[Arid_gardener] roses

[Dick]

Take a typical cutting to your local nursery, Heather, and ask them to diagnose the problem. In my own experience, the local retail nurseries are good at what they do but don't necessarily take the word of the first clerk you talk to since it may be his or her first day working in a nursery. Buy whatever the nursery experts recommend. They are usually right and eager for obvious reasons to be of service to their customers.

There is a large contingency of the Rose Society in the valley. Many of them are expert horticulturists but, if you are in the least dedicated to growing roses, join the non-profit club and mingle with the experts who know from personal experience how to culture the species. I believe you can find them on line with little effort and they welcome new members with open arms; they are a teaching mechanism--or, get information from the maricopa County Coopperatice Extension at 4341 East Broadway that exists by virtue of your tax dollar to serve the agricultural and horticultural public.

I have a hunch that the problem with your existing roses may be related to the method of irrigation; where they are irrigated and how deep but that is only a guess. I am not a member and I have not a single rose in my subtropical fruit garden. Your doctor would never diagnose the measles by email and gardening by email is risky but less dangerous than medicating and diagnosing humans on line. You should, in fact, get a few responses from Rose Society members in this forum. 

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Volunteer
University of Arizona Maricopa County
Cooperative Extension
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Heather 
  To: Arid_gardener at CALS.arizona.edu 
  Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 3:20 PM
  Subject: [Arid_gardener] roses


  Hi all,
     I'm hoping someone can help me diagnose and correct a problem with a rose bush.  When I moved into my new house in May, there were three sad, but established rose bushes on the back fence (limited western exposure because the fence is only about 15 feet from the back of the house).  The house had been empty, and the roses uncared for, since July 2006.  Two of the roses apparently gave up---after a bit of greening after their first drink of water in a long while, they just shriveled up and died.  The third rose bush has maintained the leaves it put out toward the end of May, but they are all patterned with yellow.  The leaves look almost paisley, like each cell is outlined in yellow.  I've only fertilized with Ironite and MiracleGro.  No sign of bugs.  
     Now I'm replacing the two dead rose bushes with bareroot and wondering if there is anything I should add to the soil or do to these roses as they start greening up to avoid the same problem.  Is there anything I can do to salvage the existing rose and save the new roses from the same fate?

  Thanks,
  Heather
  85713


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