Getting Rid of Blackspot

When the kids and I came home in late June, two of our young rose bushes were covered in blackspot. This picture below actually shows a new spot coming on, but when we first arrived the spots were all over most of the leaves, and many of them were yellowing and falling off.

One of the roses was nearly dead. We had already lost our gorgeous Joseph’s Coat rose over the winter and I wasn’t about to lose any more, if I could help it. Lily helped me make a fungicidal soap out of 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons of organic soap and one gallon of water, to spray on the leaves of the roses. She and Jasper also wanted to help spray it on. In fact they wanted to spray it on everything in the garden. 

Not only were they super helpful, but they also added a bit of flair to their outfits or uniforms, as they were calling them. Jasper, of course had many different outfits, and Lily fashioned her own sort of spray bottle.  I love how one of Jasper’s outfits includes a sweater of Lily’s from when she was about nine-months-old.

The fungicide has been working great on the rose we used it on. I picked off most of the leaves with blackspot then sprayed the fungicide on the rest of the leaves every few days for the last month.  I also continued to pick off any new leaves that developed black spot, and it looks gorgeous now!  

I sprayed the puny sick rose at first but then I decided to prune it way down, fertilize, compost, and water the heck out of it because it looked like it needed more than just fungicide. It needed some serious pampering. Since it looked close to death I didn’t think my overzealous care could hurt it. Thankfully it is coming back strong with all kinds of new healthy growth all over it.  

And of course the kids are now addicted to spray bottles.