For many years now, Fort Vancouver Rose Society (FVRS) has maintained a public rose garden in Esther Short Park. We’ve held annual work parties for planting, spring pruning, fertilizing, watering, summer pruning, digging up, fall pruning, and winter protecting.

Unfortunately, for years the people who visited the garden the most were the transients who made the park their Vancouver headquarters. It became increasingly rare to be visited by a family with small children when we were working in the garden.

Several years ago, however, the City of Vancouver began a major project to turn this neglected block into the showplace it has become. In the process, our roses were removed (some were stored, the rest discarded) and later replanted in the area the City set aside for a rose garden. We replanted the older roses along with a number of new varieties. Some of these roses were purchased, but many were donated by nurseries and local rose growers.

At first, we maintained this garden the “usual” way, using Portland Rose Society (PRS) fertilizer and spraying it with the standard fungicides and pesticides – and it looked pretty good! We were proud of our garden.

The way the earlier garden was set up, visitors tended to walk around and look at the roses, but they weren’t actually “in” the garden. With the new setup, however, people were free to look, to touch, and generally get close to the roses. Visitors asked us how we cared for the plants, and we began to notice concern at our replies; people were concerned about the toxicity of our methods.

About this time, the City moved the popular Farmers’ Market to Esther Short Street (across the sidewalk from the rose garden), and they set up an eating area in the middle of the garden. Now, thousands of people were visiting our garden over the course of each 2-day Farmers’ Market weekend. The Farmers’ Market organization asked the Society to staff an information booth. At the urging of Dan Fink, a long-time vendor at the market, we decided in late 2001 that it was time to implement a change in our rose care program.

The owner of N&D Orchids and Exotics, Dan also sold components of the Neem Oil based Dyna-Gro System. He proposed supplying us with the materials for a 1-year test of the product. We considered it, and agreed it was worth a try. After all, it wouldn’t kill the roses, and if they got too bad, we could always go back to the old standards in 2003.

Our garden went from “pretty good” to “fabulous” in one year with this care system.

So what did we do, and how did we do it?

We used a 4-part Neem Oil system marketed as the Dyna-Gro System (similar products are available; this was offered to us for free – a very good price). These four parts are:

1.           Neem Oil is a natural biodegradable substance that does not harm the environment. It forms a strong repellant; insects don’t seem to like the taste. Thus, they either starve or seek a tastier location. The Neem Oil also disrupts their reproductive cycle. It doesn’t harm the birds, mammals, or beneficial predators (ladybugs, bees, spiders, wasps, etc.).

2.           Pro-TeKt is essentially a soluble silicon supplement. The roses take up the soluble silicon through both the roots and the leaves. The silicon creates a protective coating on the plants so fungi, such as blackspot, can’t penetrate the leaves. Additionally, it improves the rose’s heat and drought tolerance.

3.           Foliage-Pro (9-3-6) provides all (6) essential macronutrients ([urea free] nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur) as well as (10) essential micronutrients (boron, chlorine, cobalt, copper, [chelated] iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, sodium, and zinc). Easy to use, it promotes healthy growth.

4.           Mag-Pro boosts the sulfur and magnesium levels, increasing the number, size, and quality of the blooms. (Think of it as liquid Epsom Salts.)

FVRS member Doug Lauder became our Neem Oil expert, mixing and spraying this group of products. He explains his methods this way:

1.           What you DON’T need: special gloves, a face mask, a respirator, coveralls, goggles! These products are not toxic.

2.           What you DO need: milk jugs for mixing, a funnel, measuring spoons, dishwashing liquid, and a 1 or 1½ gallon pump sprayer. (Hose end sprayers are not recommended.) Doug recommends mixing all you will need before you begin spraying. He mixes it at home and transports it to the park.

3.           Use the funnel to avoid spillage and mix 1 gallon (1 milk jug) at a time. You may need to warm the Neem Oil container in warm water to get it to a pouring consistency – or simply keep it stored in the house instead of the garage.

4.           For each gallon, use: Neem Oil            4 teaspoons (weekly at first, then monthly) Pro-TeKt            1 teaspoon (weekly) Foliage Pro            1 teaspoon (every 3^rd time) Mag Pro            1 teaspoon (every 3^rd time) Last of all, add 1 teaspoon of the liquid dishwashing soap.

5.           Fill the jugs with hot water – it helps keep the Neem Oil in liquid form.

6.           To transport the jugs, Doug places each one into a 5-gallon bucket. Not only does this help prevent possible spills, but the buckets help keep the mixture warm.

7.           Shake each jug well before pouring it into the sprayer, and use only one gallon at a time.

The Neem Oil is a fatty substance that looks and feels like shortening. It is white, soft, and disappears when you rub it. It can also clog the nozzle of your sprayer. Check the nozzle and the screen for these fatty deposits each time you pour a fresh gallon of mix into the sprayer. If necessary, clean the nozzle before continuing. When you are done, wash the sprayer tank and the milk jugs with warm soapy water and rinse well.

This program kept the garden in good condition all year. We had two major aphid infestations. In the first instance (in the spring), they came, they tasted, and they left. In the second instance (in the fall), they stayed around a bit longer than Doug liked, so he resorted to some very selective hand spraying with one of our “old” products. This did the job, and they did not return.

With the Farmers’ Market on Saturday and Sunday, Doug and his helpers have been meeting on Friday mornings to deadhead and spray. The garden of 68 large bushes is picture perfect within 2 hours or less.

To promote growth and flowering, they simply remove the spent bloom at the neck. The bushes are healthy, full of blooms, and have lots of basal breaks. In fact, the garden was so spectacular it merited an in-depth article in “Inspirations”, the weekly home magazine published by The Columbian.

Although we did get our supplies for free in 2002, a potential cost comparison indicated excellent savings potential, at least for our garden. We have opted to continue the program indefinitely.

(Estimated) 2001 Cost, using traditional methods and materials (PRS fertilizer and Ortho products):

(Estimated) 2002 Cost, using Dyna-Gro System:

So, other than rose societies caring for public gardens, who might be interested in using the Neem Oil products?

1.           People who are concerned about protecting the environment and want a more earth- and creature-friendly way to grow roses. Product is non-toxic.

2.           People who want to cut down on the physical labor involved in caring for their roses. Use a 1-gallon sprayer and spend less time pruning diseased bushes.

3.           People who want to grow roses but spend less time and energy caring for them. Deadhead weekly is all that’s needed. (Of course, there are more blooms, so this may be a bit of a trade-off.)

4.           People who want to cut the costs of caring for their roses.

5.           People who want to grow healthy roses with lots of top quality blooms.

This article was written in 2003, but a few things have happened since then worth noting.  First, Dan Fink no longer supplies us with the Neem Oil products due to a licensing problem with the state of Oregon (where Dan’s business is located). We now purchase the products locally. Second, the garden continues to thrive under this care regimen. Doug and his group now meet on Wednesday mornings, spraying, deadheading, and trimming as needed. We still have group prunings in the spring and fall. We have had to remove a couple of bushes damaged by visitors to the park, and a couple of bushes which developed crown gall (a common problem in our area), but we have added several more.