We all want beautiful roses, but most of us are also unified in wanting to be conscientious citizens of the earth who take great care to protect the environment. My priority in my garden and in life is to be in harmony with nature and not to jeopardize the balance of nature. We can all adopt this “oneness with nature” approach to gardening when we use the safe, sustainable and tried-and-true approach to gardening known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

IPM is extremely effective in managing plant health and preventing pest problems and infestations. IPM has cultural, mechanical and biological approaches to safeguard and keep plants at their optimal health. With a conscientious use of IPM we can avoid the use of pesticides and fungicides altogether. My mission as a Master Gardener and Consulting Rosarian is to teach gardeners that roses are not hard to grow when we use IPM’s simple and commonsense gardening tenets. We find joy in growing healthy, beautiful roses and plants successfully. And we double our joy when we take full advantage of the help of beneficial insects, birds and spiders instead of jeopardizing them with sprays.