My poor rose bush!

[FranBrodie]

Only its second year and I noticed it was covered in greenfly, so I sprayed it with soapy water (diluted washing up liquid). Now lots of leaves have fallen off , have I mis-remembered this treatment from my childhood? Should I have bought ladybirds or something? Can I rescue it?

Feed it with a mulch of manure and compost and water it when it is dry weather with a bucket of water. Roses are stronger when well nourished. Little birds like greenfly btw. In my garden the blue tits suck the aphids up off the rose buds, it is an amusing sight.

Thanks funny, it's in a pot near the house and we've been struggling to attract birds to the bird feeder, but I'll move it further away!

yes to feeding.
esp in a pot. soapy water should alwys be followed by -preferably rain- water.

No shortage of rainwater yesterday

I think I have a pack of bonemeal etc from when I first planted it, should I try to dig it in a bit or can I just sprinkle on the top?

I gave up using bonemeal because it attracted foxes, which dug up whatever was planted with it. The current favourite MN rose treatment is to bury a banana skin under it or (if you don't want to dig it up) chop up the banana skin and use it as a mulch.

Good tip, thanks! We always have plenty of banana skins

Hope it works for you (and use the bonemeal too if you like, but just beware the foxes). What with the banana skins and orange peel to discourage cats, my flower beds look like a fruit salad!