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Tennessee Gardening

Birds in rose bush - could they kill it?

13 years ago

I have a strange question-- I have a row of 25 knock-out roses lining my front yard's picket fence. They are gorgeous and very healthy -- I don't spray, use only organic fertilizers, and a soaker hose only when it has been very dry. All of them - except for one - are doing fabulously, and have for about 3 years. For some reason, a flock of little birds (some type of wren or finch) seems to love to roost in one of the bushes. This summer, over the course of a few weeks, it completely defoliated and looks dead to me. Could it have anything to do with the birds? I'm wondering if it got too much "fertilizer" -- this rose bush gets the exact same treatment as all the others - and the two right next to it are flourishing. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas? Thanks, Tina

Comment (1)

brandon7 TN_zone7
13 years ago
I can't think of any way that the birds could be directly killing your rose. The small amount of bird poop wouldn't do it. Maybe (and it may just be another one of my nutty ideas) the birds could introduce some type of pest to the shrub.

I'm wondering if the birds weren't attracted to the shrub because of whatever problem exists. Birds often prefer shrubs with less dense foliage, so maybe that rose was chosen because it wasn't as thick as the others? Another idea (maybe another nutty one) is that the birds could have been attracted by the presence of insects in the rose.

Don't count on any of this being the case, but it's about the best I can come up with without sufficient sleep.
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