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What's happened to my roses?
elizabeth_howell
Posts: 2
Hi,
Fairly new gardener here. I bought two lovely climbing roses from David Austin in the spring and planted in my garden against a south facing wall. They have been mulched with bark and fed regularly using specialist rose food. Roses were doing well until I went on holiday for two weeks and I think they got frazzled by the heat. Since then, growth has been stunted with extremely small leaves forming which are often crispy and brown on the edges. I have been pruning these regularly and I do have some flowers on them but the growth always seems to be small crispy leaves, even though they have been watered regularly now and the temperature has dropped. Flowers not affected although again a little smaller. No marks on the stems. Its definitely not black spot and I cant see any orange spores for rose rust. Any ideas what is causing this? I'm tempted to wait until spring and see how they perform as it could just be the spot is too sunny?
Fairly new gardener here. I bought two lovely climbing roses from David Austin in the spring and planted in my garden against a south facing wall. They have been mulched with bark and fed regularly using specialist rose food. Roses were doing well until I went on holiday for two weeks and I think they got frazzled by the heat. Since then, growth has been stunted with extremely small leaves forming which are often crispy and brown on the edges. I have been pruning these regularly and I do have some flowers on them but the growth always seems to be small crispy leaves, even though they have been watered regularly now and the temperature has dropped. Flowers not affected although again a little smaller. No marks on the stems. Its definitely not black spot and I cant see any orange spores for rose rust. Any ideas what is causing this? I'm tempted to wait until spring and see how they perform as it could just be the spot is too sunny?
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Posts
Your roses are still alive, which is good news. I'd suggest bonemeal now and a good mulch (15-20 cm) this winter. Then next year, treat them as convalescents: water well, feed and try not to prune too much. It sounds as if you are over-pruning too and removing much of the strength they are struggling to establish. Your specimens will have arrived ready-pruned and would not need further pruning for some two or three years. The leaf issue you describe is probably drought-caused, so make sure they get some deep drenches with occasional fertiliser for the rest of this growing season.
A good tip for the future is to buy your roses bare-root in the autumn. That way they have the whole winter season to establish their roots before spring and summer warmth. Also they have much larger roots--harder to plant but more likely to establish well and perform better in subsequent years.
Another point. If rootlets are killed by drought, they xan't take up water and will drown if waterd too much.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
All deciduous plants including roses will soon be starting to turn and shed leaves for Autumn. When rose leaves start to senesce (die!) they will get spotty and discolour and they are more susceptible to fungal diseases as the weather cools, so when you see it happening, don’t worry about that either 😊 Just pick up any fallen leaves to try and prevent any fungal diseases from over-wintering in the ground and maybe spread a fresh mulch around the base.
Remember not to water the foliage, just at the base, don’t feed going forward and reduce your watering going into winter.
When you say they were 'fed regularly' ... how often is that?
If they were planted properly they shouldn't really need much feeding in the first year ... they need a chance to get their roots established before being encouraged to put on top growth.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I have not found a modern peat-free compost that comes anywhere near the performance. And I have tried. Commercial growers will be able to use peat, but many don't.
I think mine was a helpful comment to make to the poster. Perhaps a bit minimal, but sound.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."