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garden Roses Arizona Gardening

What's wrong with my roses?

Maria Canizales

last month

last modified: last month

I purchased and planted these roses in January this year. I've noticed some issues with them but haven't been able to find a solid answer in my Google searching. I'm hoping people with more experience might be able to help me figure out what's going on. I live in Southern AZ zone 9b. Planted the roses in a mix of existing soil and Kelloggs GroMulch. Didn't apply any fertilizer until I saw new growth and then just Alaska fish fertilizer every other week. They've had two applications so far. I water in the mornings or evenings if it gets too late. When I water in the mornings I make sure to thoroughly spray the foliage to help prevent aphids and other bugs, but I won't spray the foliage if I water at night. I tried using the heavy volume Foggit nozzle but it was just too forceful and ended up causing the leaves to be forced against the stems and the thorns punched holes in them. First 2 pics are of my Moonlight Magic which has put on a lot of new growth. 3rd pic is my Heirloom which has been struggling but wasn't very strong when I bought it. Last 3 pics are of my Chrysler Imperial which has put on new foliage but hasn't grown any taller. I noticed some tiny green bugs in my Moonlight last night so I sprayed it with Captain Jack's Insecticidal Soap and picked off a few tiny bugs this morning. I forgot to take pics before I picked them off. *Edit - It posted the 3rd and 4th pics out of order. 4th pic is the Heirloom.*

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Comments (5)

Sheila z8a Rogue Valley OR
last month
This might be rose Mosaic Virus. Just keep taking care of your plants. In hot climates this is usually not a serious problem.
charles kidder
last month
I 2nd Mosaic virus. I think there's more than that going on, but that's part of it. They don't look all that bad to me.
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What's wrong with my roses?
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Comments (6)
Umm, yes, in the second picture it looks like fungal disease, but in the first picture it seems to me pretty clear that your rose has a pretty severe nutritional deficiency: those yellow leaves with pinkish borders and green veins are an obvious sign. I looked it up on Google, but can't say specifically which element is deficient,though judging from the symptoms it's more than one: the yellow -with-green veins is lack of iron, for example. This would cause the plant to be very weak (it looks pretty starved, to be honest) and therefore susceptible to fungal disease, so my advice is, first of all,start the rose on a good nutritional program! Fertilize it and keep it well-watered! Organic rose fertilizers would probably be the best,but I don't live in the USA and therefore can't recommend any specific brand. There's a good chance that the disease will go away once it gets started on a good diet. Best of luck, and I hope others will weigh in and help ID the specific nutritional deficiencies.
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Looks like overwatering to me. In fact it happened to me recently in my tea garden. I put down bone meal and alfalfa and then set the sprinkler on and forgot about it! Needless to say I heavily overwatered and over the next couple days many of my leaves looked exactly like those you picture. Normally for blackspot I have alot more black spots on the leaves before they turn yellow. No worries, you're plant will recover and give you new leaves shortly.
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Comments (7)
This possibility went through my mind: is your ground saturated with moisture under the mulch? If it is, and you have poor drainage there, then it's possible the bloom are infected with botrytis rot from excess water. Once the excessive water situation goes away, so does the botrytis. Thrips are still a possibility along with the botrytis. They can occur together. Diane
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Bec , are you in a very hot climate ? Your brown leaves remind me of when I left band pots on the concrete and the sun really did a number on them . Or maybe you sprayed with an oil ?
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nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
last month
The tiny green bugs are probably aphids and the stream of water or squishing them off will take care of them. Doing as little as possible chemically encourages the good bugs to come in and take care of the bad bugs and you have a supportive environment for the rose with a minimum of effort.

The tips of the bloom in the first picture are just a bit crispy but being Arizona I suspect that's business as usual with the heat. Some shade in the hottest part of the day can help, and other AZ folks might chime in with ideas if you need them.

All in all you're doing fine! Rose Mosaic Virus isn't anything you did or the rose gets from the environment. It's just something that many grafted roses have that make the leaves discolored. In my cold climate it can weaken it a bit for winter survival, but even here we just grin and bear it. Mostly it doesn't interfere with the rose, and it doesn't spread from rose to rose. Sometimes it'll go dormant and you won't notice it for a while.

Cynthia
Diane Brakefield
last month
It looks like three things are affecting your roses, including the mosaic virus for sure, though I regard that as a cosmetic problem. The bud ends in the first several photos look like thrips' damage,, perhaps, but the photos are a bit blurry. As Sheila said, keep taking good care of your plants. The ground looks really dry. Cut back on the spraying. Aphids can be easily removed with a spray of water. I've found Captain Jack's to be worthless. Just my opinion, but at the time, years ago, I was trying it for thrips. I found that just ignoring the blasted thrips works just as well, since they seem to affect only three of my roses. Diane
Green Leaves
last month
last modified: last month
From the petals, I think I saw some signs of thrips activity. Please inspect the new leaves as well. If the tips dried up before turn into new leaves, or the new leaves are twisted, and exhibit small marks, it's possible that thrips are also involved.

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