Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Sacrificing Roses

I'll be honest, last year I sprayed the roses every two weeks to deter fungus and hungry bugs. Luckily, the can was empty at the end of the summer, or I'm guessing I would have caved this summer, too. Midspring, I found my rose leaves disappearing as fast as they could grow. It took a while to figure out what was going on, but after much research, I discovered the culprit: sawfly larvae. The little green worms curl up in a ball under the leaf, and when I'm not looking, they devoured the leaves. I googled every option: organic, green, eco-friendly...and every link told me the same thing. The earth-friendly way to get rid of them is to pick them off by hand and squish 'em. Sigh...I love my roses, and I'll pick the stupid worms off every couple days, but I just can't commit to daily worm pickings. So, some of my leaves will be sacrificed to the sawfly. Luckily, the roses are blossoming beautifully, just ignore the leaves please.

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