Roses wasting away

[TheBrit]

Hi,

I have a number of roses (all different types) in my English cottage garden. I got a lovely show of blooms this year and then, as soon as the blooms were dying off, all the foliage just dropped off. All the stems/branches that had blooms on are now completely stripped of all foliage. None of my other plants are affected in this way - just the roses.

I am pretty sure my soil is OK. It is what I call "BBC soil" - it is just the same as that wonderful soil that you see on UK TV Gardening programs!

Any ideas?

I have a couple of photos but I you haven't switched on the attachment facility on this forum (I run one of these as well - same software). If you let me know the email address, I can email them.[/img]

[sandih]

Is the foliage gone because something ate it all or did the leaves get yellow and fall off?

How do you water them? Do they get hit by an automatic sprinkler? Are they in an area that gets rainwater run off from off the roof?

[TheBrit]

Hi,

Some of them went yellow and dropped off. Others just dropped off when they were fully green. I use a sprinkler system but have not had to use it much recently with all the rain. I don't think anythng is eating them because I have inspected the leaves that are still on there

[stephanietx]

The same thing happened with my lone rose bush. I think it's because we've had so much rain and it got too wet for its liking. I've cut mine back and am waiting to see if that helps. I also sprinkled some cornmeal around the base to help ward off fungus disease.

To attach a picture, cut & paste the URL for the image from your photo hosting site, then highlight it and click the "Img" button underneath the subject line at the top of the reply box.

Stephanie

[sandih]

I think Steph is right, too much rain and it probably picked up a fungal disease because of it. I would mix up some Bioform (which is fish and seaweed emulsion) and spray down the plant, then dump the left overs on the roots. This will stimulate the new growth and feed it well. Just make sure when you do water that the sprinklers don't hit the plant. Water only at the roots.

[TheBrit]

Thanks ever so much for your responses. I don't use a photo web host site.
I'll try all you suggest. FYI, whatever it is is now sweeping right round my garden, one rose bush at a time - nothing else seems to be affected though.


It looks as though you are using a similar Forum software as a couple that I run (VBulletin?). I can show you where to go in the "Admin" to allow images to be posted if you like.

[sandih]

to make the bioform even more effective, get some cheese cloth and steep some corn meal into the bioform/water mixture. Remove the cornmeal/cheese cloth then spray the roses. The corn meal is a natural fungicide.