Roses

Question

Whole limbs are falling off, mostly at the base of the mother plant. It looks sticky, but is just wet. Thought a cat jumped the wall and broke it, but several limbs are coming off. Been sprayed good for aphid and systemic placed in the soil. Any ideas? Thanks.

Answer 1

That is very strange. Usually there are only a few reasons for this and the wind whipping them real hard and making things crack down by the base, then the canes will break off at the slightest touch. Another thing that happens with some shrub, climbers and grandiflora rosebushes is that they get so loaded up with blooms that they get top heavy. The canes cannot support all the heavy blooms and the canes will break off all the way down at the base as that is their only support point. If this might be the case, I recommend getting a strong trellis of metal or wood and placing it behind those roses. Tie the canes off to the trellis at about their mid point in height. That will give them the strength needed to support a large number of blooms, wind whipping them, dogs or cats running by them and smacking the canes around. It truly sounds like a cane support problem more than anything else at this point. The sticky or wet look is the rosebush sending out some of its resin to seal the wound and thus heal it. Natural move when these things happen to them. Once you have them supported, scratch in 1/2 cup of Epsom Salts around the base of the bushes and water them well. The Epsom Salts encourages basal breaks, or the formation of new canes. This is important when some have been lost.