Talkback: Roses and their pests

This is one of my favourite roses... I was wondering what all the cuts in the leaves were! Thanks!

I too have this beautiful rose which is now about 20 years old and gets better every year - quite prolific flowering. It was obtained as a small cutting from two wonderful old gardening ladies I got chatting to in their wonderful garden in Wales whilst on holiday. I admired it and they kindly gave me the rooted cutting.

I think of them every year when it bursts into flower and perfumes my path through to my wildlife garden. Not the tidiest garden in the world but I love it & so do my birds. Disturbed my first toad/frog this week on 18/3/08 whilst trying to tidy up a little. Didn't want to disturb anything else so just stopped tidying!!! That's my excuse anyway.

Happy Easter everyone.

Last year and this year in July- September our roses have been decimated by caterpillars. Not one or two but hundreds. Each leaf can have between 20 and 50 caterpillars and they can eat the rose bare in one night, They are tiny green in colour, about quarter inch long and as this as a pin but there are hundreds on any one rose. I presume they are some kind of moth. We check them regular and use a systemic spray but this is now annual. We have about 15-20 roses and is a real worry, any ideas or assistance would be grateful.

Help - what are these? And what should I do about them? My newly plated (2007) rose Rambling rector has acquired some unpleasant passengers in the form of blackish, soft bumps, about 4-5 mm diam and 3mm high on stems and in nodes. Each is soft, slightly shiny - and tends to be accompanied by one ant. Some are dry; others collapse on touch into a sticky, yellowish gunge. I have been scraping these off with a penknife, but each day more appear (not to mention greenfly which I'm treating with soapy water. Which seems to result in clean greenfly ... but I don't want to damage the few bees that remain) Any ideas? Kind regards BM bernardrmartin@hotmail.com

Reply to Bernard Martin. These are probably soft scale. Have a look at another blog entry: http://blog.gardenersworld.com/2008/12/03/coming-up-roses/

Help most of my roses have go BLACK SPOT I pick off the leaves as they die and put them in the bin. Is there anything I can do I did this last year but it is back. I do not want to spray anything that will harm any of the good wild life, eg. Ladybirds and sparrows who are on the aphilds.

Those Pesky Squirrels. I use humane methods to stop brussel sprout damage. I tell the youngest squirrels to 'eat up their veg.' From then they go off my greens.On a more serious note possibly high 'C'. Is anyone experiencing poor drainage in their gardens.(#Rain, rain go away#).Looks like the heavy spade, grit & gravel and some holed drainage pipes will be needed.(look out for existing pipework!) Enjoyed this site!