Roses and Wildlife Gardening

 

30 June 2025 

Roses and Wildlife Gardening


Summer, roses, warm scented days ‘... are such stuff as dreams are made on...’ or gardener’s dreams certainly! Carefully placed in grand designs, climbers and ramblers sprawling over cottage gardens, allotment flowers for cutting – roses are the all-time favourites. 

Vibrant bright red, ( ‘Parkdirektor Riggers’), 

delicate apple-scented pink ( ‘Albertine’), profuse bunches of bright pink


(3 ‘Dorothy Perkins’) – all gardener’s favourites standing the test of time from 1957, 1921 and early 1900’s.

Wildlife Gardening Tips: But are they any good for a wildlife garden? Photo


says ‘definitely yes’ – quote White-tailed Bumble Bee! Families of Bluetits would also vote ‘yes’. Frequently I see them working their way steadily along this ‘Dorothy Perkins’ stem and other roses, picking tiny creatures from amongst the leaves... presumably greenfly, as a visiting professional gardener marvelled at the fact there are very few of them in my garden!

From the bee feeding point of view, the ideal is a more open flattish rose face (Scottish wild rose, nice in a garden)


 Scottish wild rose, nice in a garden) with pollen-loaded stamens, reasonably accessible, not cluttered with obstructing petals.

The single red rose reaching for the sky in the background 



 approaches insect heaven. Insect access is close to the wild rose (5, and 

 single and simple... or are they?

The simple can transform to complexity! A small piece of wild rose, or any rose, can become a complete ecosystem within itself! The Robin’s pin cushion


 or mossy rose gall (harmless to the rose) develops when a gall wasp lays her 60 eggs within a leaf bud. Protected within this chemically induced gall, the grubs develop, emerging in Spring.

But others take advantage and exploit the wasp and its gall (see entrance/exit holes in an old cushion


... Another tiny wasp enters the picture. It, and the original gall maker, are then parasitised by yet more insects... and in turn these parasites become parasitised by parasites of parasites (hyperparasitoids)!

The ‘mossy-ness’ and stickiness of the gall is not effective in preventing all these new arrivals... and on top of it all, special fungi then enter the picture! The gall has now become a small entire ecosystem of interdependence. Rest assured... the galls will not harm your roses... RHS

Biodiversity certainly does appear in strange and unexpected places...

More on gorgeous wildlife friendly roses next week!

Note: Moss roses (bred mainly in 19th century) have some superficial similarity of ‘mossy-ness’


But look closely and you can see the ‘moss’ is fancy extensions of the leafy green calyx of the flower.

Photos: Nicolette’s Wildlife Garden and (8, 9, 10) a wild hedgerow.













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