Roses

Anyone have experience with Roses? I have an insect on mine that I don't know if it is friend or foe. I've been finding a lot of them lately inside the blooms when I dead head.

Maggie:
10 years ago I could have helped because one of my co-workers only grew roses but he retired before I did and I no longer grow roses as they were to mich trouble in Las Vegas. If you can find some Diatimatious earth ( the stuff used to filter water for pools) ( I think that is how to spell it) It is so fine that it chockes most bugs but is not harmfull to the enviorment. I am trying to remember all the natural bug remedies. The other one was a mild dish soap soluton sprayed on the buds. Most bugs on roses are a sucking type like aphids I do not recall any positive ones other than lady bugs and preying mantis altho spiders also eat the bugs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth
I found the correct spelling you can probably find it at a pool supply place. Spread it around the base of your plants. I think I got that right!

I have a lot of experience with Roses.I was the city gardener for 10 years.That means around 100 rose plants to care for.Among other gardening plants.

You could write a description.But my guess is they are aphids.You can just wash them off with water on a sunny afternoon.

It usually means that the Roses are getting too much nitrogen.Try applying elemental sulfur instead.They come in small bags in the 20 pound range and usually 94% sulfur in yellowish color.

LOL no not an aphid. I get those as well. I did have one bush that has them so I sprayed them all with my rose spray. Not very environmentally conscious but it works. No these are some kind of gray beetle. I did see one described on one site and think that is what this must be. I had attributed the damage done to the blooms to the early aphids.

Ok this is the closest thing I've found to what I have but I don't get the kind of damage shown in the picture and my beetles don't have those long legs that I can see.

As I said in the earlier post I sprayed the bush today and the ground cover around the bush as well. Most of the existing bugs went into the green waste bin with the dead heads.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/...ture/M1198.html

LOL,

I never have seen them in all the years I have worked with Roses.

But seriously if you cut back on the Nitrogen doses and increase the Sulfur.There should be fewer bug problems to deal with.

Well the more I watch those beetles the more I'm convinced that is what they are. I was just cutting the blooms that had bug off and I get most of them but sometimes they drop back down into the ground cover. I've taken to spraying them first. Today I cut three off. I saw another one drop but was able to spray it before it went into the ground cover. I missed one though that I never saw but heard drop as I cut a branch. I did find one a while back on another of my bushes but I was able to cut it off. The bush is very small, less than a foot, and there is no ground cover around it yet though I have one getting close.

Roses are work.