers over here. Some rose growers in the US use it as it seems to be more widely available. Don’t know about the UK.
Sawfly larvae do drop from the rose when fully grown and pupate in the soil over winter, only to emerge as flies and lay their eggs in the rose canes/leaf stems. Again US reference, but someone said they found a thick layer of bark mulch interrupted the breeding cycle by preventing the larvae burrowing into and pupating in the soil. Since he did that the problem largely disappeared. Until next door’s adult sawflies visit 😠
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
I did the removal of affected leaves last year but there was so many the roses looked bare. Funnily they didn't attack all the roses, the standard only 3ft away was undamaged and the climbers at the other end of the garden were ok. The worst hit were my new patio roses, they had hardly a leaf left.
But to a happier subject, the new growth on most of my roses are coming on a treat. I love the red leaves on my Sheila's Perfumed And my standard red rose has just burst into leaf. I have even planted the Waltz Time
All parts of my roses seem to suffer from the sawfly invasion here @purplerallim, the types I get breed in repeated cycles as well. It’s a constant battle until late Autumn, which I usually lose despite regular patrols and squishing. Aphids are pretty benign in comparison.
I love red foliage as well, Mme. Antoine Mari is my favourite, but new Lady Hillingdon (shrub form) is looking promising in the red department. Lady Emma Hamilton has beautiful burgundy/purple tones at first, but not the healthiest of foliage by summer.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Posts
I'm looking forward to your garden this year, I always admire that fun little bridge and you have some lovely roses and other plants.. I want to see how your Triomphe des Noisettes develops as a grafted plant, mine was own root..
I'm slowly finding comfort in growing again, and I'm working on my self-confidence. In the meantime, those friends who had the time and energy to spend in their gardens a year or so ago, don't anymore. There are a lot of fair weather gardeners out there. They try their best. Just saying...
Also it is a super sheltered spot having the morning sun and the evening sun .
Sawfly larvae do drop from the rose when fully grown and pupate in the soil over winter, only to emerge as flies and lay their eggs in the rose canes/leaf stems. Again US reference, but someone said they found a thick layer of bark mulch interrupted the breeding cycle by preventing the larvae burrowing into and pupating in the soil. Since he did that the problem largely disappeared. Until next door’s adult sawflies visit 😠
I love the red leaves on my Sheila's Perfumed
And my standard red rose has just burst into leaf.
I have even planted the Waltz Time
I love red foliage as well, Mme. Antoine Mari is my favourite, but new Lady Hillingdon (shrub form) is looking promising in the red department. Lady Emma Hamilton has beautiful burgundy/purple tones at first, but not the healthiest of foliage by summer.