Help!!

[alix]

Hello again - I haven't logged on for a long time (too busy trying to make my garden look presentable)

You were all very helpful with my last query so I'm turning to you again.

I'm new to gardening and I have a horrible feeling that my new roses have a viral disease - which possibly resembles ?Rosetta?. The symptoms are misshapen leaves (thin, prickly looking, not really leaf shaped), bare stems (with very thorny spikes on the Alexander). This seems to have appeared quite suddenly, but is spreading to most of the roses (they are a mix of florabunda, hybrid tea and a climber) and were all wedding presents. This is their first year of flowering, they were suppled last December.

I suspect if they have this disease, I need to destroy them which is heartbreaking. How do I make sure that is what it is? If I do have to destrroy them all, can I use that bed for roses again or not? I have two climbers at the other end of the garden which look ok at the moment. Do I need to get rid of them too?

I haven't seen this in any of my neighbour's roses(though I haven't looked that closely).

Is it possible that I was supplied with a rose that was already diseased, and if so could I talk to the supplier about replacement?

Sorry - that's hundreds of questions. I'm panicking a bit (can you tell?). I do hope you can help me again.

Thank you
Alix

PS - to add to the slug debate (I was reading the thread) I apparently put a slug in my mouth at the age of two. My mother says slug slime is extremely hard to get rid of. Yeuchhhh!

[Paul Narramore]

Alix

Provided your roses came from a good source such as a rose nursery, the plants themselves should be vigorous and healthy. I once bought four or five roses from Wilkinsons at (say) a £1 each and all died on me.

There are a handful of conditions and illnesses your roses could have - 'Rosetta', I've never heard of.

Roses should not be planted in the same spot that a previous rose has occupied, although there is a product now on the market which you can add to the soil to combat this.

Black Spot is probably the most common disease a rose can get and this is pretty obvious when you see the pronounced black spots on the leaves.

You don't mention whether or not you have fed your roses. I got speaking to a leading rose specialist at Hampton Court this year and he told me that roses SHOULD be fed MONTHLY with a specific granular rose fertiliser. That would make them strong and more able to combat diseases. I've started to do this on the 1st of the month for the last couple of months but there have been no stunning changes in their growth. I still have a lot of Black Spot but I'm putting that down to our awful weather which must have encouraged it.

In the next few weeks, you need to consider sorting your roses out for the winter. Prune all of the shrubs down to 50% as this will prevent wind rock over the winter. As they will shortly be about to enter their dormant period, I wouldn't feed after October. Next spring prune down to an outward facing bud 12" from the ground, removed dead/dying/crossing branches, and mulch around the bottom of the plants with lashings of horse muck. Ignore the advice that it needs to be well rotted. As long as it doesn't actually come into contact with the main stem, you'll be OK with fresh stuff. We have stables a few hundred yards from us here and I have mulched and sometimes dug in literally hundreds of sacks of fresh horse muck and other than a little discolouring with one or two shrubs, everything loves it.

Try to follow the advice of a handful of granular rose fertiliser on the 1st of each month from the spring onwards and everything should be coming up roses (isn't that awful?)

PS Never, never, never dig up and throw away a rose which looks ill, as in almost all cases, they can be saved with some love and attention. I have some really old gnarled roses which were little more than an aged stump when we moved in 13yrs ago, but with correct pruning, feeding and mulching, all have responded with lots of flowers

[alix]

Thank you very much for your reassurance Paul.

The 'Rose Rosette Disease' seems to be an American virus - also known as 'witches broom'. Apparently it's spread by 'eriophyd mites' from 'multiflora' roses. ( http://www.growertalks.com/archive/articles/1439.asp )

One rose (a Rosa Alexander) showed a growth of deformed, red leaves earlier in the year. I cut that section off and burned it, and didn't see any more signs until the other day, when quite suddenly, about 6 out of 10 roses are showing this same deformity - bright red leaves which are stunted and deforemed, plus some have very bare thorny stems.

I'm afraid they also have blackspot - I had sprayed them, but didn't know to clear away fallen diseased leaves. I did feed them over the 'summer' - but probably not enough.

Information from websites suggests that if I don't dig up and disposeoof the roses, it will spread to other roses (I still have a healthy climber and a rambler at the other end of the garden).

Has anyone heard of this virus in this country - I'd love to take your advice Paul, but I'm really scared of losing the other plants.

Thanks again. :confused: