My next door neighbor's 2 goats ate all of the wild multiflora rose (and blackberry, and honeysuckle, and poison ivy) that was infesting his back acre. I think yours could dispatch and Iceberg or two with nary a burp. :~)

Do you rent yours out for brush clearing, or are they for dairy or meat production?

Hello again HollySprings. They ( the goats ) would as you said, INHALE Iceberg without taking a breath! Goats LOVE roses. Poison Ivy.......pure goat candy. We don't rent them out for brush work, but if my husband wasn't on a 60+ hour a week job, we may think of doing it one of these days. I hear it is becoming BIG business. For us, we have the kids, keep all the girls, and send most of the little bucks to market. There is no way you can keep all those, smelly rowdy boys around here. Unless of course I put the band to them! I prefer to keep my grazing grasses however for my producing does. I didn't think you would think much of Iceberg after going through the archives here! I suppose I will wait until next Spring to plant another rose in it's place.

Ok here it is. You tell me BS HELL or overreacting.? I suppose it depends on one's level of tolerance?

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It's a little BS, yes. If that's all it would get, it would be tolerable in my book. But it ain't a patch on what's coming. Picture totally naked sticks supporting a couple of white popsicles on top. Then it'll just sit there leafless most of the summer until it can smell fall coming and it'll releaf. Just in time to get another case of BS and become popsicle rose again.

Tee hee. Rose popsicles. Too funny. I suppose if I want a white rose Prosperity would be a good replacement?

Last year I bought an Austin rose called Charles Darwin. I have never ever seen such a blackspot magnet in my life. I dug it up, bagged it up and took it back to the garden center. They were set to give me a hard time until they checked their stock of Austin roses, which were covered with black spot. I replaced it with one Knockout and one Bill Warriner and was very satisfied.

Goatster,

Honestly, I live with much worse than what you show in the picture. Mainly, though, it's for the fragrant blooms. I cut the leaves off anyway when I cut the HTs for the vases.

That said, I have some Barbara Striesand's that are about to get shovel pruned. Not only do they defoiliate with BS at the drop of a hat, bu the whole plant suffers horribly. I've tried everything to get a good one going, but they simply ain't worth the effort.

If you're really couragious, try an Alba Mediland. It's a rambler. Well, actually, it's possessed. I call it the kudzu rose. It gets a tad of BS, but nothing bad. And it spreads like hell. Cut the goats loose on this one and it'll be back in a week.

Actually that was when it was in good shape. Now it has NO leaves, but growing new ones. I was going to shovel it, but decided to keep it to "experiment" on for a while. I love to do that. BUT the point in the end is to have roses that NEVER need spraying. But I am really curious about some of the homemade remedies I find on GW. I have found many "home made" remedies for my goats that are amazing. I have seen an anemic very sick goat better over night with some remedies I know folks would balk at. There is no real way to know if something will work until you give it a try, but again, I want NO spray roses in the end.

I've heard only glowing praise for Alberic Barbier, and plan to add one to my garden this year. What I do have right now is 100% spot free Seafoam; not big flowers, but plenty of them. I like mine so well I just bought another.