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Mystery Rose Problem
jjone4380937
Posts: 2
I’ve had a Pilgrim climbing rose (David Austin) for a few years and it has recently developed a strange problem. The leaves and stems have started curling and spiraling. The new growth after pruning started out beautiful but began to wither in this way about a week and a half ago. Strangely, there is no discoloration or signs of pests. I have 3 other roses in the same bed and they appear vigorous and healthy. I have searched the internet and asked at my local nursery but no one has ever seen this problem. The advice given includes only generalized advice and guess work. Just for reference, in the past 2 months I have fertilized, made sure the beds are clean, treated for fungus (we live in zone 8b) treated for insects, amended the soil, added new pine straw, pruned etc. Since my Pilgrim is the only one affected I am stumped.
The only step I can think of to do next is to dig it up and further amend the soil. We do have clay soil with a thin layer of topsoil. However, my beds have been continually amended over the years. I know there is always room for improvement but without knowing the specific issue I can’t confidently make any changes. I don’t want to further stress the rose by making unnecessary changes.
The first pictures were taken Monday and the last pictures were taken today (the leaves are wet because it rained last night). Thank you in advance for any help!!
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I don't see too much there that would bother me, the leaf curling I see every year on a rose or two, and the distorted growth is not something I've not seen before.. I would just prune back to a healthy bud.. you've got lots of those.
Here in England, I would put that down to thrips or sawflies, but it may be different in your location. It can only be guesswork as you would need a plant pathologist to get to the bottom of these things, and in most cases it's not necessary or practical.
You could also ask David Austin UK for their advice as it's one of their roses, after all..
Interesting cultivation with the pine straw mulch. Not something I would be familiar with. Best of luck, I'm sure your rose will put on a good display this June ..
Lol! It’s definitely not blackberry brambles but it does look that way!
I have trimmed some if the curly stems but don’t want to denude the plant as I just recently pruned it done to canes. All the growth began very healthy and then a week or so ago some of it started to do this weird curling spiral thing.
I am very certain it’s not thrips. My whole area had a bad case of them last summer and I have gotten to know them very well! As to any other insects there is absolutely no sign of any bugs at all.
I’m in the U.S. As to the pine straw mulch, I guess it’s a regional thing. We have a ton of humidity and moisture here and I have found it works best at keeping fungal problems at bay. It does a better job for us at keeping out the weeds too.