Leaves turning very pale with dark veins
Wendy Lindley
Posts: 2
I have a courtyard garden so many plants are in pots. Last year I planted 2 climbing roses, one of which was newly bought and the other moved from another location, both of them developed very light green leaves where the veins were clearly visible. I checked with your site and it seemed that the soil (which I had incidentally used everywhere else in the garden) was short of iron. I treated the soil with iron last season and this but it has made no difference. I have now noticed that the 2 neighbouring pots are affected in the same way (loss of colour). They contain Silver Leaf and a runner which has chocolate coloured leaves and small yellow flowers (do not know the name). I am now wondering if this has anything to do with the neighbour's garden wall against which the pots are standing, which is Victorian-built. The roses were like this last year but the runner not and the Silver Leaf, which I have in other places, is fine everywhere else.
Posts
Iron is not enough. All plants need a balanced diet of minerals and trace elements to grow well although amounts and mixes differ between species. Did you use ordinary garden soil or specialist comost mixes in your pots? Either way, the nutrients will have been depleted after just 3 or 4 months and need regular topping up by you.
Roses are gross feeders and need nitrogen, potassium, potash, magnesium and other trace elements to grow healthy roots, leaves and flowers. Give them a weekly feed of liquid rose or tomato feed from spring to mid summer. Give them a top dressing of slow release rose food or pelleted chicken manure every spring.
Have a firkle and check there are no vine weevil or other nasties lurking in the pots and stand them on feet so they drain properly when watered and aren't drowning the roots.
I feed my roses in pots every month and my roses in the ground once or twice a year. They get very hungry, can't send roots out searching for food, so they rely on you. They also need quite a lot of water.
Epsom salts can correct magnesium deficiencies and are very useful for ericaceous plants suffering from an inability to manufacture chlorophyll because they can't access iron and magnesium in alkaline soil or compost or watered with hard water.
Roses will appreciate some Epsom salts as a tonic but need a more complete food to grow and stay healthy. Dilute 1 tablespoon in one gallon/5mls of water and pour over the plant using the spray nozzle on your watering can so it gets all over the foliage.
Interesting about your lillies. I picked up some new ones at Chelsea that claim to be lime tolerant - Stella Viola and perfumed too.
http://www.hwhyde.co.uk/lilies/catalogue/?ccm_paging_p_b567=25 scroll down.
Bought it to go with Firefox which is deep red.
thanks for all the info. I shall act on it immediately!