When I have a rose or daylily [or other plant] that has a light green tint to it, I mix up a powdered iron supplement [cant recall the name of it now, but can probably get it at Lowes] with water, and water the plant well. It doesn't take long for it to green up and usually only takes one treatment. For holes in leaves, it could be june bugs [I killed one munching on a rose last night] or catapillars [they defoliated a rose completely - I sprayed and it has grown back its foliage]. For that, I spray with Safer insect spray - comes in spray bottle at Walmart. For blackspot, I have read that spraying every 3-4 days for 4 times with Mancozeb, then start the Bayer spray program. I understand and appreciate those who don't wish to spray, but I do spray - not on a regular basis due to being busy with other things, but I am trying to get on a regular schedule. In my area, don't have to do it much after it gets hot. I have horses, so have lots of mature compost. I have found one of the best fertilizers I can use is to put several shovelfuls of this rotted compost on my roses. I have seen it, with time, bring them into peak performance. If you know anyone with a farm or stable, you might check into getting some. I am going to topdress more of mine today. As it rains or when you water, it leaks the nutrients down to the roots. I have a Golden Celebration that has limped along for several years. Last fall I dumped a bunch of compost on it - it is now bigger and totally full of buds, more than it has had in the years it has been in the ground. I try to topdress all my flower beds spring and fall with a 2" layer of it - and my soil in those beds is wonderful. Good luck! Your rose looks like it wants to grow. Judith

Re: curled rose slugs. Well they certainly uncurled fast when I threw them into the soap suds and water and sank to the bottom of the measuring cup. Eventually they went bye bye due to it so just poured the water out with them in it on the other side of the fence. My Shield rose had one curled up inside the blossom but I pulled it out of there. I think there must have been more eating it but no more as in that section of the garden out the back there are robins and catbirds and chickadees all feasting on them. Wish I could make a sign pointing to the ones out the front saying this way for more goodies. Pulled off 3 more today and 10 the other day. Same plant I think I am getting the upper hand. I also sprayed it with the safer spray Sat. night that one will not harm the bees only the bad bugs. Also won't harm the flowers either.

No, the neem oil that is readily available in the US has no effect on bees unless you spray the bee with a smothering coat of oil. Raw neem oil has an insecticidal fraction called azadirachtin. Most of the oil is processed to remove the azadirachtin for separate sale (mainly to organic farmers, I suspect). The leftover oil is then marketed to naive gardeners. The label says "water extract of neem." It is just oil, probably no more effective than canola oil. However, any oil with smother small, soft-bodied insects if applied directly to them (a smothering coat). Neem that still has the azadirachtin in it is sold as "whole neem oil." You can probably find it online. You might also find an azadirachtin product somewhere. But the neem oil at typical garden centers has no insecticidal effect beyond just being an oil. Either Safer's soap or any oil can kill rose slugs if it coats their bodies. But spraying this thoroughly is as much trouble as squishing (as people say above). The recommended chemical insecticide is spinosad. It is relatively safe and easy on the beneficial insects. But I just squish.

Since I posted this, I've been simply amazed at how many of my roses have responded to this treatment in a major way. William R. Smith, Alexander Hill Gray, Spice, Souvenir de Germain de St. Pierre, La France, Mme. Dore, Mrs. B.R. Cant, The Dark Lady, Pretty Jessica, Leveson Gower and Leonie's Appoline have responded remarkably to this treatment. It's now taking me a good deal of time to find all the many buds on some of the larger growers but I'm still disbudding until the cooler weather sets in. William R. Smith is going to be a sight to behold with all the new leaves on his formerly gaunt frame and buds bursting out everywhere. Same with Souvenir de Germain de St. Pierre, a formerly ugly skeleton of a rose that now has so many buds that I still miss a few every day no matter how carefully I look. Spice, Alexander Hill Gray, Leonie's Appoline, Leveson-Gower and Germaine have now been taken off the death squad list and I couldn't be more pleased. Ingrid