Hard to Say Goodbye to Rose

Last December of 2009 on my way to the market, I stumble upon a pushcart vendor selling potted plants. A rose plant captured my attention as it appeared too beautiful to resist with its three deep-red colored blooms, a different variety from my other rose plant. I bought it for P150 (more than US$3) which made me think that I got a great deal as it is very hard to find potted rose plant for sale within the area. As I still need to go to the market, I temporarily placed my purchase at my uncle’s house which was just nearby instead of climbing 40 feet upstairs back home. My uncle liked the plant so he put it right in front of his window.



I read some articles saying that there are rose varieties which are hard to cultivate thus I anticipated that the one I bought might be one of those kind. So instead of bringing the rose to my garden and suffer an untimely demise on my hand, I left it to the care of my uncle who in his own way was able to cultivate one variety of mini roses in his own urban garden thus he is more an experienced gardener than me.

Weeks passed and the rose seemed to be doing just fine though I noticed some white spots growing on its branches. I thought it was nothing to be worried about but after a week when I visited the plant again, almost everything was covered with white flakes including the leaves. It could have been the changing season that caused this to my rose thus I brought the plant to our home to do whatever I can to save it. When I made a research about it, it looks like my rose suffered from a heavy fungal infection called powdery mildew. It is said that powdery mildew develops rapidly during hot weather with cool moist night. Oh, so perfect time as that’s exactly how the weather was the past days. So it is right that the change of season is really causing damage to my beautiful rose. It is being advised to prune and destroy affected parts of the plant thus when I assessed the infestation, it looks like there is little hope left for this plant but since it’s hard for me to say goodbye to something as lovely as this, I better not give up. I tried to follow the instructions stated on the various articles that I read and I hope it will bring a better outcome in the next few days.