A ph as high as in your raised beds can cause the chlorosis in own root roses. The first photo shows possible iron deficiency, dark green veins, lighter green between the veins. A layer of organic mulch, like you have, can help with the iron deficiency by creating an acidic layer. Iron deficiency can also occur with rainy weather, the foliage on my roses in the dripline of my roof bleach out almost over night with rain. If rain is the problem, the next growth of foliage when there is not too much rain will be normal in color. The shells could be contributing to the problem if they are raising the ph of the soil. Try testing the soil outside the raised beds to see it is lower. If it is, the shells might be to blame.

It wouldn't hurt to try the holly tone. It is very hard to lower the ph of the soil, sulfur will do it temporarily but then it will come back up. An organic topping to create a low ph layer is a better approach.

I would switch to Holly Tone, since it's very similar to Rose Tone but with additional sulfur for acidification. But don't go overboard in an effort to bring your pH down fast -- just fertilize as usual, but using Holly Tone. If you had a heavy bout of rain, that could also be diluting available iron. I often see new foliage like yours in a very wet spring, despite my native soil being acidic red clay. In any case, what I see isn't really that bad, and those leaves will probably green up on their own soon.

:-)

~Christopher

Thanks Valrose- all my roses will be planted with the seashell moat to try to keep the voles from eating them and are planted in holes filled with this custom blend soil.

Thanks Christopher- It has been very rainy here. I'll try the Holly Tone and see if it helps. Should I use Epsom salts or Ironite or does it seem too ild to be concerned with it?

Sharon

Valrose- Should I also apply some compost or pine needles. Would pine needles lower the ph?

Both compost and pine needles should help lower the pH, but I agree with Christopher, your roses look healthy, just a touch of iron deficiency on one which could be due to weather. I'd skip the Epson salts, no signs of magnesium deficiency.

thanks Valrose- I'll just wait and see. It's raining again today and very cool for this time of year. I guess sometimes we can get too much of a good thing. Some of my iris' rhizomes actually rotted due to the amount of rain we've gotten this year.

I'll add the pine needles and try the Holly Tone.

Sharon

Pine needles do nothing to alter pH. I've learned not to use them because they take forever (several years) to break down, so aren't good at adding organic matter to the soil.

If pine needles did anything at all, my pH would be off the charts! I live in a pine forest, and my soil is alkaline. I used to rake up bushels of pine needles every single day and dumped them in a gully on my property, but after it filled up, I only rake them off the pathways. Mad is right - they won't break down in my life time.

mad and flowers- OK, no pine needles. Do you have any suggestions of which organic matter would help? I can buy bagged compost or composted manure. Or should I just wait and see if this clears up on its own. The older rose leaves are green, just the new growth is pale. Should I use some Ironite or sulphur or wait to see if this clears up once the weather turns drier?

Actually when fresh pine, needles are quite acidic, however they will make almost no difference in the soil ph below the pine needles, and the acidity leaches out quickly. In my area pine needles break down fairly quickly, as a mulch they need to be replenish twice a year, maybe further north this is not the case. The pine needles and the compost will create a slightly acidic layer. This layer will allow the nutrients such as iron to be available to your plants despite the high ph layer below it.

I no longer worry about the ph in my garden. I spent years trying to lower it with sulfur, but it would never stay low. I make sure that I always have thick layer of organic material on top of my soil to provide the feeder roots with the nutrients that they need. Pine needles, compost or manure will help with build the organic layer. Your plants look quite small and it is important with own root plants not to smother them. If you add a layer of mulch, you might need to remove an equal layer of soil.

When it is new growth that is effected, it is a minor nutrient problem. Light new growth is classic sulfur, but soils seldom lack sulfur, if it is sulfur, the Holly Tone should take care of it. Lightness between the veins on new growth growth is classic iron, once again soils are seldom lacking in iron but high ph can make it unavailable to the plant. Adding iron, unless you make sure that it is the right kind for the ph of your soil, will not have much effect. You can try a foliar iron spray, that will not be effected by soil ph.

If it those were my plants, short term, they look good and do not need intervention. Long term I would want to build up an organic layer of mulch to counteract the high ph.

Let's go back to the beginning. Do you know the pH of your native soil? Most of Mass is acidic, to very acidic, with the exception being the Berkshires. So if you aren't in the Berkshires, where did this imported soil come from, and why is it so alkaline? Is it a temporary condition, caused by overliming, or is it an inherent part of the soil. If it is temporary, 'fixing' it may cause more problems as the pH ricochets down. Knowing the history of the soil really helps. At this point, I wouldn't do anything aside from a normal organic mulch. If it continues, I can give you a recipe for chelated glop that has done wonders for my roses with multiflora heritage. Which I guess brings up the next point. Just because a rose is own-root doesn't mean it isn't part multiflora. Most roses that produce large flower clusters got that trait from a multiflora ancestor. Rugosas also prefer acidic soil, and can pass that trait on to descendants.

This has been posted before, but I don't think it has shown up in this forum. If you extend the Mass-Conn line to the Hudson River, that blob of alkaline soil is where I live.US Soil pH Map

Valrose and Mad- thanks for your comments and suggestions. i'll wait and see if this clears up when the weather dries up a bit. Meanwhile I'll try the Holly Tone and organic mulches as you've both suggested.

"Both compost and pine needles should help lower the pH,"

Wrong. Neither of these will help to lower pH as both are are nearly neutral with regards to pH. If anything, applications of compost will help to neutralize a soil that is skewed heavily in either direction, so could work to lessen the impacts of both a heavily acidic or heavily alkaline soil but will never effect a significant change

Christopher is correct, neutral plus alkaline equals less alkaline. In addition, decay of organics creates acids.

Those leaves look like new growth to me but it's hard to tell in the photo. With some of my roses if the new growth starts out reddish it then goes through a phase where it literally turns to a light green that can look like a mild chlorosis but then turn finally to the dark green color of the other older leaves. Those leaves look really healthy to me though with no BS. Hopefully things improve for you if it is chlorosis! I know how frustrating that can be because a few of my kordes EA roses had lower yellow leaves and didn't like a lot of water supposedly. I gave them a bit of chelated iron and stopped watering so much and they have been perfect now. Good luck!

Va Jon- I'll wait and see if things start to change now that it's stopped raining! That might be the problem. I'll mulch them well and try the Holly Tone to see if that greens them up some. They are not exhibiting the severe chlorosis I've seen in some pictures just a bit paler than what I think they should be. Hopefully this will help. If not I'll try the chelated iron.