Need help with my rose bushes

[Tweety]

I don't know if anyone can help me out or not but I have 3 rose bushes in front of my house and they had been blooming beautifully for several years until about the middle of last summer, they started kind of dying and the leaves got really dark and funny looking. One of them is doing pretty good so far this year, the second one I had to cut off about half of it and the third only has 2 branches left after cutting off all the dead stuff. Does anyone know what may have caused this and if there is anything I can do to help them out? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

[fisherman2]

roses need lots of water, depending where you live the cold may have done some damage. Go to a local nursery or garden shop, they have books and people that can help.

"He lived to die, rejected and alone, layed behind a stone, he took the fall for us all"

 

[Alive again]

I second that reply. Especially if your have sample leaves you can put in a zip bag to show them. They always are a great help to me

 

[Tweety]

Thank you both so much for you suggestions, I will check into that.
They do seem to be doing a little better now since I cut out all the dead stuff. I also tried some rose food, but not sure if thats going to help any or not. Thank you both again!

 

[catzinjammies]

Roses need good drainage. If you have soil with alot of clay in it you may need to mix sand and even some gravel into the soil to supply drainage. They do need water, but don't like thier roots to sit in it. Best of luck!

CIJ

 

[Alive again]

Rose food is helpful also, follow directions on the can. I like to use the combo rose food systemic (disease control) and I alos usually dust my roses. I try to fertilize every few 4-6 weeks, depending on the directions on the package of what I'm using-but some years money is short so they get less. Your local gardenstore will be alot of help. Once I got basic info I can buy most fo the stuff cheaper at
Walmart type places, but I always try to buy somethings from where I got the info to help support them as well. Just I have a really tight budget also. So I balance it out.

 

[Witness Of His Love]

If, when you take the leaves to the garden shop and they tell you it is a fungal infection, such as black spot, (which I suspect from your description), when removing the diseased parts of the plant make sure you remove all of the fallen plant material that lands on the ground as you can reinfect your roses. If it is black spot here is a great link to help you:

http://utut.essortment.com/blackspotdisease_rffw.htm

I agree with the one individual who mentioned your soil. Roses need good drainage and rich soil. They also require a good pruning in the spring and systemic rose food once in springtime and once during the summer.

You might need to change out the type of roses you have for a tougher variety such as Flower Carpet rose. They are highly resistant to disease and prolific bloomers all season long. (zones 6-10). They're a ground cover rose and come in white, pink, red and carmen.

Here is a link for other disease-resistant roses:

http://www.berkeleyhort.com/roses/r_diseaseresistant.html

Good luck and happy gardening!

 

[dllewis1958]

My husband's Roses are beautiful..a friend at his work goes fishing and brings him the fish parts (head..etc) He digs a hole and buries these parts next to the Rose's..

Diane

 

[Zinnia]

I love roses, and have many in my garden. They do need a lot of care if you want them to do well, otherwise, they are very hardy, in spite of different things. Good luck with identifying what is wrong with yours. I sometimes take a cutting off of my favorite roses, and plant them in a gallon size pot to back up just in case an ailing rose doesn't make it. They should be in the potting soil just above one the of "joints" on the stem. This way you can have a fresh start in another area for your roses. January is the best time to take the cutting, though.

 

[Pinkwaterlily]

Good luck with your roses. I just pruned mine to try and get them to live, my landlord's son sprayed poison to kill the grass and got my roses. Oh... why do these things happen? Can't do anything now but laugh and plant more if they die..

 

[Tweety]

Good luck with your roses. I just pruned mine to try and get them to live, my landlord's son sprayed poison to kill the grass and got my roses. Oh... why do these things happen? Can't do anything now but laugh and plant more if they die..

I kinda wondered if that mighta been what happened to mine, but the weed killer was sprayed in the spring and they did'nt start dying and looking weird till later in the summer. They seem to be doing much better now since I cut out all the dead stuff and put rose food on them! I'm really sorry to hear about yours, I hope they will be okay!!

 

[Paisley]

I love roses! Even though they are a lot of trouble to keep them up, they surely are worth it!