The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns by Margaret Dilloway

Author:Margaret Dilloway
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-01-08T05:00:00+00:00

21

AFTER SCHOOL THIS DAY, I HAVE NOTHING TO DO EXCEPT tend my roses. It’s my favorite kind of day. Just warm enough to wear short sleeves, but not so hot that same shirt sticks. Sunblock optional, not required.

With Riley in the house studying, I put on my grubby clothes and my big straw hat and go outside. I found an aphid the other day, the ladybugs I released are not enough, so this evening I go around checking every single plant for the little green critters. It is a critical time, May. I want the roses to keep going all summer. Aphids secrete a sticky substance called “honeydew” that causes fungus, as well as sucks all the life out of the plants. If you see a plant with curled and yellow leaves, chances are aphids are the cause. They’re a rose breeder’s nightmare.

The outside roses have a considerable infestation. I’m particularly worried about the English roses closest to the greenhouse. I hold a Victorian Spice in my palm, a peachy pink David Austin rose that has always done well for me. It almost looks like it’s got green polka dots on it.

I go into the greenhouse. More blooms have appeared on my seedlings. I run my hands over them, checking for aphids. None have gotten inside here yet, thank goodness for that. A few of these seedlings are absolutely one hundred percent no good. One has withered leaves and ugly blooms. I yank it out of the potting mix, tossing it into my recycling bucket before it can contaminate the rest of my flowers.

I check my mother plants, the ones I have just crossed. These will wither and ripen into rose hips, which look like red seed pods. Most casual rose growers never see these, because either they deadhead the roses before it happens or their roses are sterile. If I didn’t need the hips for breeding, I’d eat them. They’re full of vitamin C.

Rose G42 is looking splendid. I turn it around to better see it. Plants, all plants, stretch toward the sun as they grow. This was something I learned through observation of my mother’s fern houseplants as a child. “They’re lopsided unless you turn them,” she said.

This is true in the greenhouse, where the sun beams on it indirectly. I have to change the position of G42 daily. There are several more blooms on now. The one blossom it had at the rose show has made more petals, making it even fuller. The colors are so bright they nearly hurt my eyes.

I bend over and sniff it, hoping it somehow magically has gotten fragrant. Nothing. My nostrils itch. Nothing much at all except the regular pollen-y smell of a plant.

I don’t much like to use insecticides, not when they might get the good bugs, too. But I can’t risk the aphids getting into the greenhouse. Usually the water spray works great. There are too many of the critters this year, though. With regret, I get out the insecticide and mix it in the special bucket with its attached sprayer I keep just for this purpose.

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