I was watching Dave the Garden Guy the other day (being in AZ myself), and he said you could just use a vegetable oil and water mix spray, which does the same things as the expensive stuff. Whereabouts in AZ are you? I would love to compare notes, since I am a newbie with the roses in the heat.

stephanotis, I usually watch Dave on saturdays but missed the one you refer to. what was the oil water mix 50/50? and what did he say about it ?
thanks , jan

Carrie, I don't imagine a dose of lime sulfur would be good for an insect but lime sulfur is usually sprayed for fungus rather than insect control. Also, the combination of an oil with lime sulfur would surely cause leaf-burn on your roses.

All oil sprays can burn rose leaves and you should make sure you don't spray too concentrated an emulsion of whatever oil you select. A 1-3% oil:water ratio is about maximum when the plants still have leaves. Another reason why leaf-burn occurs is breakdown of the oil/water emulsion on the leaf before the spray has dried. This deposits droplets of pure oil on the leaf and that's a common source of leaf-burn. If you want to take no chances with damaged leaves, I recommend spraying ommercial products, such as SunSpray horticultural oil or Gardens Alive Oil Away cottonseed oil, which are intended for spraying and which contain a high-quality emulsifier.

Here is a link that might be useful: Oil Away Cottonseed Oil

Of course, there aren't any leaves to burn after you prune. I usually use horticultural oil or lime/sulpher.

Thanks Mike, Sunspray is I believe what I used last year, I think I will just use it again. I really don't know if I even have insects on my plants, I am sure there are those I can not see and I don't think that a spray that kills the over wintering insects will hurt at this time of the year. Yes hershigrl there will be no leaves after pruning, some have already fallen off but they really do not go into a dormancy. It has been cold at night (34-40F that is cold to us, we are used to the heat that is why we get cold so easy) and during the day it is over cast and 65F right now, December, January and Feb are our coldest months. I know that when the heat kicks in I never use any oil type sprays.
Stephanotis 1 I live in the Lake Havasu City area, I see you are in zone 8 where is that in Arizona?? Prescott???. It gets so hot here in the summer we can get up to 125+F. I have my roses strategically placed, by the afternoon the sun is on the other side of my house so the roses are in the shade by 2:00P. I usually give them organics in the summer it really helps them survive the stress of the heat, and of course lots of water.
Carrie

lime sulphur is a dormant spray, so it is only to be sprayed when the roses are dormant, no leaves or old leaves that you don't care about anyway. It does have to be done when temps will be above freezing.

I am in Queen Creek, which usually stays a teensy bit cooler than Phoenix, and lots cooler than Havasu.

I believe the ratio was one cup to a gallon of water, if I remember correctly. I think the info is on the 3TV website. I'm going to try and find it there to be sure.

I just planted all my roses in the Fall of '06, so this my first year with pruning and winter spraying.