Tree Roses Suck

Followers of Sacramento-area gardening blogs may recall Bill "Sacramento Vegetable Gardening" Bird's latest garden travail: a tree rose that snapped in a windstorm. "Heartbreak on a stick" as he aptly described it. Which brings us to today's rant: tree roses suck.

A tree rose, usually about four feet tall, is comprised of three different roses: the rootstock, the stem and a budded or grafted hybrid tea, floribunda or miniature rose variety on the top. The end result: a top-heavy, blooming lollipop, that looks good in a formal garden. 

On the plus side, the blooms are at eye level.

On the minus side: they will break in a windstorm or freeze back in a cold winter.

I know, we used to prominently display these heartbreakers. In 1990, we planted four John F. Kennedy tree roses, a beautiful white hybrid tea on a stick. These tree roses strategically encircled our first, formal rose garden, bordering a centrally placed birdbath. And, like Bill's tree roses, they were supported by tall stakes, one on either side of each plant, a few inches from the trunk.

The windy winter of '90-'91 uprooted two of the JFK's. By 1992, the remaining two JFK's resembled flowering Towers of Pisa, leaning precipitously to the northwest, the result of ferocious winter winds from the southeast.

So, those two were moved to a different part of the yard, adjacent to a wooden fence, in a neglected part of the property, where they have managed to survive, but not nicely. 

Why did they make it there (sort of)? Protection from the wind. Over the years, they've become gnarled, ugly and not much of a memorable bloom.

Tree Roses Suck.

E-mail discussions of Mr. Bird's rose woes, an exchange that also included consulting rosarian Baldo Villegas, turned up some pertinent information about why Bill's tree rose snapped in two. 

For one thing, he used the wrong stakes: thin, wooden ones (the nursery was out of metal stakes, is Bill's defense).

Baldo Villegas explains: "Rosarians usually use a piece of iron pipe or rebar that goes from at least a foot into the ground to just below the bud union. The entire length of the tree rose stem has to be staked and protected from breaking off. I usually put a piece of old water hose over the iron bar/pipe so it does not damage the bark of the rose stems. Also special attention has to be placed on the top of the tree rose below the bud union so that the end of the iron pipe/rebar does not damage the bud union. Again, rubber hoses are great for this situations."

Adding to his misfortune, Bill may have not been very picky in his nursery shopping and selected a rose that was weak to begin with. He says, "I had really babied this rose through the fall, winter and spring. It was in bad shape when I got it. Black spot and other diseases were on the leaves. But I watered, sprayed, fertilized and literally sang to that tree rose after I bought it. It had just received a third application of protection this past weekend. It was opening up beautifully."

To which I responded: "You have to learn to say 'no' when nursery shopping. Why buy something in bad shape to begin with? And couldn't you go to another store for the metal stakes? Sheesh."

Bill blames his wife, saying he was pressured into buying it. I don't buy that! Venus is a sweetheart, who would understand that a diseased rose, no matter its sentimental value, ain't living long like this.

Baldo doesn't buy it, either: "I avoid most tree roses as the trunk WILL NOT support the top growth!!! In my life, I think that I have had less than five tree roses. Four were given to me. I avoid tree roses like the plague. The trunks will not support Hybrid tea/Grandiflora roses. I might accept some Floribunda/Shrub roses but even then, I look at the size of the blooms and the cane habit and wonder if it is something that I have to have. But, I love miniature rose trees. I have three of them and they are great!"

And anytime Baldo uses three exclamation points, you have to believe him.

So, there's your answer: if you must have a bloom on a stick, choose miniature roses.

During a trip this week to Sacramento's Old City cemetery, this one rose caught my eye: the shrub rose, Lyda Rose.

Although not one of the historic old roses in the cemetery, this 1994 introduction is stunning, covered in single, white flowers with a light pink border.

Birds, Bees and Beneficials

One of my favorite blogs is Bill Bird's "Sacramento Vegetable Gardening". Bill is a jazzman with words. His blogs have a rhythm comparable to a Gene Krupa drum solo.

In one recent post, Bill waxed rhapsodic about a certain rose in his yard, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

      As I was reading this post about the trials and tribulations of growing this rose (and actually, the blog is more of a love letter to his wife, Venus), I was wondering how he was going to bring it back around to, if you will excuse me for being a stickler, "Sacramento Vegetable Gardening". 

     Bill did not disappoint. He tied into a neat little package at the end, exclaiming: "Our Lady of Guadalupe attracts a number of beneficial insects to the garden, including bees..."

     This is a subject we have tackled on these pages, as well: the benefits of having a wide variety of beneficial insect attracting plants in your yard to help you do battle against the bad bugs.  And, it's a topic covered more in depth at farmerfred.com.

    But Bill's apian accolade got me wondering: what other beneficial insects are attracted to roses? And, are there any beneficials that use roses for more than a source of food (housing, for example)? For that answer, the "go-to" guy has to be Baldo Villegas, an entomologist for the state of California, past president of the Sacramento Rose Society and Sierra Foothills Rose Society, as well as being a consulting rosarian.

     "Roses produce a lot of nectar, some more than others," explains Baldo. "Single-petaled roses are best for seeing what attracts insects both good and bad. Some of the best beneficials that I see are syrphid flies, tachinid flies, as well as numerous wasps, both parasitic and predatory. Among the parasitic wasps are the braconid and ichneumonid wasps and predatory wasps that are mainly those in the family Sphecidae. Then there are a lot of different types of bees such as honey bees, andrenids, halictids, megachilids (aka leafcutting bees), and anthophorids (including small carpenter bees). The only ones that use roses for housing and for prey gathering are two predatory wasps in the family Sphecidae. One of these wasps preys on aphids and the other one on flies."

For pictures and more information about these garden good guys, visit the UC Davis IPM Online Natural Enemies Gallery.

You Have a Lot of Gall! Ask the Snarky Farmer...

Dear Farmer Fred,

Can you identify the pink and little brown balls growing now on our oak tree? I don't remember seeing these before.
Is it some kind of parasite? If so, what should we do? Thank you. We enjoy your weekly show very much.

Margaret of Shingle Springs (CA)

Margaret:

Yep, it's gall season in the California foothills! Galls are interesting creations of several variety of (usually harmless) wasps. No action is necessary on your part, except to enjoy the show.

The Integrated Pest Management Project at UC Davis says this about galls: "Most galls are caused by cynipid wasps and gall midge flies. The adult gall wasp is a small, stout, shiny insect with very few wing veins and a purple or black body. Adult gall midges are tiny, delicate flies, often with long, slender antennae. Galls are distorted, sometimes colorful swellings in plant tissue caused by the secretions of certain plant-feeding insects and mites. These unusual growths may be found on leaves, flowers, twigs, or branches. Most galls are not known to harm trees. Prune and dispose of galls if they are annoying. This may provide control of some species if pruning is done when the immatures are in plant tissue and before the adults begin to emerge."

State entomologist Baldo Villegas chimes in:
"Your picture of a blue oak tree have several types of oak galls made by several species of small, non-stinging wasps in the wasp family "Cynipidae". As an entomologist, we refer to the members of this family as "cynipid wasps". They are unique among the wasps in that they lay their eggs on plant tissue resulting in a distinctive plant gall encasing the egg/larva. Each cynipid wasp species make different and distinctive galls and one can identify them based on the gall type. Obviously, your blue oak sample had several types of galls and therefore several species of wasps. There is not much you can do to control these gall wasps. They are native species that co-evolved with the blue oaks in the area. The wasps are not killing the trees and they also don't appear to weaken them; so, my recommendation is to just let them be.

1) The most obvious are the "echinid galls" produced by the wasp "Dryophanta echina".  These galls vary from pink to bright red and have the spiny galls.

2) The second gall that you asked for was for the small brown galls that look like little brown balls? These are probably "jumping oak galls" caused by the wasp "Neuroterus saltatorius.

Thanks, Baldo!

Other interesting oak galls:

And here's more fun with jumping oak galls.