Is a no-spray method for you and your roses?

The no-spray rose gardening method is NOT for everyone. In the past year or 2, there seems to be an increase in the no-spray method for roses. While this is the method I've been using and will continue in my own garden, I'd like to share my takes on this for people who may be interested.

Let me tell you upfront that it is NOT for the faint of heart in any way, shape or form and I don't want to romanticize the idea to make it sound like it's always glorious and beautiful everyday because in reality, a no-spray garden is not easy to look at. There's also a risk of losing your roses going this route.

Oftentimes, what I've seen is that most people are eager and excited with the ideas to save pollinators and become environmentally-friendly, but quickly become stressed when seeing how their roses look after a while, especially during summer months when roses get hammered the hardest by pests and diseases.

This is when the stress level is high, hence go back to spraying.

My goal for this post is to share with you the reality of the no-spray garden, what you can expect and how to set up realistic expectations so that you get a peek inside and have some resources to help you make a decision.

There appears to be certain perceptions and images about rose gardening that do not quite reflect the reality of home gardening and nature. If we go out in nature, you'll see that plants, flowers, and trees are not perfect. They have different shapes, forms, sizes, appearances, and they have diseases and pests.

Most of us are accustomed to seeing perfect looking flowers being sold at grocery stores or florist shops. People wouldn't want to buy or spend their hard-earned money if flowers are in less than good looking conditions (I wouldn't either).

However, we bring that expectation to our own garden without realizing it and this is where high expectations are formed.

Keep in mind that most (not all) commercial rose growers and businesses (whether breeding/growing for florists or home gardeners) grow their roses in a more controlled environment. Some roses are grown exclusively in the greenhouse in order to have full control on pests and diseases. Some roses grown by the growers outdoors have been treated with fungicide, insecticide and other products in order to keep pests and diseases at bay.

From a business perspective, it is necessary for their plants to be healthy, strong, and produce beautiful flowers in order to be able to sell them. As a business, that's a huge investment and they have to be able to protect their crops and not suffer a huge financial loss. It makes no sense to have a business and to lose their crops.

Now as a home gardener, you are not growing your roses to sell or enter the competition (except for some people who do). It's very important to ask yourself "how important it is to me to achieve the perfect/healthy looking roses at all times?", "Am I willing to take a risk of losing my roses?", "How much I can tolerate my roses with disease and pest damages?".

If you feel you've spent a lot of money on your roses and they are your investment, then no-spray gardening is not the right option.

If it stresses you out when your roses have blackspots or pest damages, the no-spray garden is not the right option.

Why? In a no-spray garden, you will see all kinds of damages and pests often get to enjoy your roses sooner than you do. It is not always guaranteed when your roses will look decent. Things seem to get worse before it gets better.

When you stop spraying, your roses are going to go through several stages. Remember that if they have been protected with products like fungicide, insectice, miticide, etc and one day you stop spraying, they are going to have to adjust to their new lives without having those protections.

This is the time when your roses aren't going to look their best and this is the time when you may stress out as well.

A no -spray garden doesn't happen overnight. It is not about releasing a bunch of beneficial insects a few times and it's all going to solve every issue in the garden.

It's a process and series that requires time, patience, experimentations, or even some losses along the way. There are times when you have to let your roses endure pests until beneficial insects come to the rescue which is not easy to deal with at all.

Tips to help you transition to the no-spray garden:

You don't have to go cold turkey:

You have the option to spray intermittently when pests and disease pressure is all time high, then reduce the frequency then stop spraying. It can be done at a slower pace rather than stop spraying all at once.

It doesn't mean once you decide to go no-spray and when you go back to spraying, that's the end of your no-spray garden dream. You can take it slow, do it at your own pace, be gentle with yourself, spray when absolutely necessary to lower the pests/diseases then try again.

There's a member in our rose group "Sumera" who kindly took the time to share her journey from spraying routinely and religiously to a no-spray method which you can read here.

Reset your expectations & trust your roses' resiliency:

The biggest challenge is seeing the damages on your roses. Through the years, I've witnessed the worst (trust me, I've seen a lot in my own garden), yet many of them were able to bounce back and flourish beautifully. Roses are incredibly tough.

While many other plants can't even make it during summer months or freeze/snow, roses are one of the rare plants that survive such extreme weather.

Create healthy soil and ecosystem:

Focus on the soil health and create diversity in your garden makes a difference. Most people fertilize in order to get blooms, but the focus should be on creating soil full of great nutrients so that your roses can grow on strong foundation. When your roses are he

Deploy the force of nature:

There are ways you can use nature like beneficial insects to help keep pests under control. My ways of dealing with pests start with knowing how much I want to put in the time and labor for my garden hobby and setting my expectations accordingly. Personally, I like the idea of having nature take care of themselves as much as possible or using an extra force of nature.

• Use beneficial insects at the top level

• Use beneficial nematodes at the soil level

I share about this in a greater details about pros & cons of these methods, what they are, how and when I apply them in my garden in the Blooming with Joy monthly subscription and the ebook for those just want a one-time purchase if you're interested in getting the full details.

The No-Spray Method (Lacewings & Nematodes)

Buy Now

Experiment with roses that appropriate for your growing zone/condition:

This one can be tricky, especially when you don't know what varieties will do well in your area. If you know people who grow roses in your area, you may be able to get some insights. For me when I got started, I didn't have much information to go by. I basically had to experiment and bought various varieties to see which ones were hardy enough to endure the level of pests and diseases in my no-spray environment.

Of course, I lost some roses along my journey. It's disappointing, but that also tells me they were not hardy enough to withstand so let's explore and try different varieties. For the most part, I'd say about 90% have done fairly well. There were many that struggled terribly in the beginning when they had to adjust to a no-spray environment. However, they turned around and became more resilient.

Do not allow anxiousness and a perfectionist thinking to talk you out:

Some of you may be wondering why gardening is stressing you out or you are still not happy with life in general even after starting this therapeutic hobby.

I am a recovering perfectionist (who has a life-long anxiety and childhood trauma which I wasn't aware of at all until last year).

You may be wondering what this has to do with rose gardening.

Here's the thing. How I grew up impacts how I react and respond to the world and people in my daily life, my behaviors, my thinking pattern, my moods and how my nervous system regulates (or childhood trauma or complex PTSD). I thought I didn't have any of those as I grew up in a family in which both parents are still together, they are very loving, caring and dedicated. No physical abuse (just occasional spanking - back in the day, it wasn't considered abuse as today, no obvious verbal or emotional abuse), but I realize that my parents also have unhealed wounds and struggles (if this is the topic you're interested about my healing journey, please let me know and I'll share in a seperate post).

My perfectionist way of life often gets in the way of wanting things to look and be a certain way. Hence I apply many strategies and plans to everything including my gardening hobby because I wanted to control to have certain results. In my 1st year of rose gardening, it stressed the hell out of me!! It's like having that conflicting desire of wanting a no-spray garden, yet wanting my roses to look beautiful.

Be concious of your pattern of thinking and behaviors especially when it comes to how you respond to disappointments or things that don't go the way you expect them to go. For myself, there's more than stress going on. Look into managing my anxiety level (I had no idea I lived with anxiety to the point it became my way of life and I was living in that stage all day everyday although I didn't constantly think negatively or stressful thoughts all day long). It's that wanting roses to look a certain way (indicate high level of control).

Disclosure: I am not in a position to diagnose or say that something is wrong with you. I'm sharing based on my personal story and experience. If you can afford therapy, healing anxiety will be helpful. For me personally, the YouTube videos from therapists have been incredibly helpful to me. These are a few channels that have been absolutely amazing and life-changing in my healing journey. I found that not all therapists have the voice and tone that match my styles, but these are my personal favorites:

Therapy in a Nutshell

Tim Fletcher on Complex Trauma

Patrck Teahan

Crappy Childhood Fairy

Dr. Mate Gabor

Going a no-spray route has surprisingly helped me heal my anxiety greatly, learned the art of letting go of my unhealthy pattern, and become in awe of how nature works. Everytime I see imperfection in my garden, my emotions and reactions have transformed from being panicked, anxious, stressed to being more accepting and trusting.

This is the emotional stage where I've come to understand there is no perfection, there is a constant change in life, things won't always be the same/look the same, something will go/die and something will stay and thrive. There's so much peace when I no longer fight to resist changes or try to take hold of things by controlling every aspect. There are things that I'll continue to do to the best of my abilities, but I'll focus more on the journey, not the results. It is incredibly liberating.

Going a no-spray route is not about perfection, it's about seeing and accepting things from different perspectives and appreciate the differences while learning the lessons nature tries to teach us

We don't have to like how things look/are, but coming to acceptance can bring a lot of joy and peace to our lives in today's world where we are constantly being told to meet, achieve, or exceed certain standards.

Your garden is your sanctuary. There is no competition out there, it's a place to relax, breathe, allow your mind to relax and to quiet and unwind from the busy world. Smell the roses, look at small creatures hidden in certain spots, listen to the birds, feel the warmth of the sun and get lost for a while :)

If you've enjoyed this type of content, in addition to this blog post, I'd like to invite you to consider joining the Summer Rose (care) Camp or the Blooming with Joy subscription where you'll get tips and ongoing support for you and your roses or other resources here.

Happy Gardening,

Tat