Roses Archives – Thomas Stone MCI Hort MPGCA

Posted on June 27, 2018 July 3, 2018 by thomashort — 2 Comments

Dead heading and summer pruning on roses

Well that’s the first and only time that I shall use the word dead heading in this blog, it’s such a negative word so let’s use a more positive one that describes the old flowers perfect, spent bloom removal, see more up lifting straight away!

I have also now labelled it as part of summer pruning of roses. I prefer to do the main prune during the late winter months but doing a little bit of summer pruning can help the plant to become stronger, healthier plants.

First of all, spent bloom removal is really just needed on repeat flowering roses to encourage more flowers to appear and also open a little quicker. With once flowering roses, there’s no real need to remove the old blooms but just a cosmetic reasons

Removing the blooms is pretty easy,

with the multi headed flowering type of roses you can thin out the spent blooms as they finish or wait until the whole floret has finish and then prune back down to the first full set of leaves. Why the first set of leaves? Well can it’s just helping to plant to maximise the water and nutrients by removing a section of wood that is going to die back down to that bud anyway. It is also well worth looking at the plant and seeing where it wants to be cut, some roses are very helpful and start sending up a new shoot where it wants to regrow.

Removing the odd flower in the middle of a bunch of flowers

Or taking the spent bloom down to the first full leaf

This rose shows that perfectly and you can see I have trimmed it down to just above with new shoot.

I also tend to carry out a slightly heavier spent bloom removal or indeed summer pruning of roses that have produced stems that are to thin to hold the weight of the flowers. This is tends to happen on the once flowering roses and the English rose type and the simple way to reduce the weight on these branches, is to remove the spent bloom to a lower bud and even to thin out the branches as below. This help to lift the branches off the ground

A branch hanging over with the weight of the flowers

To help to reduce the weight I am thinning out some of the stems

And then trimming back the spent blooms a little harder

The finished branch with weight reduced

The other part of summer pruning is to remove any dead branches and any branches at the base of the plant that have simply done nothing since pruning in the winter. Yes it could be done in the winter but removing these bits of wood now again helps the plant to use the water and nutrients more efficiently. It also can improve air flow though the plant and help to reduce fungal infections

This is the type of growth I am talking about

The finished cleaned plant

Equipment wise I tend to use garden snips sold by Niwaki, to carry out spent bloom removal, mainly as the thinner points and lightness makes them ideal tool to use. secateurs are brilliant for the heavier form of summer pruning, I carry both using this great double holster

Well I hope you enjoyed this blog on summer pruning of summer roses

Dead heading and summer pruning on roses

Posted on June 18, 2018 June 18, 2018 by thomashort — 4 Comments

The glory of the moss roses

Moss roses are a distinctive group of roses, their flowers fill the air with fragrance whilst the soft sticky growth that covers their buds, act as sellotape on anything that passes by. The moss roses are indeed part of the larger centifolia group of roses but these roses at sometime, produced sticky soft growth to ward off sap sucking insects like aphids. The rose breeders during the 1800’s leaped apon this natural deviation and bred even more roses that were covered in this sticky soft mossy type growth. Some as a result were slightly less sticky than others!

This mossy growth is basically formed from the glandular projections that cover the Rose stems and buds, this is what gives the roses the scent. In moss roses this somehow took a slight turn and became this soft sticky fragrant growth, which to many smells of spicy apples.

The moss roses were introduced to the uk from Europe in about 1700 and indeed many 100’s were bred although sadly we only have a handful of that figure left

Well here’s 10 great moss roses to give you a taste of what this fabulous plant can bring us, some grow to a few feet tall while others make 8ft quite easy. They are indeed a great group of roses to grow

Mousseline was bred in France in 1855 and repeat flowers thoughout the summer, fragrant and gets to about 4ft tall

General kleber was bred in France in 1856, great quality blooms which are highly scented, flowers in June and July only. grows to about 5ft tall and is great rose for a large pot

Celina was again bred in 1855 in France, smells Devine but does suffer quite badly will mildew but the striped flowers are stunning to say the least

Henri Martin, bred in France in 1863is one of the real stunners of this group, it’s flowers are one of the darkest of the moss roses and changes to a deep red as it ages. It is well scented, can can be successful grown either as a supported shrub rose or as a climbing rose

Rosa oeillet panache is the only stripped moss rose left now sadly, it’s fragrant flowers only born during June and into July. It is a sport off the common moss rose

James veitch is a little stunner, bred in France around 1864, it barely gets to 2ft in height and flowers all summer long although sadly the flowers aren’t the most highly scent of the group. It also grows well in pots

Little gem is One of my favourites as well, wonder scent and gets to about 3ft high in the garden, it’s featured in my six on Saturday a few times now. Bred in the uk in 1880

Muscosa is the father of them all, this stunning rose has been around for over 400yrs now, it can get to nearly 4ft in size and flowers just the once

Shailers white Mose rose is a sport off the common moss and can indeed at times revert back to the pink form just as the pink form can at times throw up this white form, again highly scented and once flowering. Though to of been around since 1790.

William lobb, well I am saving the best to the last, one of the most highly of scented and beautiful of all the moss roses, indeed is one of my top ten roses of all time, bred in France in 1855 it a big rose growing to over 6ft as a shrub or 8ft as a climber. It works well trimmed as a shrub or having the long stems pinned down, but it is as a climber it performs best as. It flowers on and off all summer long

I hope you enjoyed my brief look at moss roses and this will led you to enjoy, study and hopefully grow many of these stunning plants. There are lots more available than I can list or feature here but this is just a taste for you all

Posted on June 13, 2018 June 13, 2018 by thomashort — 3 Comments

Identifying rose stock

Most rose that you buy here in the uk, have been grafted or budded as it’s called, onto a root stock of another rose. This is done for various reasons,

the Rose maybe difficult to propagate from cuttings and budding is done to produce a higher success rate,
the rose maybe weak on its own roots and not make a good garden plant on its own, and need a stronger growing root system to produce a garden worthy plant
To contain some roses, some like Rosa gallica and rugosa have a habit of spreading on their roots and being budded, they are more controlled
It produces a bigger plant for sale quicker than by taking cuttings

The method of budding is quite simple, a 1 year old root stock is planted in the spring, then in July, a T cut is made into the rootstock and a bud of the rose you require is slipped in and held in place with a special rubber clip, left for the summer and then top of the rootstock is removed down to the bud in the spring, that inspires the bud to break producing the rose of your choice. This is lifted in the autumn for sale as bareroot or containerised. R V rogers produce an excellent blog on how it is done please click here to read it That’s a simple guide to budding

Many roses have been used for the root stock over the years but now for most roses, only one in the uk is now commonly used and that is Rosa laxa or Rosa corynbifera ‘Laxa’ to give it’s full name. The English dog rose Rosa cainina has also be used in the past. Rosa laxa was choosen as it suits a wide range of soils, produces longer lived plants and is more disease resistant than other types used but when it does how do you tell it apart? Well here we go!

Firstly the leaves normally have 7 leaflets and have a slight sliver tinge to the older leaves while the younger ones are a bright green colour

The thorns are also slightly different with the barbed points facing downwards and with a distinct twist at the ends

The stems are often a giveaway too, being a big green colour while young and maturing to a deeper brown colour with whitish lines on the stems

Then there’s the flowers at this time of the year, the top one is Rosa laxa and the bottom is Rosa cainina, some people put the two forms into the same botanical group and they are almost identical

Best way to remove them is to pull them up, tearing them off the root system more than cutting them down as when pulled off, all the buds below ground are removed while cutting down leaves the buds underneath and allows them to regrow again

I hope that helps with Rose stock problems

Posted on June 11, 2018 June 11, 2018 by thomashort — 12 Comments

Gallica roses, forgotten gems

Once flowering roses are having a hard time of things of late, mainly as there are some great repeating roses that do have some great scent as well. But let’s not forget these beautiful roses, some of which, have been around for many hundred if not thousands of years. Yes they may only flower once but that is also a good reason to plant them in our gardens, it’s something positive to look forward to each June, seeing the rose slowly open and that delightful fragrance hitting your nostrils, either from close up or from a distance. These roses also have a flower unlike no other, the shape and the way some of the petals are formed within the flower, some are quartered, some semidouble. The colour range may also be limited to the pinks and reds but does that matter, not too me I may add. But anyway, enough of me singing their praises, you can see for yourself below, with 10 great forms just showing you a little of what they have to offer

Charles de Mills is a famous and well grown form, just look at the flower shape and colour!

Alain Blanchard is one of my favourites too, great for bees the the mottling on the flowers is quite special

There a several stripy galliacas, Camuyeax is one of my favourites

Lycoris with it’s green button eye is quite distinctive

While complicata is one of the daftest named forms, nothing complicated about this rose

Look at the colour of Cosimo Ridolfe

Belle Isis is one of my favourites and just look at her, the Greek goddess

Tuscany also needs no introduction, been around since the 16th century at least

President de Seze is another great form

These were also the first roses to really be hybridised, many by the French but also the English, German and Italian gardeners. This breeding has been going on for hundreds of years and sadly what remains today.

These are also pretty tough roses, Rosa gallica grows naturally in sandy free draining soil so these types will take some poor soils. One word or warning though, on their own roots they do like to spread out a little, well more than a little, so always worth buying budded Plants unless you have a lovely sunny bank on free draining soil you would like covered!

They also pretty disease free, some forms suffer more than others but on the whole they can be pretty black spot and mildew free.

In all that are a cracking plant to grow so why not give them ago

20180226 202933 Gallica roses, forgotten gems

Posted on May 21, 2018 May 22, 2018 by thomashort — 4 Comments

Opening of the first one!

This time of year, to me is very special. I love the starting of life that this time of year brings, whether it’s the bright fresh green foliage at is now covering the countryside, in all its different shades of green or the sound of young hatched birds squeaking in their nest. For me it is the real time of change, spring becomes early summer and there’s 3 things that to me, herald in the start of summer, the first is the swallows arriving back from Africa, with their chatter filling the gardens with joy, next is the ear drum bursting sound of screeching as the swifts appear once more over ahead. Their short term stay is far too short but to me is the true sound of summer.

The last thing for me is the opening of the first rose in my own garden, yes I have seen a few early roses out in other peoples garden it the opening of the first rose in my own garden is always a special occasion and that final part of the summer jigsaw arrived for me yesterday with the opening of a very special rose!

We came back home yesterday after a day at the seaside, to be welcomed in by Climbing Lady Hillingdon flowering away in our back garden. She is always an early rose but it is a rose I have long loved and it has been a special rose in our family, for it was this rose that brought about my dads love of roses back in the 70’s and one that has been grown in every family garden since, including mine now in chandlers ford. For those who don’t know her, here’s a blog from last year Climbing lady Hillingdon that dwells on her history. She is one of the finest apricot roses you can grow and it was wonderful to have her lady ship welcome in the summer by adding the last piece of the jigsaw to my summer jigsaw. Now at last, the rose season will start up once more and the scented delights will fill our gardens with colour and scent once more.

20180226 202933 Opening of the first one!

Posted on March 14, 2018 March 14, 2018 by thomashort — 9 Comments

Underplanting roses- part 2, a few idea

In last weeks post, (just here in case you missed it I spent a bit of time going though the ideas behind underplanting roses and it’s advantages, this week I shall be be looking at a range of under planting that will suit a wide range of roses and of course their different colour flowers. This list isn’t meant to be a bible but just a mere stepping stone into the future path of plant discovery. Now this blog could cover a few hundred plants but I shall keep it short at around 12 Plants just to give you a few ideas to get things started

Geranium pratense ‘Mrs Kendall Clark’

Now I could go on about the history of this Hardy Geranium and how it’s not the real form but let’s leave that to another blog, Geranium pratense ‘Mrs Kendall Clark’ tends to flower just the once mainly but it can repeat a couple of times during the summer months. It’s light blue stripped flowers do tend to suit single coloured roses, either in pastel colours or it can just about get away with the darker reds too

Eryngium giganteum

is much better known as Miss Willmott’s ghost. This biannual appeared the year after Miss Ellen Willmott visited a garden as she had a habit of spreading the seed in a garden during her visits. This is one of the most useful silver plants to have in the garden, it just works with any colour and almost any Rose! It is very good at self seeding itself all around the garden but it is easily removed if it’s in the wrong place. As it is a biannual, it will just form a rosette of leaves in the first year and then flower and die in the next.

Digitalis purpurea f.albiflora

Another biannual is the beautiful Digitalis purpurea f.albiflora or the pure white foxglove. This plant gives you so much height within the border and is important mixed in with the shrub roses and their range of pinks and reds. These towers of white help to give the border some height and purity to the border. One word of warning, if you want just the pure white forms be certain to remove any with any hint of purple!

Sisyrinchium striatum

This is a odd looking plant with iris like leaves and dainty light yellow flowers followed by black seedheads. It’s colour and strap like leaves makes it a good plant to mix in with roses of a wide range of colours,from white to dark red. As well as working with a wide colour range, it works well with a wide range of heights, again with roses ranging in height from 45cm to 2m. It does selfseed a little but is easily replanted into the correct place

Campanula latiloba

This delightful campanula comes in a few different colours, Hidcote Amethyst is a amethyst colour, the main form is blue and the white form called alba is also a very good plant to use and it will cover a wide range of roses. It will also flower for May weeks from May into August depending on the year and weather

Anchusa azurea

The Italian bugloss as it is more commonly called is a bright blue perennial that will repeat flower during the year. This blue colour works again with so many colour forms of roses. It has hairy leaves that may cause a rash on some people ie me! It grows to 50cm in height and can be cut down after flowering to encourage more to come through.

Dianthus old garden hybrids

These small plants add more to the roses than just their beautiful range of pink flowers that fill the air with a clove like scent. They also bring a great shade of grey needle like foliage to the party. Their small size makes them ideal for planting around the edges of the roses and through smaller roses. They also do a great job at the front of the borders by helping to hide the bottoms of the shrub roses, which can be a little unsightly but don’t tell them please

Geranium psilostemon

Geranium psilostemon needs a little more careful partnering although used correctly it can really uplift the surrounding roses. It’s difficulty comes from the colour and the height, it surprisingly works well with a range of pinks and white flowers just the sheer brightness can at times over power the surrounding plants. The other thing to watch out for is the height, it can grow to 1.2m which can over power a lot of roses, so again it needs bearing in mind when using

Penstemon ‘Pensham Wedding Day’

Penstemons are great plants to have in the garden anyway but they make great additions to the Rose beds. As they repeat flower throughout the summer, they make great companions to repeat flowering roses and this white form suites pink and red flowering roses.

Penstemon ‘Hidcote Purple’

While the purple form of Penstemon Hidcote Purple works so well with white and pale coloured roses, again it’s repeat flowering helps to bring colour to the borders even after the roses have finished flowering

Tanacetum parthenium ‘Flore Pleno’

The double flowered version of feverfew is one of the most underrated plants we grow in the garden, this double version just flowers all summer long with attractive lime greenish foliage again really helps to set off the darker greens of the roses and other plants. The flowers are like tiny buttons and are quite delightful. It does self seed a little but that’s what friends and plant sales are for. It does have one advantage of attracting aphids to them and away from the roses. Works with a wide range of rose colours, indeed not many colour flowers it doesn’t work with

Cotinus coggygria

We all need a little bit of purple foliage in the garden don’t we and Cotinus is the best at this. It is indeed a large shrub that is ideally suited for the bigger garden but it can be kept coppiced back each year to form these larger purple leaves and I have found a light prune in July keeps them down a little in size and helps to bulk up the size of the plant. Works well with a wide range of rose flowers.

This is just a small drop in the ocean of what you could do, the only thing that should stop is time and cost. Don’t be afraid of trying things that may sound silly like using Dahlias and other half Hardy Plants, they can and do work, it’s just getting the right combination. So please give it a go and enjoy growing roses in a way that enhances all the plants in your garden.

Posted on February 21, 2018 February 21, 2018 by thomashort — 2 Comments

Pegging down roses

Rosa Magna Carta here flowering after being pegged down

Pegging down roses is a method used with some bush roses that produce large canes during the summer. These large tall canes can be pruned down in height to the same height of the bush but a far better way is to peg these long shoots down. This arched stem then produces a lot more flowers on the stem compared to just straight pruning. This happens of any rose stem that it is arched as it encourages the buds on top to break.

Not all roses that produce these large and tall canes in one growing season that come from the base of the rose, can be pegged down. Roses like Bourbons, Hybrid perpetuals, some moss roses like William Lobb, some of the English roses can work well as well. The only way to find out if your rose would be suitable for pegging down, is to grab the end and try it! Just grab the growing tip and slowly try and arch it over. If it snaps at the base or spilts, then the Rose isn’t suitable for pegging down! If it does then all well and good

The next stage is to get the materials and equipment ready to start. I use bamboo canes (called sticks from now on to avoid confusion!) cut down to roughly 300mm but hazel will work as well. If you are in a stony site then a hammer may also be useful. Next is some 3ply green twine, I use Nutscene and lastly of course you need a pair of secateurs.

Next I prepare the stick by wrapping the string on top of its self and tie it off with an over hand knot, leaving the tag at least 100mm long

Next I tie the stick to the rose cane using an over hand knot.Then I pull the Rose cane over gently until I get the arch the right size and then push the stick into the ground and cut the string so it is tidy

And the job is done! Other canes can be tied over and around as well, there’s no limit on how many you can peg down, just depends on the canes you have available.

You will get at least one years flowering like this, if you are lucky maybe 2, this one in my back garden, I redo each year.

There we have it, a nice and simple job to do and one that really does give a great effect if you add underplanting in between the canes as well.

Posted on November 8, 2017 November 8, 2017 by thomashort — 31 Comments

Planting bareroot roses

As we move more towards the middle of November, the Rose nurseries start lifting the bareroot roses from the ground. What are bareroot roses I hear some of you ask? Well there’s two main ways of buying roses, first one is in a pot with compost that allows the rose to be sold all year around and planted all year around, that’s called containerised. The second way is what is called bareroot and that is just as it sounds, the Rose is dug up without any soil and is sold on like this. As there’s no soil on the roots, this can only happen during the dormant season ie the winter. Main advantages over containerised roses is the cost, generally speaking they are much cheaper to plant this way, other advantage is you can buy a wider range of roses bareroot as it is more cost effective for the growers to grow small amounts of some varieties. It is also felt that bareroot Plants also can establish better as the root system isn’t trained into a pot and will push out into the surrounding soil much better.

Whatever the reason you wish to choose, it is a great time to order and plant bareroot roses and hopefully my simple method will help you to get the best start for them if you are trying it for the first time

img 3335 11 Planting bareroot roses — First thing you need to do is dig a hole, the hole should be ideally about 40cm square and deep. I always do square holes as it helps to force roots out of the planting hole. With circular holes, the roots can go round and round but in square holes, they can’t, they hit a corner and then have to break out into the wider bed around them

img 3336 Planting bareroot roses — Add about a handful of good fertiliser around the hole and at the bottom of the hole. Vitax Q4 or blood, fish and bonemeal are good choices. I also add some good compost around the hole at this stage, I prefer to use garden compost or recycled green waste product like pro grow rather than manure. This is because the manure is too strong for the mycorrhizal and will kill it off

img 1720 Planting bareroot roses — Add some form of mycorrhizal to the bare root plant , mycorrhizal is forms of friendly fungus that live on all plant roots, they form a symbolic relationship with the plant, helping it to get up more water and nutrients from the soil, this can be up to 1/3 more. It is a naturally occurring around all plants but in cases of bareroot Plants, it’s all been left behind, so they will benefit from some being added. This will help the plant establish much quicker and grow away much stronger than one without it. There’s 2 ways of adding it at this stage, best way is to use a root dip, which is a paste mixed to wallpaper paste thick and has the mycorrhizal added to and then you just dip the roses into it. This is ideal if you are planting a lot of roses

img 3338 Planting bareroot roses — Then you put the rose carefully into the middle of the hole, I would also aim to have the base of the rose ie where all the stems are coming from, about 25mm deeper than the surrounding soil height. if you are adding dry mycorrhizal instead of the root dip, I sprinkle half on the exposed roots now

img 3340 Planting bareroot roses — Next stage is to work the soil into the gaps around the roots using your fingers and firming it in as you go. Once I have gone halfway up, I add the rest of the dry form of mycorrhizal if I am using it

And that is all there is to it, nice and simple. If you would like further advice, please feel free to ask away

Posted on August 8, 2017 August 8, 2017 by thomashort — 7 Comments

Pruning once flowering rambling roses

Pruning roses always seem to have a mist of confusion around them, no matter where I go, who I talk too or indeed listen too, roses are one plant that leaves them confused when it comes to pruning. What to prune, when to prune, taking too much off, not taking enough off. It’s no wonder really with so much Conflicting advice around in books, the internet, magazines and on telly. Hopefully over the next couple of years, I will go through my own methods of pruning and hopefully explain how I get the best from the roses I look after and hopefully make it a little clearer!
To prune any plant no matter what it is, you have to know not only what it is, how it flowers and grows but also what you want from it. Now the first two I can help with but the 3rd is down to you to decide. First of all what it is the difference between rambling and climbing roses, this is the hardest part for most people, so many times I get asked what is the difference between a rambler and a climber. A climbing rose is basically a shrub or bush rose that grows too big to be grown without any support, as a shrub or bush rose it needs a framework of wood 2+years old in the plant to allow it to flower the best. While a rambler is the true climber, it uses long growths to scrabble over anything it’s path whether it’s a tree, building, rock face or even the ground. These new growths can be up to 25ft in one year depending on the variety grown. These new stems are the best for producing flowers the following year, i.e. Wood that’s 1 year old at time of flowering. The 2nd year old wood tends to produce smaller flowers on the growths, but also produces new longer stems further from the base which maybe too long to use on a frame or a structure. These long and mainly flexible current growing stems makes them ideal for wrapping around features like poles, ropes and arches. This also encourages the rose to flower from the bottom to the top. There are 2 types of ramblers, the repeat flowering and the once flowering. It is the once flowering ones we are looking at during this blog. Again once flowering rambling can be divided up into 2 types, those who produce hips and those that don’t. Pruning is the same for both, just the hip forming ones can be done in February while the none hip forms can be done now or once they have flowered. Reason being that all the flowering wood is removed to encourage these new growths to grow even more. This is because with removing the flowered wood, it puts more effort and energy into the new wood and this will grow even more after pruning. That said a weekly feed of liquid seaweed and a handful of vitax Q4 after pruning will help it to grow even more. I hope the picture guide will help explain it even more

img 0175 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — The rambling rose once it’s finished flowering showing both flowered wood and new growth

img 0176 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — The new growth! This is what you want! Please please please don’t cut these off, try and tie in during the season before flowering

img 0185 1 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — Prune back the flowered stems to a nice new growth, always find its best to do this for all stems can thin out older ones or not as good ones after you have finished and have a chance to review what’s left

img 0186 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — Once I have pruned the stem, I lay it at right angles to the base of the plant so it out of the way and all together

img 0190 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — Once all the flowered wood is pruned away, I start tying in the new growth, using the longest ones growing from the base if possible, tying them to cover as much as possible

img 0193 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — I like to use a figure of 8 knot to secure the new growth to the fixings, don’t tie it too tight or the string will dig into the plant as it grows

img 0199 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — I try and train the stems in curves to encourage as many breaks of the flower growths next year as I can, it can also be useful to cover a bigger space with the really long growths, the shorter ones I use to cover the bare patches near the base of the plant.

img 0196 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — The finished pruned plant, note the amount of waste produced, pruning like this does produce a lot of waste, all there is left to do now is feed the plant with Vitax Q4 and tie in the new growth once every 2weeks and enjoy the flowers next summer

img 3860 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — This rambling rector is spread out more but is still pruned the same way

img 3866 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — This rambler is pruned the same way but the new growths are wrapped around the pillar, going both clock and anti-clockwise

011 Pruning once flowering rambling roses — The new growths can be turned into any shape you like and will flower well!

Really they are that easy, just a case of removing the old flowered wood and tie in the new stems, they are really as simple as that. I tend to use just my silky pruning saw, my trust Tobisho SR1 secateurs to prune and nutscene 3ply twine to tie in.

I hope you enjoyed the blog and found it useful!

Posted on July 26, 2017 by thomashort — 7 Comments

The curse of the rose sawfly

It almost sounds like a horror movie, well it could well be if you get them on your roses. The large Rose sawfly, Arge pagana, has really increased over the last couple of years and is becoming a real problem on roses. This beautiful insect gets its name sawfly by the way it lays its eggs, it has a sawlike egg laying dagger that it uses to cut into the rose stems to lay its eggs, these cuts can be from 25mm to 75mm in length and it's quite amazing to watch it. Once the eggs are laid, they hatch quite quickly into caperpillers. These little beasts are again pretty obvious compared to other caterpillars. If you get near them, they stick their bodies out trying to look like the veins on a chewed leave, if that doesn't work, its next trick is to fall to the ground and once safe, the crafty little so and so's, then climb back up the plant once the danger has gone! Don't let that fool you though, they will strip your rose bare of leaves faster than you can believe and having up to 3 broods a year, well worth looking out for their tale tell signs of the scar on the young stems on the roses.

Treatment is pretty easy on smaller roses, if you notice the cut lines in time, just cut out the damaged section and add to the green bin or rubbish bags. If they have hatched into hungry caterpillars, place your hand underneath to catch any that will drop off the plant and just squash them in your fingers! If you are a little Squeamish, best way is to put a tray underneath the branch and tap them onto it and then add to green waste bin. If they are really covering the plant or covering a climbing rose, spraying maybe the only choice, sometimes putting a white sheet underneath and then try and blast them off with a high pressure blast of water and stamp on what falls down or collect into a plastic tub and leave them out for the birds otherwise a spraying with something like provado will kill most of them on the plant, try and spray first thing in the morning or last thing at night to avoid other insects. This is always a last resort for me. I prefer to use as little insecticides as possible.

Anyway just watch out for these little beasties on your roses before they strip them of most their leaves!