roses - for or against?

[simon404]

[simon404]

[wardy]

Gorgeous rose S404!  What is it?  Mary Rose?  Gertrude Geykll.  Do tell   Whatever it is it's lovely  :)

[simon404]

Sorry I dont know, it was here before me! Perhaps someone can recognise it?

[Doris_Pinks]

Against, well in this neck of the woods. they end up as twigs because we all get blackspot so badly, so I am an anti-rose person!

[Marianne]

That is a beauty !  I bet it smells heavenly too !
I think it contains the word "floribunda" in its description, probably meaning that the plant gives loads of flowers.

Lucky you !

[wardy]

Diseased roses is because we have cleaner air.  When the air was polluted with sulphur (as was the case near us until recently) we didn't get blackspot.  Now these toxic sites have closed down we're getting it again.  I'll just have to search out disease free varieties as I don't spray.  the only thing I use to spray roses with is water or water with fairy liquid, or garlic water which is very good at zapping aphids  ;D

[TULIP-23]

Wardy ;)

Does that really work on the Beasties Garlic Water
Serious ???

[wardy]

It doesn't kill them - it's supposed to repel them.  I plant garlic under each rose just to be sure  ;D

[Lady Cosmos]

Poetry by A.M. Juster

Against Roses

A long eugenic past
reduces roses to
a vain and pampered caste.

Their charm is artefice
their fragile shell of cells
unfit for wilderness.

Their languid symmetries
and anorexic airs
exalt deformities.

A run of blossoms, thick
and tangled by the road,
displays a truer pick.

prefer the bindweed vines
that cannot stand alone
yet clench the mossy spines

of trees and grasp as tight
as nightmares or disease
while hoarding hints of light.

By cloning a delight,
obsessing towards as some form,
we dull what should excite.

A rose bouquet contrives
to label wordless joy
when nothing true survives.


:D

[Moggle]

I love roses and have put myself in the 'for' category, but have never grown them - no space in a flat   :)

[Marianne]

To combat the beasties, I used to spray with just water and elbow greace.  Start at the top and work your way down the stalk.  It worked every time !
;D

[Val]

Can't afford the water we're metered, and all 4 butts get empty very quickly in the summer.  :'( :'(