Drainage should not be a problem on a sandy slope. Roses like water anyway.

First year roses are underperformers. It takes them time to get established and really get going. The old gardener's adage "First year sleep, second year creep, third year leap", applies to roses most of the time.

Having said that, a ton of rain could make them look unhappy for a while since roses are sun-lovers. What kind of fertilizer have you given them, how often, and when? Are they in full sun (minimum 6 hrs a day)?

Small holes in leaves could be a pest called Roseslug, which makes the leaves look bad but won't kill the plant.

Rugosas are native to sandy soil and don't like to have wet feet. If the soil is too wet from all the rain then that may cause the leaves to turn yellow. Or because it has been so wet the yellow leaves could be from black spot.

Rugosas need to be cross polinated to form hips. They will not self pollinate. If there aren't any other roses in the vicinity to pollinate them, then they won't form hips.

Also it seems that Darts Dash is picky about what pollen it will accept. I placed pollen on my Darts Dash from four different pollen parents and hips formed from only two of the pollen parents.

I haven't grown that rugosa, but just thought I'd check and make sure you didn't spray it. At least my rugosa (Blanc Double de Coubert) hates spray of any kind.

Also, based on my rugosa, I'd say rugosas are very slow starters. I had trouble waiting for that third year--nothing much was happening to it the first two years. May be the nature of the beast.

Just some thoughts.

Kate

Thanks for your replies.

Hoovb, I probably need to be more patient since this is just the first year!

Ptgros, I had no idea that the roses would not set hips on their own!! I always thought that once the bloom died (and if you did not dead head) that a hip would automatically form! These plants DID, in fact start hips where the roses had bloomed, but the hips shriveled and fell off the plants. That's why i thought it might be too much water.

Dublinbay, you, too, are reminding me that I need to be patient!!!But I also know that rugosas hate spraying, so I won't do so!!

Hope to have a good report next summer!

Thanks for all your help.

I'm just curious how steep the bank is and how sandy the soil is. I would take a shovel and dig a test hole to see if the soil is moist or dry. Even though it might seem like it should be moist, it may not be. At least you could eliminate
that possibility. If they were just planted in may they will need some time to grow their roots to cause them to become more drought tolerant.