I've been meaning to ask this forever and I just got reminded of it when I went to see the movie "A Good Year". When we were in Tuscany we notice that there were rosebushes planted at the ends of the vineyard rows. They do this in Provence it seems, too, because I saw it in the movie.

Does anyone know why?

Because they look pretty?

Well, honey-pie, I look pretty too but they don't stick me at the end of the vineyard!

hdm,
Rose bushes are often planted at the end of a row of grape vines to act as an early warning signal for infestation by diseases and insects like aphids.

That's what some people say, but it may be a myth:

http://tinyurl.com/u47p6

So you can sing days of wine and roses...and you?

I have always heard that if he rose bush starts to shrivel, it is time to check the vines to see what is wrong.
A myth? Oh no!

SeaUrchin,
"days of wine and roses"... LOL!

Drink wine… This is life eternal… This is all that youth will give you… It is the season for wine, roses and drunken friends… Be happy for this moment… This moment is your life.’

From: sixty-nine stanzas by Omar Khayyam


…

And this one is where the film, "Days of Wine and Roses" adopted its title:

VITAE SUMMA BREVIS SPEM NOS VETAT INCOHARE LONGAM,
by Ernest Dowson, 1896

They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate;
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate. -
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream. - -

I have heard that it is an aid to polinization of the vines i.e. they attract bees. I haven't authenticated the theory though.
Paul

I looked on a few French sites and saw that the roses used to be used as an early warning system for diseases, but that now it is just a tradition.

Love that poem, thanks for sharing it.

How interesting:

Dowson, Ernest (1867-1900) - English poet who lived a brief and reckless life. He fell in love with a waitress and wrote his best work for her. "Cynara", unable to understand his verse, ran away with a waiter and Dowson spent the rest of his life in squalor.

Cigalechanta got it in one. Nowadays I think it's just tradition. Has anyone noticed that each row of vines has an alternate red/white rose bush?
My favourite wine saying:
"I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food"

My understanding was also that it is a leftover from the days when it was early warning indicator of disease. It is also a red coloured rose in front of grapes intended for red wine and a white coloured rose for white wine.

Certainly I have asked the question ina number of French vineyards, and they have always said- because they look pretty.

cigalechanta,

Omar's glass is always half full.

>a red coloured rose in front of grapes intended for red wine and a white coloured rose for white wine.<

And pink roses for Rose' ?

I knew you'd know. You guys know everything.

My husband is a wine grape grower here in CA. The rose bushes are purely for decoration. Grapes do not get aphids and are self-pollinating, so bees aren't needed.

He has, in several vineyards, color-coded with the roses.

MY