They are Abraham Darby. I have 3 of them under my front window, and all of them look like that. I got them from Heirloom Roses.

Photo is quite blurry and so hard to see problem clearly. Can you get one in better focus?

ps. plural of leaf is leaves :-)

I tried again. Are these pictures better? It's kind of windy today, so the limbs were waving around a little bit.

That's much better!!

That almost looks like a chemical burn. Anything sprayed nearby? A new type of fertilizer? Have you treated the plant(s) with anything?

Is the discolored part of the leaf dry and brittle?

I haven't even fertilized once, I think, or treated the plants with anything. That's whats so puzzling. The discolored part of the leaf is dry and brittle. Yes, I know leaves is not spelled leafs. I don't know what came over me. There are lots of dry, brittle leaves on the plants.

It looks like sunburned leaves. I've seen this a lot on plants grown in a milder climate that haven't had time to get accustomed to the brutal desert sun here. The strange thing is that you've had the plants out for a while.

It seems the wrong time of year for this but did you cut down a tree or bush or something that changed the exposure? I wonder if the changing angle of the sun is bouncing off the wall reflecting back on your roses in a way they aren't used to?

It doesn't look like normal aging leaves for sure. Good luck!

maria

no, the exposure hasn't changed. They are under a tree so get some (little) am sun and little afternoon sun, not much sun, and no direct sun. But Abraham Darby is supposed to be good for shade, so they should be ok. They bloomed several times. Heirloom Roses says it looks kind of like Powdery mildew, but there is no powder on them. I'm going to treat it with a fungicide anyway. Maybe the angle of the sun bouncing off the wall has contributed some, but the weather has been getting cooler.

Patti,

I believe it is a bacterial invasion, but which one is unknown to me. I do not know what you should do.

The infection appears to work its way from the edge of a leaflet inward. Its destroying edge is that yellowish colored thin edge line seen just before you see the good, healthy green leaf tissue just beyond it, not yet invaded. As the invading bacterial edge moves along, the lifeless, grayish/light green leaf color of the killed leaflet part is left in its wake.

I get a similar looking disease during the times of intense heat stress during the summer, on my very oldest, thus lowest leaves, of some roses. My disease always starts at a leaflet tip, turning it a dry, paper bag colored, dead area that progresses over weeks until just about 1/3 to 1/2 of a leaflet is affected. Then it stops. The leaflet hangs on with the healthy remaining green part looking fine. Entire leaves are not attacked, just a leaflet here or there.

I would take samples of infected leaves to your state agricultural agent for a correct diagnosis.

Moses

Do you think the plant can survive? If not, can other things be planted there? I'll take samples to the state agricultural agent.

Patti,

Yes, I believe your roses can survive, and thrive. Once a correct diagnosis is gotten, and a treatment prescribed, you proceed with your rose gardening as planned.

There's a solution to every problem. When you find your current solution, you will be a wiser rosarian. Experience is a great teacher, even a negative one.

Hang in there, Patti. Roses throw us some wicked curve balls, but the experienced batter hits them out of the park.

Is there any chance that you over-fertilized?

Carol

It doesn't present as any sort of bacterial disease - they will have very different symptoms. If not a chemical burn....and nothing you report with the care would indicate that......then heat or sunburn is very likely. I'd agree the gravel or rock mulch in your climate is likely going to be a contributing factor. An organic mulch would be far better and help to insulate the soil against excessive heat as well as slow soil moisture evaporation.

And fwiw, stressed plants will react more severely to situations like this than those in very good condition. I'd review your soil amending, fertilizing and watering practices to make sure you are giving your roses the conditions they prefer.

Most of the yards in my subdivision have gravel yards...something to do with water conservation, I think. I just moved here from California in 2016. All the watering is by drip. I think my yard guy just recently reduced the watering to 4 times/week. I've never looked under the gravel to see what the soil is like underneath. The ground in my yard is very rocky. The yard guy is always showing me all the rocks they've dug up whenever they plant things for me. I don't think I fertilized at all. If I gave them anything, I might have given them some Superthrive once, but a long time ago. The heat was very hot in June, July and August, then it started cooling down in September. The highs now are in the 70s. Heirloom Roses told me not to spray them with Neem oil, so I ordered some Dr Earth (I think that's the name) spray for fungi.

All the other roses have the gravel underneath them, and some of them are in direct sun, so I don't think that's the problem.

Moses, thank you for telling me that they might survive. I was ready to pull them out and throw them away.

Hi Patti, I have a rose, the climber Nahema that I think has leaves like the ones in your photos... just mine are a little farther along. What happened to this rose is that it didn't get enough water for about 10 days when I was on vacation and the leaves got crispy like the ones in your photos. This happened at the beginning of October with the leaves starting out that crispy, light green and have turned brown - and a lot have fallen off. The good news is that it's now getting proper water and there's the beginning of new growth as seen in the last photo because of our mild Fall. I suspect she'll come back in full force this Spring. Perhaps, pull back some of the gravel and see what the moisture level is around the affected roses. In AZ, roses need a lot of water to keep them perky in this hot, dry climate. :-)

To my eye, it doesn't look like powdery mildew which I do have on some roses. With powdery mildew you should see the leaves curling with what looks like a whitish powder on them.

ok, I'll pull back some of the gravel and check the watering, but they should have gotten enough water, unless the emitters got clogged. I think if anything, they got too much water.

I have no idea what it really is but the individual spots look very much like cercospora.

Take leaves to your county extension agent and ask him or her to use a microscope to look on the undersides of the leaves for evidence of Downey Mildew. Downey generally starts at the top of a rose and moves downward with massive defoliation. Specify to the agent it's not (NOT) powdery mildew.

Not all Downey has lesions that fill the squareish spaces between veins.

I'm trying to figure out where I have to take it, but I'll ask if I ever figure out.

Patti,

There are usually two plant related agencies in most counties. One is ties to the US Dept of Agriculture and they inspect nurseries, plant growers for wholssale as well as retailers. They should be reachable through the US Gov pages of old fashioned yellow pages (they used to be blue pages) or search US Gov, agriculture department, and once you have a phone number, call them and explain what you are looking for.

Many states have county extension agents that are tied to state departments of agriculture. In cities there are often home garden specialists. For them, State Gov webportals to agriculture to home extension agents.

Hope this helps.

Sounds like a water meter would help. Your emitter to that rose may have clogged. You can dig down a bit to check for moisture too.

My first thought was lack of water as well. I have had roses whose leaves looked very similar and dried up from the outer edges inward. My issues were due to voles eating the roots away, but I'd imagine that a sudden lack of water in a hot dry climate would have similar results. Check those drip lines.

I have exact same thing on some of my roses. I haven't found the reason why it happens, as that happened when the sun was not that intense anymore. And when it's sun burnt or lack of watering leaves usually get brown, not staying green. Eventually these leaves will fall off. I think I had this on my Purple Lodge after transplanting it to the shaded area from a pot where it's spent all summer long. The rose is still there, but kind of bare now...

As for gravel I don't have it right next to roses, but I was surprised to learn that gravel is pretty good for keeping soil moist. I think its the matter of thickness though... but radiating heat, yes, without any doubts.

I just sent jpegs to the master gardener at the U of A extension in Prescott. I'll let you know what they say.

Cool! Please do let us know what they say.

They said that it looks like they're not getting enough water. I know the yard guy was checking the lines recently. Our area has really hard water, and he showed me that some of the emitters were clogged with very large calcium crystals. I hope that's the only problem. They said that there are no there discolorations that indicate disease. I'll give them some more water. Hopefully that will help. They said it has been a really dry fall and roses in the Verde Valley have been suffering from insufficient water more than usual.

Patti, thanks for the update. Whew, I'm glad it's not something more troublesome. Yes, our water around here is really hard. Soaking emitters in a bowl of plain white vinegar will help to break up the calcium deposits and using a toothbrush along with the vinegar works. Or, you can replace them. I look forward to seeing your Abe Darbys next Spring. :-)

Good news! need to check my emitters there then... Thank you for the update, Patti!

This is what my roses look like when my dog pees on them

I don't have a dog. I have a cat, and it's not allowed outside because we have a lot of wildlife in the area, like mountain lions and bobcats.

Lol - I read most of the posts - I knew it wasn't animal pee that was on ur rose. I just said it looks exactly like when my dog pees on my roses I was being silly - not serious..... It's actually a HUGE problem I'm having!! He's an Australian shep.-lab and he pees on everything I plant!! It's so frustrating bc I have 2 beautiful red magnolia trees & so many shrubs & flowers to plant but I'm scared to take them off my porch bc he pees on everything!! I'm lost as to what I can do - I have too many plants for fencing & all that stuff. I was just being silly. That's actually really awesome u get to experience wildlife like that in ur own backyard!!!! Here in Florida all we have is raccoons, coyotes & occasionally a fox or deer but not around my house :( I'd love to move to the real country!