By Staff
Seeing how June is upon us and June is all about roses, I would like to share a product I came across.
My alba "Semiplena" rose for the last two years has had problems with rust and Japanese beetles.
But you know that I do not believe in chemicals and pesticides that I have to spray onto the plant.
Not only because of my own safety, I also think about the safety of the good insects, birds and other creatures as well.
(One day, maybe, I will tell you about my secret about why I so detest chemicals.)
Back to the product I discovered. Actually, it's not new. It's been around for quite awhile.
It's made by Bayer and is called All-in-One Rose and Flower Care.
It's three systemic products in one. It fertilizes, has insect and disease control all in one and it lasts up to six weeks!
No messy chemical sprays to mix up and spray.
All you have to do is follow label directions and mix and pour at the base of the plant.
In April, I mixed up a batch and poured it all around the base of my alba "Semiplena" rose.
It now has bright green leaves and not a smidge of rust, but the test for the dreaded Japanese beetle has yet to come.
But for now the rose is fed and healthy. No more rust or aphids or leafrollers. So far I'm happy.
Not only can you use this on your roses, it can also be used on other flowers and shrubs as well (columbine, iris, hibiscus, hollyhock, daisies and others). It controls black spot, downey mildew, powdery mildew, rust and southern blight.
The fertilizer in it is 9-14-9. This makes strong roots, shoots and blooms. It controls aphids, borers, scale insects, spider mites, thrips, whiteflies and others. Now, just because it is easy to apply, you should read all the directions and be careful.
Do not apply this around food plants or stuff you intend to consume. Do not use the utensils or the measuring cup used to mix this up later for food preparation. Be careful. This is a fertilizer, pesticide, fungicide. I found it at Hale's Hardware. You might have to ask and them them order it in for your. The sku number is 819-185. It's $17.99 (32 fluid ounces). Well worth it, I'd say.
I also put it around my hollyhocks because the Japanese beetles last year made the leaves look like lace doilies (I've planned a surprise for my little friends the Japanese beetles this year, ha, ha, ha).
Also, it would work great on the leafminers in the columbines. (We should have put it on earlier in the season - the leaves on the columbine will still be damaged, but it will kill the bugs in the leaves, maybe none next year). I always say maybe because in life nothing is 100 percent.
We know, deep down in our hearts, that a table of fertilizer does not, by itself, produce flowers in miraculous abundance, that a single spray will not mean complete freedom from pests, that few plants fulfill all claims, but we are eternal gamblers; perhaps this time it will all come true.
(1898-1983)
Garden's Worst Pest?"
But it does seem to me that we have an obligation to know what we're doing, whom we are killing, when we grab up a bottle of spray or a packet of lethal dust. It's perfectly obvious that without insect life on earth things would come to a pretty pass. There might not be any vegetation at all. And although I don't for a minute imagine that my 98-cent can of poison spray will annihilate a whole species of insects and thereby throw what the ecologists call "the totality of interrelationships" out of kilter, I do worry that I might kill villains and heroes indiscriminately, repay the kindness of my invaluable friends, the birds, with a case of acute gastritis and possibly even jeopardize the health and well-being of those with great gardening assistants, my grandchildren.
Gardening Book"