I blasted as many as I saw with the jet on the hose, they like to cluster on tender growth and buds just starting to form, held them with my hand or you miss some, tedious but works better than doing nothing. It has to be done every day while present and thoroughly to try to get them all.

I've read different places about spraying with soapy water and would like to know if it really works. If so, what kind of soap and in what proportion to water? How often do you have to spray if you go the soapy solution route? That's one remedy I would not be afraid to quickly mix up in my portable sprayer and worry about chemicals, wouldn't have to suit up and use a breathing mask.

Mine seem to be mostly gone, but they seem to like cooler or early spring; I read that they disappear later on, but I do know from when I corn detassled in August they were present plus years ago I lost a whole crop of beautiful nasturtiums to the annoying things, they hide on the bottom of the leaf. You'd have to be super vigilant to get them all that way.

Soap formula: 1 TSP liquid dish soap in 1 QT water applied with a squirt bottle. Allow 24 hours to kill (aphids turn black). Some products are more dilute in the package, so adjust if it doesn't kill.

jmhendric,

I fully understand your approach as a HT exhibitor, but growing other kinds of roses now, you might want to take a looser approach. Actually aphids almost never do damage that you would notice on a shrub rose. You can ignore them, or wipe the worst shoots off with your fingers, or spray with soap. Regardless, as predators build up, the population should decline during the first flush and eventually disappear for the season. It always does so in my garden.

'Basye's Purple' is a hybrid rugosa that may be sensitive to sprays. You can always do a test on a few leaves and wait 5 days for any effects. The others are probably not sensitive, but nobody sprays 'Darlow's Enigma.'

Spraying Merit is likely to encourage spider mites.

Against aphids I use confidor from bayer, which is based on imidacloprid. It is the only chemical I use in my garden. As it has to be diluted 1:1000 (1 ml per liter) to be absorbed through the leaves, it can be sprayed on every rose, also on those who do not like to be sprayed. Its effect lasts for a whole year so I find it very practical as I have about 150 roses and could never spray them all every week or so with soapy water.
It is also one of the few working things against aphids you can buy here without a special license.

Imidacloprid kills bees, has residual action, have seen it with my own eyes; there's an article in the LA Times about that class of chemicals and bees. No more of that for me. Maybe there is a less harmful alternative of a pesticide since soap would be very tedious for you (and me if I had that much).

Thanks, michaelg, just what I needed to know. Unless they get much worse, that should be just the ticket.

I have been told that imidacloprid is safe if given in march, that is before the first roses start to bloom. I have no idea if it is a legend or not, but I have a lot of bees in my garden. Bees are precious, I would not give it if I saw them dying.
But if there is a safer alternative, I'll be happy to switch to that.

jmhendric - welcome to the world of people who don't have time to take care of exhibition HTs! Glad you are happy with michaelg's advice.

I really don't notice any damage, but just looking at aphids can be annoying. I follow the advice of wiping the aphids off with my fingers, or spraying them off with water. Mostly in my garden (100+ roses) I do that, or just watch the ladybugs, soldier bugs, and tiny birds eat them. The longer time that goes by when you don't spray poisons, the more good bugs & birds you will get feasting on the aphids.

Jeri Jennings (who your rose is named after) has said several times that she never sprays anything, so I'm sure her rose would like that too!

Jackie

Thanx for all the replies The plants are preety small yet so I did notice a-lot of damage on Baseys the aphids got about half the foliage eaten. Ill go with the soapy water mixture also just curious why would merit bring spider mites? If so any solution for mites I only used Avid with stirrup M for an attractant on the teas. Also I noticed some Black Spot on the Basey as well would neem oil be ok I used Compass and Banner Max on the teas all of which I still have on hand. Also how much growth should I expect to see out of these roses this growing season? I was told not to fertilize Darlows or it will take over Chicago. I spaced the darlows 10 feet apart the others about 7 feet hope I gave them enough room.

if there is a safer alternative

*** A strong spray of water.
That's all you need for aphids.
That, and birds, which eat them like candy.

But you must have more than aphids, bro -- aphids don't eat foliage. They just suck juices.
So, if something is eating your foliage, look further.
Rose slugs, maybe?

Use of insecticides DOES often increase the spider mite population, because you are killing beneficial insects that would have eaten the mites.
When we quit spraying our roses with insecticides, our spider mite population dropped to negligible levels, and has pretty much remained there for years now.

I don't believe Neem Oil will help with blackspot.

Jeri

I looked it up before it came up here. It is true that they don't damage plants (well they did in my nasturtiums), presumably mature, larger, healthy plants than low growing flowers.

Aphids damaged and therefore spoiled nearly all the blooms on one rose bush, and it's a once-bloomer so I want rid of them next year. They won't hurt the bush any, but I wouldn't want an infestation on a very small bush like a few I'm nurturing.

They seem to prefer only certain kinds of plants. I want more cute red ladybugs, but think they show up later, just starting to see some again, can do without the orange ones unless they eat aphids.

Ok yeah I was leaning towards thinking killing beneficial insects. One thing I did not do in the beds is put down slug killer in early spring like I always did with my teas Ill get on that tomorrow. Its a bit different growing these roses for me since all I did was spray fungicides and Insecticides every other week the whole growing season. wiping out pests when they were present and preventing disease before it could take hold. I did have a nasty bout with midge ruining all my blooms for most of the short growing season here.But still managed to take one Queen of show in the Fall.

For slugs -- and the brown snails we get out here -- try SLUGGO.
It's not toxic to anyone but slugs and snails.
And I just can't feel badly about killing slugs and snails.

Jeri

If the aphids really bug you might consider trying a pyrethrin (extract from chrysanthemum flowers) based insecticide. Used to be put out by Safer's, but the brand I have now is Garden Safe. I believe there are others out there, too. Just look in up on the web or read the label to get all the details.

I exhibit (including the OGRs), and I don't spray insecticides for aphids. Water jet or squish or just leave 'em be. I have much harder problems to solve (midge).

Eaten foliage sounds like rose slugs (sawfly larvae) to me too. Those can be picked off or insecticidal soap used.

"just curious why would Merit bring spider mites? "

In addition to killing off predators, Merit has been shown to stimulate faster reproduction by spider mites.

And to reinforce the point, aphids definitely do not chew foliage. Look on the bottom of the leaves for small green worms (rose slugs). There is a thread about them every 2-3 pages on this board.

Ladybugs and their larvae can eat thousands of aphids in their lifetimes. I don't spray anything in my gardens and I'm seeing lots of ladybug larvae everywhere right now. I did have many aphids early in the season at the tips of new growth on my new roses which are easily wiped off with your fingers, very satisfying! Now that the ladybugs have taken over I can't find any more aphids.

Green lacewings do a very nice job as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lady Beetles

I have some plants of hybiscus syriacus that I never spray. And yes, ladybugs are often on them and take a snack.

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