ROSES IN THE SOUTHWEST 
169 
BLACK SPOT 
For black-spot, just plain commercial sulphur shaken from a flour sifter 
over some plants of Los Angeles once every week or two has been known 
to keep them covered all Summer with luxuriant foliage, free from black- 
spot. 
All the remedies recommended for mildew are effective in control of 
black-spot on most varieties. But, as in the case of the Ramblers and mil¬ 
dew, we have a class of Roses, the Pernetianas, which breed black-spot. 
It would be asking too much to banish them. Better to segregate them 
in beds to themselves, as has been previously suggested. The climbing 
forms of Pernetianas, such as Star of Persia and Le Reve, had better be 
placed in shrubbery where they can black-spot to their hearts’ con¬ 
tent, without doing anything but themselves harm, for black-spot is 
peculiarly a Rose disease. 
The chief precaution which may be taken is to keep the surface of the 
ground in a Rose bed perfectly clean. Never allow old leaves or flowers 
or trash of any kind to accumulate around the plant, and keep all infected 
leaves picked off and burned. 
Some excellent suggestions are: 
a. Withhold all barnyard fertilizer and use a chemical instead until 
the trouble clears up. 
b. Renew the top three inches of soil each year with fresh unin¬ 
fected earth. 
c. In May, before the disease usually presents itself, spray thor¬ 
oughly both the plants and the ground with a non-burning fun¬ 
gicide and then put on an inch or more layer of commercial 
sheep manure. This will give a fresh surface to the bed, provide 
a dust-mulch and furnish some valuable nourishment. 
Adopt this last suggestion for all your Rose beds; add a half cup of 
bonemeal, scratched in first around each bush, and you have a good 
formula for carrying your Roses safely through the hot weather. 
The question of how often to spray or dust, put hopefully, elicits the 
discouraging response that every week or ten days isn’t too often. But if 
the flesh, and even the spirit, quails at such a strenuous regime, take heart. 
Follow the last suggestion above in May. Do your dormant spraying after 
the last Roses are over in December, and again just before they come out 
in late February. And you will have done as much as the Roses themselves 
can reasonably expect of you, unless you happen to like the work. 
ROSE ENEMIES 
As for the control of insects, if you add to your fungicide sprays in 
May, December and February some good nicotine compound for the 
sucking insects and arsenate of lead for the chewing kind, you will go a 
long way toward freeing your garden of an unreasonable amount of pests. 
The sucking insects, such as the Aphis, come in a variety of colors— 
red, green, white, and black. But the one that most often troubles Roses 
Sulphur 
Dust 
Keep 
Rosebed 
Clean 
Suggested 
Remedies 
How Often 
to Spray 
or Dust 
Insects 
