Rose problems

Question

HELP!! I live in Utah where it is very hot. During the spring all of my roses looked absolutely beautiful and healthy because we got a lot of rain. Now, even though they get plenty of water, they are all dying from something I can’t seem to control. I have used ferti-lome and Immunox (recommended by local nursery) on them to no avail. I have worked new potting soil dirt with Bayer rose products (which I added) into the ground around the roses. Nothing that has worked in the past is working. I am at a loss as to what to do now. I will add some pictures of my sad looking roses. The last picture is how they looked a few short weeks ago.

Answer 1

When we have strings of hot days, some rosebushes will start shedding their foliage in an effort to keep cool. Many go into a bit of heat stress and shock. This stress and shock can be compounded by spraying them with various sprays or giving them heavy duty systemic treatments. If you notice very tiny bugs on the rosebushes along with some fine hairlike webbing upon them, it could be that you have spider mites or some form of mites. If it is mites, you will need to use a miticide such as Floramite SC to gain control. The use of typical insecticides only kills off the natural predators of the mites and they get worse. The Floramite SC is costly to buy an entire container of it. However, you can get smaller amounts on Ebay that will make many gallons of spray and enough for the typical home gardener. a webstie called Rosemania.com has a dosage mixing guide on their website that is very handy for making up these sprays for smaller amounts. The Floramite SC takes only 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of water, so a little goes a long way. But this is ONLY if you truly have a mite problem. Otherwise, I would water all of the rosebushes that are showing signs of the shock and stress with some water that has both a root stimulator and some Super Thrive mixed into the water. Give them this mix the next 4 to 5 times that they need water. It will give the roots a boost and will help them deal with the stresses and shock they are going through. Let me know how things go, I know this can be frustrating beyond belief….