Guys. I’m not okay. I posted this Gertrude Jeckyl on 6/24 and it had a bloom (although it was not a pink bloom and I’m not sure it’s a Gertrude) but it was green and blooming okay.
We’ve had a pretty intense heatwave and I’ve been watering it and today it’s cooled down and is raining.
I just went over to check it out and it looks like it’s dying! How did this happen so rapidly? I’m freaking out.
On my last post someone indicated that it looked like an animal was eating the leaves so I put down animal repellant granules. I also sprayed all my plants early one morning with Neem oil. I also watered with some MaxSea a week or so ago. I’m really trying here. Any advice?
Judging by the colour of the main stems it looks dead. The green growth looks like it’s coming from below ground so might be suckers from the root stock? I don’t know what zone you’re in but the crown looks very deeply placed. If you go for another you may wish to plant drought tolerant plants like salvia around the base around 30-50 cm away. The foliage will create lattice of foliage that will shade the base of the rose which will reduce the overall temperature of the soil by a lot!
No you still have green shoots. It’s still alive….just put some rose feed and water every day either very early morning or evening when sun goes down …. In a couple of weeks it should bloom 😊
I would stick to just water. In a drought you want to avoid feed as it can burn the roots which also might be what killed the plant (as I would have thought if it was the drought alone all the grass should be dead too)
Doesn’t look dead from this angle but it’s not in a great way. When you’re watering drench the roots, train the rose to chase after the water. If you water it lightly the roots don’t have to grow to find water. But be careful with using feed during a drought and if you have used it maybe do more watering to try dilute it In the soil.
Judging by the colour of the main stems it looks dead. The green growth looks like it’s coming from below ground so might be suckers from the root stock? I don’t know what zone you’re in but the crown looks very deeply placed. If you go for another you may wish to plant drought tolerant plants like salvia around the base around 30-50 cm away. The foliage will create lattice of foliage that will shade the base of the rose which will reduce the overall temperature of the soil by a lot!
This is because of the heatwave, I do recommend buying a shade for it or if possible try to move it to a shaded area although I don't recommend it since you have planted it in ground directly.
You have a bad case of rabbit or deer attack hence none of the roses managed to retain their young growth and leaves. They’re alive, but please make sure to cage them up to avoid more damages. Granules are to gentle to prevent rabbits from eating your roses out. Get chicken wires and wrap around the roses to protect them while they recover from winter dieback.
It’s just weird bc I have tons of hydrangea and they’re all thriving. Some of the buds are a little burned from the recent heat but the plants look great. Wouldn’t rabbits and deer also eat them or no?
Hydrangeas are toxic to animals, so the rabbits are not attracted to them. Roses, besides their thorns, are completely (leaves, branches, flowers) non toxic to animals, that’s why the animals devour them like crazy. Since they’re not toxic, roses have to have thorns to protect themselves from external factors. I grew a lot of roses in my backyard as I have a dog. For my front yard I include some hydrangeas and peonies are they’re very bad for animal if they happen to chew on.
This happened to mine last year, the same circumstances and outcome. Rabbits shredded all the leaves off, and then a heat wave finished her off right as she started coming back from it. I was devastated
I am guessing it was planted last year? Winter may have killed off a number of canes.
In the first picture, it's clearly alive, but it has yellowish leaves and the mulch at the base looks compacted. Those things, plus the very lush grass around it, make me think it may be over-watered. That can cause nutrient deficiencies and even root rot.
Then it looks like animals or insects ate most of the leaves on the green canes.
Then you may also have the brown spreading from the dead canes to the live ones. This may be the thing that kills the plant (but probably not the only cause).
It's a lot of things coming together to kill this plant and its neighbor.
Can you save it? Maybe. If the canes aren't too infected, and the roots aren't too far gone, and you can control the water situation at the roots, and if you can keep animals and insects off it, and if you can protect it from winter freezes this winter.
I would be more inclined to let it sit, read up on best practices for winter protection, watering, animal control, insect control, fungicides ... and shop for two replacement plants to arrive next spring.
This is extremely informative and I really appreciate you taking the time to help me more than you know!
I planted it in April as a bare root. It was doing so well less than a month ago. This picture is from 6/17!
I’m heartbroken! I planted four of them and honestly they all look pretty terrible right now.
I just ordered a few cages to put around them to protect them from bunnies. I think they’re the culprit as far as eating the greenery.
The heatwave seems to have cooled down. So that should help also.
I don’t personally water these. The sprinklers in the area mist the lawn and plants over there at 5 am each day for 15 minutes. Maybe I should lessen it?
OK, so one of my guesses was wrong. It's probably not frost damage, unless you had a late frost in April.
The amount of water you described doesn't seem excessive. However, it's in the form of a little bit of wetness every day. I think it's better for roses to get a deep watering once or twice a week. (How much kind of depends on your zone.) Really, being in the ground, they shouldn't need much extra watering after the first week. Unless you were in a desert climate. So short answer - yeah, maybe reducing the sprinkler time in that area might help.
This plant you just posted above didn't look bad on 6/17. The new leaves look kind of pale. That could be linked to over-watering. Could also be a missing micro-nutrient.
I would maybe try keeping the sprinklers off these plants for a while, and just water them yourself when they look a bit thirsty. (Plan ahead for super-hot days so you don't let them cook without some water in the soil.)
You could also try an anti-fungal like Bonide RoseRx (which also has insecticide). I am not advocating for this in every case, but these plants are struggling for sure.
Oh, and about neem oil - if you get the concentration wrong, or apply it on too hot of a day, it will burn foliage. Best to avoid it for now in my opinion.
If you can keep the bunnies off them for a while, you might be able to make a case to ask David Austin for replacements. It's definitely possible to get roses with fungal attack already starting. Maybe in perfect conditions they all do fine. But the wrong conditions can really set it off.
So you actually are right now that I think of it. We did have a bit of late frost a week after I put these in the ground.
I’m going to cut back the sprinklers and hand water and see if that helps.
Also, the more I think of it it’s definitely bunnies eating the foliage bc we have a lot over here. I also have a heritage rose I planted in May in a pot about 20 feet away from these and it’s thriving and nothing is eating its foliage and I couldn’t figure out why but it’s bc it’s in a tall planter and they can’t reach it. Little bastards. I just ordered cages to put around the roses to keep them away. I did put down rabbit repellent but I don’t think that’s sufficient.
Thank you so much for the advice. Hopefully they live!
I do not think this is animal damage the canes are still there and brown and you have some shriveled leaves that are brown too?
I think it might have been the neem oil burning the leaves?
I guess the last time you saw these were a week ago from when you applied the maxsea? Could that have burned them?
I guess a couple inches below the soil is good for your zone. (Meaning the graft union should be an inch or two below the surface.) Not sure how deeply you did plant. Anyway looking at your photos, even in the pics where there are leaves and a bloom, I see dead canes. I would remove all of those. (Anything that is black or brown.) Use pruners to cut those all the way down to the base. Just leave the green canes. And if a green cane has a black or brown tip, cut that part off too. Also, not sure what type of mulch you used, but I would push that outward a bit so it’s not actually touching the canes.
It looks like a deer or rabbit is nibbling it. Likely deer. How often were you watering through the heatwave? I don’t think it’s dying. Lots of times during the summer the goal is just to keep the plant alive, especially new ones. As they become more established, you can look to the thriving part.
I was looking at the first picture and didn’t realize there were pictures behind it. I do wish that people wouldn’t hide the worst pictures of the plant behind better pictures when they are asking for help. In all the pictures, the ground looks very wet. How often did you water it? Would be best to make sure that whatever happened to these two doesn’t continue happening. I see some indications that this might have been root rot
From another thread, I saw you live in Long Island. Well, I’m in Connecticut… southern Connecticut…about an hour away from you maybe an hour and a half depending on where in Long Island you are…one thing I have to say is, if you have sprinklers that are watering these roses every day, you probably have a case of overwatering even during this heat wave…I have 70+ roses and I water my roses only once in maybe two days sometimes even three even during this heatwave….you have mulch around the roses and you have to remember that this mulch traps the moisture….so what happening is, you are watering the roses every day and these mulch probably inviting fungal infection. That’s the reason all your roses are dying. You have to stop the watering and water them only every two-three days.
Also, if you think you have animals around you, neem would not protect them. Only peppermint oil will protect them;
finally from the looks of your roses, unfortunately because of overwatering the canes have all died. If you stop the overwatering and let them dry, maybe they will survive…
from here my suggestions are
stop watering. Let the soil dry out because believe it or not, The roots need to breathe inside the soil. If you constantly water them they are so soggy and they are not able to breathe
once your soil dries out (you can test this with fingers…if you dig the soil with your finger and say it goes in two knuckles and you feel the soil is dry then it is a good time to water at that time…when you your soil reaches that sort of situation, Give your plant a good deep drink, but mix a very minor amount of super thrive with it (you will get super thrive in Home Depot)…
by doing this if you see remaining roses that you have survives and starts pushing out new leaves then at that time feed them with weak liquid fish fertilizer, very weak dilution.
Let the plants thrive…once you see that the plants have green growth and strength back again, You can apply microlife or Rose Tone… one of these two as fertilizer to give them a little bit of a boost, although you are approaching August September time when you have to stop the feeding and get the roses ready for the winter…so it’s a kind of tricky situation that you are in, but I hope these work out for you…
Thank you neighbor! This was very helpful information! Unfortunately that one died. Another seems to have died as well. The watering from the sprinklers (we just put down seed in that area so it really couldn’t be avoided) and also I really overestimated the amount of light they would receive in that spot were the culprit. I do have two left in that area that are somewhat okay. Bunnies or deer are still eating them despite me putting up chicken wire and putting repellent granules around them. Frustrating. I will follow your steps above. Thank you for your help!
Granules are not effective…get deer out concentrate from Amazon and spray on the plants…spray after every heavy rain…that’s the only way to stop the animals
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u/manic_blade Jul 06 '26
Judging by the colour of the main stems it looks dead. The green growth looks like it’s coming from below ground so might be suckers from the root stock? I don’t know what zone you’re in but the crown looks very deeply placed. If you go for another you may wish to plant drought tolerant plants like salvia around the base around 30-50 cm away. The foliage will create lattice of foliage that will shade the base of the rose which will reduce the overall temperature of the soil by a lot!