No balling, no thrips

Most of my rose blooms are in damage control at this time of the year: dewy nights and cool weather means lots of balling - Souvenir de la Malmaison being notorious, as well as Mrs BR Cant, Abe Darby and almost everything else.

For some curious reason Louise Odier, Radio Times and Graham Stuart Thomas look great.

Here's LO and RT just for proof
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Dave, I have found the start of this season to be better than ever before.
No Blackspot, excellent growth and Aphids are are being kept down by the Preditor Wasps. Have had a little balling but nothing as previous as previous years.

I have put it down to the very dry weather in the last two months, however all will change with the recent rain should we get some heat to start all that moisture steaming.

Ii have aphids back and also thrips ATM was going to spray yesterday and ran out of time, plus it rained last night, love you pic Dave

No Thrips or Aphids here at the moment. Wish I could say the same about the black spot. I sprayed with Triforine on Saturday, and next day there was more BS and today more again. I have to walk round with a bucket and pull off the affected leaves.

I don't spray anymore though used to spray Triforene and also Lebaycid every 10 to 14 days. Triforene didn't seem to make any difference, had canes dying down to the crown and around Christmas all seemed to defoliate Have changed my roses from HT's and English to more hardy Teas, Alister Clarks, Noisettes and China's. Have also been more ruthless, anything that won't thrive in my climate gets the chop and out into the Sulo bin. This has made a great difference. I still remember going through the latest catalogues picking rose blooms by shape, colour and fragrance. Unfortunatly spent a lot of money on these roses only to find they are hopeless in Sydney humidity

Forgot about the aphids - because we haven't had any - yet. No BS here - yet!
I only spray the new/seedling roses to give them a chance. The others have to tough it out.
If I really love a rose enough I'm happy to wait til autumn for it come into all its glory.
You're smart Ozeboy, to grow the best roses for your climate.

Ozeboy wrote:.... I still remember going through the latest catalogues picking rose blooms by shape, colour and fragrance. ....

sems that is made nearly by everybody, especially by newcomers, althogh the breeders offer roses for 'beginners' which are more resistant to BS, but nearly nobody wants to be a 'beginner. My recommendation would be to rename them as 'low maintenace roses for experts'

cheers Bernhard

I could be wrong, but balling occurs with rain and some humidity.

I haven't seen any aphids eigther, but there are plenty of lady beetles about.

Plenty of aphids here.. is a little while yet before most the insect numbers start to grow here... still a little cold. The aphids seem to appear earlier than most. Hoverfly larvae starting to appear though... those little fellas are voracious aphid predators.

Simon, it was 31Deg here today with the humidity up around 75%. It's now 9:45pm and it's still 27Deg in the house. I've been keeping a very close eye on my roses up here and haven't seen any aphids etc. I had a few leaves with BS on them on my problem child (Angel Face) about a week ago but haven't seen any on the others. I'm waiting on the wet season to arrive to see what happens then !! It hasn't rained here for months.

It's been raining here for months last two weeks have been almost dry then it started bucketing down again yesterday, fine this afternoon after a rainy start. Temperatures here haven't topped 18 degrees during the day (16 has been about the average) and we've had recent frosts and 4 or 5 degree mornings... wish it would warm up a bit so I can thaw out some

Welcome to the cold side of live. The temperatures went down here below the zero line the last 2 nights , might take care that the hips get not be chilled

Simon, I have a good look at Foxtell weather most days and take particular note of whats happening in Tassie.
It's a wonder the island hasn't floated away or become completely submerged. Not very good rose growing weather.

I'm actually going to cross my roses with axolotls this year in the hope I can breed one with gills... either that or Bull Kelp Roses growing strongly here at present but it sure is enough to sort the duds from the studs.

Simon wrote:I'm actually going to cross my roses with axolotls this year in the hope I can breed one with gills... either that or Bull Kelp Roses growing strongly here at present but it sure is enough to duds from the studs.

ROFL!!!! You'll make a fortune Simon!!

Simon wrote:Temperatures here haven't topped 18 degrees during the day (16 has been about the average) and we've had recent frosts and 4 or 5 degree mornings... wish it would warm up a bit so I can thaw out some

So its Simons fault!
Its been nearly 30 degrees most days in Launceston for the past week or so. My poor roses started cooking in the heat. What a difference a month makes in Tassie.

Here's why I put up with the early season brown mush that is Souvenir de la Malmaison. Those perfect blooms are worth the wait. This one climbs through a lemon-scented verbena in the vegie garden.
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Beautiful Dave. Must get one of these one day... Beautifully photographed too.