Roses Sprayed on Hot Day

Question

My gardener sprayed my roses on a very hot Melbourne day 6 weeks ago. After a week or so, my roses began to die off. All the leaves are now dead. I have over 100 standard roses and they look dead, not a bit of green on them. Gardener tells me they will come back again, but I am not so sure. Do you have any advice or experience that you can share? I personally don’t think they will come back. Is there anyone who could help? My roses are over 10 years old. Any help appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

How sad this is…. Your Gardener should know better if he or she has been gardening long. But things do happen. If the canes are still green, even down closer to the ground there is hope, however I believe you are getting close to entering your winter or dormant season there. Correct? If so, this will be very hard on them. Here is what I recommend doing: Remove all the dead leaves/foliage. Prune the canes back to where there is still some green coloration, or to where there is good healthy white to slightly off white center pith of the canes. Water all of the roses with some water in a large watering can with some Root Stimulator of choice and if you can find it there a product called Super Thrive, it can be ordered on-line through Amazon.com too. Add both to the water like they were the only thing being added to the water. Give all of the rosebushes at least a gallon of the mix. Then after about 7 days, sprinkle 1/3 cup of Epsom Salts around the base of each rosebush and scratch it into the soils. Water the rosebushes well with some water with just the Super Thrive added to it. This will help bring the rosebushes out of the stress shock they are currently in. The Epsom Salts helps to encourage new cane formation and growth. If they still have any life left in them, this treatment should bring them back. Please do let me know how things go.

Stan The Rose Man
Consulting Rosarian
Gardening Know How