The weirdest thing is happening to my Zepherine Drouhin rose About 2 weeks ago I noticed it was covered with house flies :-x The leaves looked a little sticky so I sprayed the whole thing off with the hose thinking if I got rid of whatever it was the flies would leave. Then I noticed it was COVERED in aphids!! After spraying it the flies were better for a day or two but it is right back to where it was. I sprayed the entire plant with garden safe spray and fed it a systemic. Have you ever heard of such a thing?? What should I do???
I don't know what you should do, but the aphids leave a sticky substance that contains sugar. That's why the ants tend them as livestock. So I'm guessing here but maybe the flies like the sweet stuff.
I have had the exact same thing. For prevention, I planted a common yellow and red Lonicera next to the rose on the rose arch. Now the aphids choose the Lonicera over the rose and they have not attacked the rose since. But now to rid yourself of the aphids, you would either need to collect all the ladybirds that you could find in your garden and put them on the rose bush, or make a concoction of soapy water and with a dash of methylated spirits (methanol) and spray the insects with that three times (every other day). --Not on rainy days, for it will wash-away and biodegrade quickly. There are also commercial anti-aphid poisons that you can buy to kill the little suckers. Good luck with this.
Stratsmom--Don't you love this site? You post a problem, and sure enough there is someone who knows what you are talking about and 9 times out of 10 knows a solution!
I would spray them with just a soapy water/veg. oil mix and a direct spray of water to knock them off. Check underneath the leaves to see if there are little gold aphid pupating cases(sorry I can't think what they are called right now). If they are there you'll need to keep watching and spraying regularly,( I scratch them off when I see them on any plants with my thumbnail) but if you put a systemic on the plant you should be ok not doing anything more.
Use the soap/vegetable spray until the systemic kicks in. The systemic should start to work in about a week (you can tell by the lack of aphids). Some roses are more prone to aphid infestations than others, just as some get black spot more easily. If roses weren't so beautiful, we wouldn't go to all this trouble for them!
