Garden offers cures to what rose garden might occasion

Fiann Ó Nualláin on how to lessen the intensity of Rose gardener’s disease from injuries while pruning

What put this article on my radar to write about, was that in recent weeks I had a letter from a reader of this column concerning a persistent wound from a pruning injury — and I met a person on a foraging expedition who had contracted a bronchial complication from a plume of wild mushroom spores. And as this is both the main foraging season, and the choice time for planting barefoot roses and pruning some established ones — I thought it pertinent.

Okay, we gardeners know that every rose has its thorns but beyond a bloody thumb or pricked finger we should be alert to other potential injuries. In particular Rose gardener’s disease aka Sporotrichosis — which is occasioned by a scrape or deeper wound infected with the dimorphic fungus Sporothrix schenckii.