Roses with Coffee

by Leigh Anne
(Los Angeles, CA)

I grew run-of-the-mill tea roses in a couple of planters at my apartment complex in Los Angeles. Many people told me that roses are too hard to grow. They get too many diseases and bugs. But I was determined.

First, I made sure they got plenty of morning sun. During the course of the seasons, I would move my pots to be exposed to the best sunshine. I made sure to only water them in the morning to prevent mildew.

I used a mild pesticide to deal with the aphids. Mostly, I would pick them off myself. And then I found ladybugs in the garden; I stopped the pesticide and tried to encourage the ladybugs to hang around my roses to eat the aphids.

But the trick that seemed to work the best was a suggestion I got from a neighbor. She had known the lovely actress/dancer Juliet Prowse and every morning, Ms. Prowse would dump out her coffee grounds onto her roses. So my helpful neighbor, every morning, would dump her coffee grounds on my roses.

And even though I would occasionally treat my roses with a fertilizer, I believe it was the coffee grounds that really did the trick. My roses were beautiful and prolific. Yes, it helped that I lived in Southern California but even there, roses can have problems.

Also, I kept my roses pruned. Usually, I cut them and put them in a vase but if a rose did wilt, I cut it off right away. I believe this practice, plus the great fertilizer kept my roses beautiful all during the growing season.

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