That would make me MAD more than sad. Do you think someone picked them? I hope the ladybugs enjoy feasting on any aphids in their site. Judy

Judy - well the bush is about 10 feet from our front sidewalk anyone could walk up and cut them off. But they weren't ready to bloom just yet so the buds were still green. I also had the guy cut our lawn today but I can't figure how the rose buds would get cut??

yeah just a bummer!

Well that's great about the ladybugs!!! Were they the adults or the larval form??

Carol

Deer? That would be my guess ...

Yes deer. The first time that happened to me, I thought someone human did it. I whined to my neighbor. She looked at me like I had 3 head. She told me deer eat rosebuds, I never knew that.

I've had luck with Deer Off spray, which is basically pepper spray. Just be careful not to get it on your hands and transfer to your eyes.

In most of Southern California, they ate the last deer about 100 years ago.
Unless gbebeh is located way up in one of the canyons, the only deer are in the Zoo. :-)
I might be more suspicious of 2-legged Kids.

Jeri

Jeri you are right! We do have an occasional lost coyote, but never deer.

Yeah probably kids. oh well I'm on the lookout for them!

by the way the ladybugs were adults. Most of them have gone away but there are still about 3 on my bush by the front door.

My daughter has practice again on Tue, can't wait to do some more ladybug hunting!

gbebeh

Gbebeh, you MUST provide water for the ladies, in little saucers under the bushes, spray the whole area and then fill the saucers before you release them, DUSK is the best time. They need water in order to eat aphids. I found this out the hard way last year, when I bought a bag of them and released them on my roses to find most of them died, or left, or clung to the drainpipe that connects to my rain barrel! I heard it from the expert, Mike McGrath from WHYY's "You Bet Your Garden." Good luck & looks like you might have deer, sounds about right if they are clean bites at the end of the canes.

I saw a chipmunk do this to my roses,..it was like a game. He seemed to be having a ball, just going from bud to bud, and lopping them off. Have a heart traps work and then you can relocate him in the woods.

Southern California is, as far as I know, also deficient in Chipmunks.
Gophers, we got.
Squirrels, we got.
Possums and Raccoons, some of us got.
As Gbebeh says -- Coyotes, and even on one occasion on my Lane, a fox (tho they are not native to this area).

You must remember that for much of Southern California, the natural flora is pretty much prickly pear cactus and ceanothus.

Jeri

We have a deer problem here in Pa---they love my rosebuds-----

I had a beautiful Maccartney Rose and was eagerly awaiting the first bud to bloom and that night a deer nipped it right off---It had to be a deer because the bud was too high for the smaller critters.

Florence

I once had a dog who ate the buds off the rose bushes. He wouldn't eat all of them, and would often drop them by the bush.

Someone stole him and his sister from my yard last year. If you see a black dog eating rose buds, that could be him!

If you don't have deer, then my guess is squirrels. My gang of 10,000 squirrels (more or less) cuts off my camellia buds first and then goes for the roses. They don't eat them, they just toss them on the ground. Luckily the roses are mostly inside the fence with my dog who stands guard all day when I am at work, so the squirrels don't bother them very much. But, the few outside the fence do get bothered. Deer eat them and squirrels destroy them. Ahh, nature! Denise

I found two of the rosebuds on the ground by my bush. I asked some of the neighbor kids and they seemed clueless.
It could be a critter. I doubt my dog she is so old I don't think she would have the energy to go after them.
My mystery of spring 2008.

and thanks for the tip about putting out water for the ladybugs. They are all gone from my bush now. But I'm going back to the field this week and hopefully will get more...

I'm in So Cal, too. I has a grasshopper chop the buds off my roses one year....sounds unlikely but after I found him and squashed him, the problem stopped. The buds weren't tiny, but they were nowhere close to blooming, so the stems were still tender.

Hmm I do have grasshoppers I never thought of that. Are grasshoppers beneficial or bad for roses?
thanks,
gbebeh

The only good grasshopper is a dead grasshopper.

I know people who chop them in half with pruning shears. I applaud the sentiment, but my stomach rebels.

Jeri

ok this is a dumb question but what do grasshoppers do that makes them bad? still a newbie here!

thanks jeri!

They eat foliage.
In fact, they'll pretty much eat anything growing.

Have you heard of a "Plague Of Locusts"

I can view most creatures with some feeling for their place in the universe.
But not grasshoppers.
The only good grasshopper is a dead grasshopper.

Jeri

see you guys teach me so much! Well from now I'm killing grasshoppers! And I think my mystery is closed I'm blaming the grasshoppers this time........