falling off.....

17 years ago

Rose growing has been very disheartening for me the past few years. We have had strange winters that left the roses in shock. Last year, for the first time, my roses had aphids. Then there was the powdery mildew (which, for some odd reason, only cropped up on the stems, not the foliage). The eight foot banks of snow and ice crushed my 'Graham Thomas' and left to roses will a bit of gall on the stems this year.

Now I trun around and something else is wrong. Two of my DA roses have a strange problem. The stems are weak and are falling off if touched or disturbed. They are not the main stems, but the side ones that come off of the main ones. I noticed it when I was watering one of them (and not hard either, the stream was not at full pressure) and the stems started to break off from under the stream of water. I examined the rose and the little stems fell off when I examined them (I was very gentle). I also noticed that a couple of leaves look puckered.

What is going on? I sprayed all of my roses with GARDEN SAFE fungiside a few weeks ago, but the other roses do not seem to have this problem. Any bug or disease that can do this? The only other thing I can think of is that the roses are dehydrated.

Please tell me what is going on. Thank you so much for any help or tips you can provide!

CMK

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Comments (2)

texaslynn
17 years ago
I really can't help you as to what the "falling off" problem is but it is definitely true that plants that have been under stress also attract every bug and disease that is out there. The strange winters you mention are probably the culprit.

Try not to get too discouraged - I bet most everyone on here could admit to being that way at one time or other. I know that I have been there many times! There have been certain "easy" plants that I have given up on because I simply cannot get them to do much of anything, no matter how many times I've tried. As far as roses go, there are only a few varieties that will do well here (where it is very hot and humid for a large part of the year) with very little maintenance and the rest need a bit of help (such as spraying). But I keep plugging along in the hopes that my roses will look like some of the pictures I am always seeing on here!

Gardening is one of those activities in which you don't have complete control (by any means) of your project. Mother Nature has her own schedule and she really doesn't care whether you just planted 10 flats of a warm weather plant....if she wants to have a freeze in April, she will!

Bugs, disease, gale force winds that come out of nowhere, the lawn guy's weedeater..........all of these can ruin your hard work overnight (or in the case of the lawn guy's weedeater - IMMEDIATELY!!!!) And like in your case, sometimes you don't even have a CLUE as to why things are failing, so you don't know what to do to fix it, hence disappointment and discouragement.

I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you with your specific problem and I hope that maybe someone else will be able to provide assistance. Don't give up!

Lynn
christinmk z5b eastern WA
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you Lynn for the encouragement! I hear you on Mother Nature! She is a contrary old girl! I can honestly say, that I have never as much snow as I did last winter. That is a sure factor in rose troubles.

I am going to go and give the roses some compost, alfalfa pellets, and a bit more water and see if they perk up.
Thank you again for the nice words!
CMK
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