I have more pictures but don't want to bombard the site. This one captures both sides of boxwoods and roses back right. Furthest to the right is last original knockout rose, now dead :(

you have a lot more faith in my old eyes ... need some close ups ..

whats your watering protocol??

this is one of the problems... with planting a monoculture in two different micro climates ...

how did you plant them ... just pull out of pot. and stick in ground??

ken

Sorry Ken, I'll try and attach more photos. Not much of a watering protocol except for summer (1x every 2 weeks

) as we get tons and tons of rain here. Especially this last year (had some major flooding back in October but not my property)

yes boxwoods and roses planted from pots into ground. Initially used pine straw as mulch then switched to bark mulch as the pine straw kept blowing away.

Bad side

Good side

Roses

We've had soil tested. Slightly high in PH so we added peat to the soil years ago which didn't do anything for box woods or roses. There are tons of knockouts in our area doing great. In fact I notice a yard down the street that has had theirs grow at ridiculous rates only to chop them to the ground. Literally, the ground and they grow back beautifully. I don't know or see the owners and have been itching to ask what they are doing.

My wife wants me to pull them and plant something else. I'm also at that point but wanted to give a last ditch effort.

From what I've seen regarding rose disease, I have not noticed the signs. I have seen, frequently in late fall, that horrid red stink fungus growing in the same beds as the roses. Could that be a factor?

No, the stinkhorn fungi are harmless to your plants and beneficial to the soil. Their role is to help break down organic matter. What kind of mulch are you using?

This may be off the wall, but it seems that the plants directly adjacent to the walk and those on the left, which look to be downhill (?) from the walk are suffering the worst. I see where you had your soil tested, but generally they are checking for N-P-K, pH and sometimes organic material. Do you use salt on the walk in the winter? They wouldn't check for sodium which certainly could cause damage similar to yours. I have seen similar damage caused by high potassium (K) chloride when used as ice melter but that should have showed up if your soil test was taken from the left side of the picture. Just a guess...

We had dark pine bark mulch (landscaper friend added as a gift to me on my birthday two years ago this time). Traditionally I had preferred pine straw which I am laying down here in the coming days after removing existing mulch.

We never use salt down here as one year out of the last twenty that I've lived here, we had ice or snow. This past winter maybe three or four nights temps got below freezing. It's very warm down here :)

We did have MASSIVE rainfall this past fall and late winter.