Have you heard the advice to plant garlic next to roses to repel aphids?
It turns out that this is a myth that could kill your bushes. In 2023, Horticulture Today magazine published a bombshell: garlic roots secrete allicin, a toxin that inhibits the growth of rose bushes.
The famous gardener David Austin , creator of the legendary English roses, said in an interview with The Telegraph :
"Garlic is the worst neighbor for roses. It's like putting a wolf in sheep's clothing."
The story of Anna from Kyiv confirms this: her hybrid tea roses, planted next to garlic, stopped blooming after a month.
Laboratory analysis of the soil showed that the level of sulfur, which garlic actively absorbs, had dropped to critical values.
“The roses didn’t have enough nutrition for their buds,” explained agronomist Sergei Petrenko in his blog, “A Garden Without Mistakes.”
Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have found that allicin disrupts the work of mycorrhizae, the symbiotic fungi that help roses absorb moisture. But there is good news. Shallots and chives, unlike garlic, are safe.
An experiment by the Pink Paradise channel proved that roses planted next to onions bloomed 15% longer. But it is better to keep garlic further away - at least 2 meters.
British gardening blogger Monty Don showed on the Gardeners' World show how to save already damaged bushes: water them with a solution of humic acids and mulch with nettle compost.
"It will neutralize toxins and restore the soil," he said. But the real secret was revealed in Japan.
For decades, the Sakura Roses nursery has been planting garlic not next to, but around the rose garden - behind a stone fence.
"This way the smell repels pests, but the roots don't compete," said owner Kenji Yamamoto.
By the way, garlic is not the only enemy. Potatoes and eggplants planted next to roses provoke late blight.
A 2022 study in the Journal of Plant Pathology confirmed that fungal spores from nightshades are transferred to rose stems.
But mint and sage, on the contrary, will protect your bushes. Feedback from the forum "Rosomany":
“I removed the garlic and the roses came back to life in three weeks!”
