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Old garden roses (OGRs) are described as hard and tough so it is not surprising that an often-asked question is whether
they need spraying. Why should it be necessary to spray a plant that has survived centuries without modern chemical pesticides
and fungicides? If these roses can get along without attention, is there any reason to use such drastic control methods?
Well, there are plenty of reasons, and only one of them is aesthetic. Roses with chewed, diseased foliage are just not ornamental.
The plant may survive and generally will—old roses are unusually tolerant of blackspot and mildew. They do get all
the fungus problems of other roses—blackspot was not introduced into rose gardens with the advent of the modern hybrid
tea. But the old roses do not defoliate, and they are sturdy enough to survive repeated infestations. The foliage may be
totally blackened by fungi or desiccated by spider mite, but the plant will survive and come back next spring, a bit weaker
perhaps and with smaller flowers, but still blooming.
There are some old roses which are resistant to disease. The Alba roses, in general, seem to have clean foliage even
when the rest of the garden is devastated. Year after year, Alba semiplena or Maiden’s Blush shrug off blackspot and
mildew and display their lovely blue-green foliage even when not sprayed. But they still succumb to rose chafer, Japanese
beetles, and rose slug; and they need spraying for insects if not fungus problems.
Perhaps there are more favorable climates where rose diseases are unknown, but our hot, muggy, moist summers seem ideally
designed to encourage fungus growth. Perhaps there are lucky areas where Japanese beetles, Gypsy moth caterpillars, and spider
mites are totally unknown, but the northeastern U.S. is not one of them. A few rose bushes can be grown without attracting
every insect around, but any area of monoculture where one kind of plant is grown in quantity is bound to attract the insects
and diseases specific to that plant; rose gardens are not immune to this rule.
Moreover, if OGRs are grown with the modern kinds, and the oldies are left unsprayed, they will provide a reservoir of fungus
spores and insect eggs to infest the modern kinds and will make any kind of control all that more difficult. Once the rosarian
admits the necessity of taking steps to control disease and insects, the next step is to admit that all roses need attention,
not just the modern kinds. It is not, however, necessary to poison the whole world just to keep the roses in good health.
My own garden manages to coexist with a large population including my favorite hummingbirds who arrive each May and spend
the summer coming to the syrup feeders and darting off to their nesting area. They have been regular visitors for more than
twenty years, and during all that time the roses have been sprayed. Hummingbirds aren’t much interested in roses, and
by skipping the areas around the feeders and staying away from the flowers they do love (impatiens, beebalm, honeysuckle)
when spraying, the birds remain healthy and so do the roses.
The garden, after all, is part of the natural world. The object should not be to have a totally sterile environment but
to have a beautiful area which relates to the world around it and which can be shared with other creatures native to the ecosystem.
The roses are over for the year, and the tender ones are under rose cones; but the garden is still alive with the feathered
visitors dashing from tree to feeder and back. Mourning doves are on the ground, sharing the seed there with several cardinal
couples. It’s time to put away the sprayer (cleaning it thoroughly first) and enjoy a new season in the garden. Encouraging
the birds to stay over the winter will pay dividends next spring as they feed on insects and grubs. As winter moves in, the
garden belongs to the wild world; and the gardener moves indoors, leaving it to them. When the red-winged blackbird returns,
it will be time to get out in the garden again. But now is the time to read rose catalogs and to think about next year’s
flowers.
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