By Rita Perwich
It must have been the atmosphere in the Hall of Justice.
On my recent jury duty, the words “crimes, misdemeanors, negligence and omissions” swirled around my head. And since roses are always uppermost in my mind, the rose garden became the unlikely landing stage for these undesirable words and concepts.
Well-tended roses contribute to a garden adorned with grace, but neglected rose gardens are quite the opposite. Avoid committing these crimes, misdemeanors, acts of negligence and omissions and enjoy a well-deserved garden of beauty.
Crimes and misdemeanors
The crime of abandonment and neglect: I am sometimes asked, “Do roses take time and effort to grow?” Since there is no plant that blooms with the simplicity of a silk houseplant, the answer is an emphatic “yes,” and this was expressed wonderfully by Rudyard Kipling when he said, “Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful,’ and sitting in the shade.”
Success with plants takes time. How wonderful the world would be if pests and fungal diseases were courteous with our roses and left them untouched. In that Utopian garden, pests wouldn’t suck or chew on our plants, and fungal diseases would stay out of rose gardens. Dream on: If this is your vision, or expectation reality will hit hard.
Each plant at the nursery has a tag that details the conditions the plant needs to grow well. Buy the plant only if you can meet its specified needs. Roses need to be planted where they receive six hours of full sun per day. They should be properly spaced in a well-draining soil, and they MUST be watered. Roses should be pruned annually to open them up to air and sunlight and they need to be fertilized adequately and appropriately. Fungal disease should be removed from the garden, and the soil amended annually with organic compost or worm castings topped with several inches of an organic mulch. Bottom line: Just like us, plants need to be understood, loved and nurtured.
Don’t buy plants only to abandon and neglect them. If you can’t provide the care, leave the plant at the nursery for someone else, and buy the silk houseplant.
Culpable negligence
Inattention: In addition to the monetary cost of the plant, there is the “cost” of our time and watchfulness. When we spend time with our roses, we know what they look like when all is going well. This helps us to spot pest and fungal issues as soon as they occur, which enables us to address the problems right away. Failure to walk through the garden regularly or notice problems can result in big pest and fungal issues that can stress the plant and overwhelm the gardener.
Sloth and procrastination: A rose garden is not all rosy. The peaceful bliss will be marred by pests and fungi. You will see damaged, holey and chewed leaves and blooms. This is not the time to say, ‘manãna’ and walk inside. A good rosarian will stop in his or her tracks and crush the pest or cut out and remove the damage right away.
Procrastination can wreak havoc in the rose garden. For instance, lacy leaves throughout your entire rose garden is NOT a good look, but this will happen if you don’t stop and squish rose slugs that are on the underside of lacy rose leaves right away. There are several varieties of rose slugs. The bristly rose slugs are the variety most commonly seen in local rose gardens. They are pale green or yellowish green with a brown head. You will see their lacy damage this month in your rose garden as the larvae typically commence feeding on your leaves in May. Although rose slugs are the larvae of the sawfly, in appearance they resemble the caterpillar in Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Like that caterpillar, they start out very tiny and all they do is eat and eat, and like that caterpillar, they just get bigger and bigger and do more and more damage. Young larvae chew off the surface of the underside of leaves, leaving windowpane-like damage. Older larvae chew holes through leaves. This makes for many, many lacy rose leaves throughout the garden.
Sawflies develop through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Since these pests have several generations throughout the year, every rose slug you leave on a leaf or procrastinate crushing will accumulate progeny that will continue to harass you in future months this year — and in future years.
Planting what you can’t care for: Being realistic about how many roses we can manage is a winning strategy that contributes to a beautiful garden. Tending to more roses than we have time for in conjunction with life’s activities and duties can get tedious. We should be honest with ourselves and plant only the number of roses we can take care of. Otherwise, gardening, which should feel like fun, will start to feel like a chore. When roses are not deadheaded and damaged blooms and foliage are not cut out, the garden looks neglected. A neglected and unkempt rose garden is not a good look.
Disrupting the balance of nature: Pesticides, especially broad-spectrum pesticides, can do more harm than good, and they are not a guarantee that our garden will be spared from insects chomping down on our blooms and leaves. The rose gardeners who rely solely on pesticides and do not employ the cultural, mechanical and biological components of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) often do not understand the risks pesticides pose in disrupting nature’s balance. A healthier approach is to relax excessive perfectionism and transform our thinking, so we are more tolerant and not so bothered by a little pest damage. In conjunction, we should employ the biological tenets of IPM which entice beneficials into our garden to help us with our own mechanical management of pests, and the cultural tenets which keep our plants healthy and better equipped to deal with pest damage.
Infractions
Gambling … an understandable urge: In a perfect world, we should research the roses we are going to buy before we go to the nursery to ensure that they are disease-resistant. Since many lovers of roses are constantly “hungry” for more, going to the nursery is akin to going to the grocery store to buy groceries when we are REALLY hungry. There is a chance we will buy our planned roses and then some, because we are very likely to see a rose with the wow factor that is not on our list. What to do?
Buying a rose we are unfamiliar with and have not seen growing locally is a definite gamble. Mitigate the gamble and research the rose on your smartphone. If it claims to be a good rose and you have the space, buy it. We only live once … and you can always “shovel prune” it if it does not perform adequately.
A hugely negligent omission
Not taking the time to smell the roses: We know we should select roses with disease-resistant genes and nurture them. But we must also practice self-care. Are we nurturing our roses but failing to nurture ourselves? This is a huge omission. Our gardens are a place of refuge and healing where we can escape the mundane distractions and anxieties of everyday life. Our garden can reassure us that beauty and peace still exist despite the chaos in our present world. Nature provides nourishment for all our senses. Periodically, we should put down our tools and sit and gaze upon the beauty of our plants and experience the joy of observing birds, bees and butterflies in our gardens.
Our garden can be a welcoming haven and a spot for meditation, contemplation and spiritual reflection. Let’s take the time to care for our plants, and then let’s take the time to stop. We can find and feel harmony, peace, tranquility and gratitude in our garden when we literally and figuratively stop and smell the roses. Do not fail to embrace these gifts of nature. They are some of life’s best pleasures.
Rita Perwich is a member of the San Diego Rose Society, a consulting rosarian and a master gardener with UC Cooperative Extension.
