I'm thinking of having an open garden for neighbours on a few Sundays through the summer - tea, cake, roses, kids, bug hunts. It gives me a good kick in the pants to get the garden in shape and have people back out there after two rather empty years.
Speaking of which my Lady of the Lake has a covering of aphids similar to Marlorena’s photo. I don’t mind aphids and just leave them for the birds. We can’t get birds to use our feeders but they come every year for the spring aphids.
My Ena is always the first to flower (at the front) in April. I'm seeing no mini buds yet, but coming soon, maybe next week, I think. I'm watching. Such lovely russett foliage. I enjoy all the new growth before it gets mullered.
My new austins havent done much yet either @Marlorena not so much as a shoot!
I hate rose sawfly as well, they really gouge chunks out of stems, I scrape the eggs off if I see them and pick them off but the birds did a good job getting rid of most of them for me last year. We get loads of birds on the feeders and the dunnocks and sparrows pick bugs off to feed chicks.
The tealeaf trick really helped cut down aphids for me, I just dunked a jug full of used opened teabags round the base every so often, clearly tastes nasty! Forgot whose tip on here it was but Thank you! Buying ladybirds online when you have a huge infestation everywhere is well worth it too, they eat them, lay eggs and the hatched larvae eat even more!
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Speaking of which my Lady of the Lake has a covering of aphids similar to Marlorena’s photo. I don’t mind aphids and just leave them for the birds. We can’t get birds to use our feeders but they come every year for the spring aphids.
They’ve really taken off since last weekend. I imagine with the head start, it’ll be Lady of the Lake with the first buds.
But Rhapsody in Blue is starting to leaf out now and that’s usually my first rose to flower.
I hate rose sawfly as well, they really gouge chunks out of stems, I scrape the eggs off if I see them and pick them off but the birds did a good job getting rid of most of them for me last year. We get loads of birds on the feeders and the dunnocks and sparrows pick bugs off to feed chicks.
The tealeaf trick really helped cut down aphids for me, I just dunked a jug full of used opened teabags round the base every so often, clearly tastes nasty! Forgot whose tip on here it was but Thank you!
Buying ladybirds online when you have a huge infestation everywhere is well worth it too, they eat them, lay eggs and the hatched larvae eat even more!