The Good
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| Maggie |
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| Dutchess de Brabant |
That's about all the good I have right now and that's because of...
The Bad
Thripes!
Sadly I am infested with thripes again this year! They seem to be pretty early this year. Last year I at least got to enjoy the big spring flush from all my roses before they attacked but not this year. Many of my roses Sombreuil, Lamarque, Climbing Pinkie, The Charlestonian, Belinda's Dream, Buff Beauty, Madame Alfred Carrie, Baronne Henriette de Snoy, Souv. d'un Ami and a few others have only just started to bloom. I went out to take a look at what was blooming and noticed Belinda's big beautiful blooms were brown and I knew it had to be for one reason! Those horrid horrid teeny tiny little bugs had infested it! Grrrrrrrr!
The Ugly
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| Thripe damage to Belinda's Dream |
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| more damage |
This is so disappointing and if you have gone through it you know what I'm talking about. One waits all winter for the roses to bloom only to have them ruined by a bug that is pretty much impossible to get rid of as well as difficult to see if you don't know what you are looking for. I wonder if the warm winter has anything to do with how early and bad it is this year? I inspected the rest of the roses that had blooms and really there wasn't a rose that escaped them. Belinda's Dream had a great deal of blooms on her with a bunch of buds just beginning to open and all with really bad thripes damage. Mrs Dudley Cross and Sombreuil all badly damaged. MAC just starting her flush (which this rose has made such a come back since I moved her and I so badly wanted to see her covered in blooms) has them too. Ooooo those stinking little thripes! So I got a big bucket and dish liquid and filled the bucket with soapy water. Pruners in hand and began the painful task of deadheading all the blooms as well as buds that clearly showed thripe damage and submerged them in the soapy water. The soapy water helps to keep the thripes from flying away and hopefully kill them. Then I will drain the water and throw the buds and blooms in a garbage bag to toss in the trash can for tomorrow's pickup. That is about all I can do unless someone else out there has heard of something else then please tell me.
So for now my spring garden isn't what I was hoping for but you have to go with the flow and I will just keep my eye out for The Good!
So sorry! I have a slight case, but not too bad - yet, thankfully. I've had them very bad before, and it's so frustrating. I wouldn't mind the little buggers if they just wouldn't make the blooms so ugly! I'm also adding a lot of white and cream roses to my garden this year, and I'm worried they will love that area.
ReplyDeleteI haven't had many problems with thrips but I do hate it when bugs attack any of my plants. Here's a blog to check out for all things rose-related: http://rosomanes.blogspot.com/. She's located in CA so she doesn't have the mildew problems we do, but she's an expert on roses. Your Maggie rose is really pretty. My roses are just setting buds. I doubt I'll have any blooms for a few more weeks.
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