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linsul

Please help me diagnose Roses (PHOTOS)

Linsul
13 years ago

I have 3 roses in a northwest facing flowerbed. 2 Belinda's Dream Roses, and 1 Grandma's Yellow Rose. I'm new to organic gardening, and roses (I have knockouts/double knockouts, but they've proven impossible for me to kill so I assume they are as easy as they advertise and don't count them as anything but a pretty starter rose for newbies!)so I'll describe the bed prep. I dug 8 inches deep, and removed all chunks of clay bigger than my fist. I bought a Howard Garrett book on organic gardening and added cotton burr compost, Texas Greensand, and Lava sand in the recommended amounts, mixed in with Vital Earth topsoil and a bit of alfalfa to fill the bed. The clay layer at the bottom was tilled along with 3 inches of that mix 4-6 inches deep before filling the bed up. I mulch with Cedar, try to keep it 2-3 inches but the wind has been insane here lately! I converted the shrub sprayer to a drip line for all 3 roses.

My sickest Belinda was transplanted about 5 weeks ago, it was oddly warm and she was showing slight signs of life, so I did it. The lowest temperature It's been since then has been the 40's at night. She started turning yellow, then crispy, and I have no idea why. She gets at LEAST 6 hours of sun where she is, no sprays at all, and no overhead watering to cause any type of burn. I water for an hour every 3 days, the temps here have been hitting 90 during the day lately. Am I watering too much or too little? Also, I check for bugs, can't find any, not even aphids or thrips. I go out at night to check too. Something is clearly chewing the green leaves, I don't know what though. I want to spray with neem, but wonder if it's too stressed out? Should I care? I put earthworm castings on the bottom of the planting hole, and also used a light fertilizer a week after the transplant. I believe it was 3-2-2.

Here she is:

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My other Belinda was bought at the nursery on the same weekend I transplanted the other. All of it's new growth is wilting, and some leaves are turning brown at the edges. It's tried to put out 5 buds, they all balled, and 2 actually appeared to dry up at the earliest stages. I don't know what I'm doing wrong :( I bought them for their earth kind status and supposed ease of care, but they always seem to be in some stage of stress. Even the one I transplanted had bad blackspot last year that it was not hardy through. It was nearly defoliated despite using an organic anti-fungal spray.

Here's the nursery Belinda, I'm not sure why the top of that center cane is discolored:

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Lastly is my Grandma's Yellow Rose. It appears to be in Stasis. No change since I planted it the same weekend as the others. I suppose that is a good thing. A nursery worker suggested some blood meal for them when I presented the problem about 3 weeks ago. I used some, but it was a very spare helping. All 3 rose bushes got the 3-2-2 mix.

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Any help would be much appreciated!

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