If You Elect Not to Use Chemical Sprays

I think that chemical sprays can be safe if handled carefully, but you may not agree.  If you would rather not use them, you have some alternatives.

Use organic spray materials; they'll work to discourage some insects.  Just be prepared to expend more energy than those of us who use chemicals, because organic treatments must be applied more frequently.

Sprays of agricultural soap have long been known to combat aphids and crawlings insects, but they must be applied at least every four to five days.  Also, they leave a coating of unappealing soapy residue.

Members of the onion family can discourage insects.  When I had only a few roses, I planted garlic around the bushes, and I believe it really did discourage aphids.

Plain water is temporarily effective for discouraging mites.  Spiders can't take a fine misting of water and will leave the area, but only for a few days.

Grow the hardiest modern roses you can and be satisfied with their blooms even when diseases and insects take their inevitable toll.  Unless you live in a disease-prone area or are heavily infested with insects known to chew blossoms, you can get some wonderful blooms, especially early in the growing season.  Later, foliage will mildew, rust, or blackspot, but blooms miraculously will still appear.

Grow some older varieties that are less prone to disease than modern introductions.  I'm just now learning about old roses, and I like what I see.  Old rose varieties will never replace modern roses for me, but their disease-resistance is most appealing.  They're not “disease-free”, mind you; many varieties are as vulnerable as anything modern.

We grow some old rose varieties at Garden Valley Ranch and intersperse them with their modern relatives.  Blanc Double de Coubert, a great pure white rose of the Rugosa species, was planted in our fragrant garden, where plants are grown for use in potpourri.  This particular rose is very fragrant and produces beautiful red hips in the fall.  Since no spray materials are used in the fragrant garden, we have the setting for a true disease-resistance test.

When foggy nights followed warm days, the white curse of mildew did appear, but was never widespread.  If we had tried not spraying our modern roses only a few hundred feet away, most would have turned white as snow.