BLOOM

Nurturing Equilbrium

Integrated Pest Management

As part of our socially responsible BLOOM pledge, we invest in integrated pest management across our six themed gardens and the nursery where our world-renowned roses are bred. BLOOM is our commitment to the future, an ambitious socially responsible plan, bringing everything we do for our people, planet, the wider community, and gardeners of the future under one umbrella.

Our breeding programme continually develops resistant, tolerant roses, bred to withstand the ever-changing climate and pest development,  alongside having the charm, fragrance and form of David Austin’s English roses. While conventional pest management methodologies offer transient respite in breeding and growing roses, they often disrupt the ecological balance and compromise the integrity of the ecosystem.

In our horticultural regime, we were early adopters of non-neonicotinoid pesticides in our production beds and now host several beekeepers who have hives around our nursery.

We do not spray the roses in our extensive trial programme, and it is our intention that the latest generation of David Austin roses should be able to survive well in the garden without the need for continual spraying by our customers.

We continue to implement crop IPM (Integrated Pest Management), the introduction and maintenance of native predator populations, both outdoor and under protection, to reduce  our use of pesticides. By fostering biodiversity and creating conducive habitats for beneficial organisms, we can naturally mitigate pest production, preserving ecological harmony.

Nature, in its infinite wisdom, provides an array of beneficial insect predators and our UK-bred biological controls use native predator populations to combat aphids, thrips and two-spotted spider mites.

We also minimise reliance on herbicides by utilising alternative husbandry methods like mechanical weeders, bark toppers, membranes, cover crops and field rotations.

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