Out damned spot! Done with roses!
It must be something about me, or something about the micro-climate of my garden, but I can't keep roses going to save my life.
Black spot seems to arrive with the plant labels, and no amount of spraying (with organics, mind you) can keep their leaves from yellowing, browning and defoliating right in front of my eyes.
And the aphids and beetles have their field day, too, despite my attempts to control them with ladybugs and sticky strips.
The best luck I had with roses was with a robust climber that seemed to like it in the corner of my yard on my picket fence.
But my husband was right when he called that climber "a live fire exercise," and when they scraped the eye of a little girl walking by, I took them out.
