what about fertilizer? I have a rose, huge one, in sandy soil and it eats fetilizer faster than I can finish my morning coffee!

I have just 2 rose trees - a knockout and an Angel Face. I have had others that did OK for awhile, then foliage got sparse and they didn't look good, so got rid of them. For me, in my experience, the knockout roses make the best rose trees. My KO already looks better than the Angel Face - I cut both back - the KO is getting busy with lots of branches and I can tell it is going to do really well Angel Face is lagging. You might consider pruning yours back - encouraging it to put out more. With mine, continuous cutting back keeps the tree shapley. What variety is yours? I have also found that floribundas [or KO's] did better for me than hybrid teas because they bloomed more. Some people wont spray; I do. You might want to spray for blackspot. Have you fertilized? That might help. Hope more experienced growers will chime in. Good luck!

Judith

Do you use rose specific fertilizer? I put out some Scott's Rose fertilizer (12-4-8) every year. Maybe it needs more?

I use Mills Magic Rose Mix, an organic. Once tree is established, I will feed a variety of mixable, like Miracle Gro for Roses, etc. But I would go easy on this until it is established and putting out new growth. Fish Emulsion is good. An excellent rosarian, I believe Kim/roseseek, said fertilize weekly, weakly.

The Scott's rose fertilizer should be fine. In your sandy soil, you need to fertilize after each bloom cycle. Use the quantity indicated on the package. Also, give it extra water - way more than you think you should. I see BS on the leaves - are you using a fungicide?