How's your rainfall this season? And how has it been for the past two months?

We are way behind on rainfall, probably less than 2.5 inches in the past two months. The past few days we've had close to 1.5 inches. I've watered some, but have only done it if I felt it was absolutely necessary, our town has serious water issues.

Without feeling your soils, I'd guess that lack of water plus the heat of April and May have slowed your roses down.

That 1.5 inches will start to make up for the drought your roses have felt, but it's got a huge amount of soil to rewater down deeper where (we hope) the rose roots are.

I live in NW AR in the same zone as you and my roses are about the same as yours. But my garden isn't doing as well as normal in my opinion either and my husband thinks the soil just isn't as warm as normal, seems we have good temps but not long enough each day to warm it up. The berries have just really started leafing and the corn is up but only a couple inches. I'm glad someone else is wondering as well.

Lack of water - the first things rose bushes do when stressed by not enough water is to stop blooming.

Jackie

Thank you. It does make perfect sense. I have tried to make sure they have had adequate water, but I'm sure it's not enough. We so desperately need several inches of rain. And I know others need it too. I hope it comes soon.

My HT with the exception of Forestfighter are in a funk.
I'm starting to get some new growth from PJPII and Just Joey. Chrylser imperial just sits there with ugly foliage.
I don't worry about flowers. Give me new leaves and the blooms will come.

I'm not seeing much of that usually red new growth that eventually produces roses right now on very many of my bushes. This year is different and I'm sure like Jackie and Ann have stated, it is because of lack of rain.

I water quite a bit since we've had almost no rain, but I notice that it's the rain that really encourages roses to make new leaves and flowers. However, I've also noticed that roses that are heavily mulched with organic material like tree leaves seem to do better. The water doesn't evaporate so quickly and the leaves breaking down seem to nourish the roses and encourage them to grow and bloom.

Ingrid, I appreciate that suggestion, I know that is something I need to do, thanks.

We've had quite a bit of rain recently and probably two-thirds of my roses are setting on new buds. I am very thankful for the moisture.

I've had two non stop growers; Julia Child and Firefighter.
All my other HT got rust, pm and sprayed. I've had to look at ugly foliage for a while. All of them have recently started putting out nice clean growth and buds, except Chrysler Imperial which is still just sitting there. Sooner or later....
They have been getting plenty of water from my drip system.

Steve - I have a Firefighter and it just recently put on its first bud, it does have two canes now though, it did just have one, mine is taking awhile to get going, but I love the blooms. Looks like my Julia Child roses are going to do good. I am glad most of your roses are putting on new growth. My Chrysler Imperial is not the most vigorous grower so far, but it's a nice rose. Right now my most vigorous growers are Pink Peace, Liebeszauber, Belinda's Dream and The McCartney Rose. My Fragrant Plum roses are starting to put on a lot of new growth, they didn't do much last year.

I was glad to see this post as I have been wondering about the same thing. Let me first say that we are about 50% behind on rainfall, but we have been blessed with sufficient water, all my roses get about 5-6.5 gallons every week. They are all well fertilized and generously mulched with rich organic compost and some with hay on top to keep the soil moist. BTW, is it OK if the soil is always moist, moist enough to stick to your hand??

However, some plants have been just sitting there for the last 4-6 weeks, since the big spring flush--Which all got debudded. Columbus Queen, Honey Chile, Chrysler, JFK, Cherry Parfait, Generosity, Double Delight. I wrote a post a while ago about how the roses I got from Heirloom last year are still very slow and whimpy (DD, Generosity, Pink tower--which did put on some growth the last 2 weeks).

The ones that have been growing quite well and contantly putting on buds are: Honor, Clair Renaissance, Regina Louise, Michaelangelo Romantica and Orangeade. Ownroot Martina Mondadori has been a wonderful delight! With its vigor, adorable shape and healthy leaves. Only Regina Louise (ownroot) and Clair Renaissance (grafted, from Hortico) have the vigor comparable to Martina.

It has been very hot and I can understand if the roses want to take a breather to solidify their rushed spring growth...I'm just feeling a bit anxious, I must keep reminding myself: patience, patience!

About JFK, it was an impulse buy, I recently heard on this forum that it's not a continuous bloomer, and it has been about the worst grower in my garden, I'm crushed! :( Perhaps I will put it in a pot for observation, give someone else that nice spot.

So far we've had a few hot days, but not continuously hot with the exception of about five in row in late May. JFK is a difficult rose for me to figure out. I planted mine last year, it is grafted. It was slow to put on its first cycle, but it had a few pretty blooms, it only bloomed one more time last year. This year it bloomed during the spring flush, but the blooms were horrible. Right now it doesn't seem to be doing any thing. Pat who lives in Alabama and seems to have some of the most prolific roses I ever saw has a really nice JFK, it makes me not want to give up on mine. Also another lady on here, Hollykline has one that took awhile to get established and she really likes it now. My JFK bush actually looks healthy. I planted a PJPII this year and it has several buds on it, I am hoping it will be a good one. I think white roses are really beautiful when they do right.

Sun and water are the two most important things to growth. Rose will go on fine without fertilizer but without sun and adequate water they just sit and wait patiently for the weather to change..

I have to agree with Ingrid, you can water all you want but they still like rain best, lol. However, I think a good spray on the whole plant with the hose helps! Whether it cools them down or washes the dust off the leaves or whatever, a good overhead shower once in a while will not hurt your roses. Do it early in the day so the leaves will dry before evening and there is some thought that it will actually REDUCE fungal infections, by removing spores from the leaf surface, rather than cause them.

Sara-Ann, thank you for the info, now I can't decide whether to dig it or leave it...I do have Columbus Queen that I suspect can use a better home, it's been a one-cane wonder with no sign of basal break :(

Seil, I think you are right, no amount of watering can competely replace rainfall. On that note, maybe I should cut back on the watering since it's not totally necessary to give them that much water.

I totally agree about the rain being better than just watering. It's amazing how quickly things can change with roses. Several of my roses are absolutely loaded with new growth. As an example, Tropicana, which I like very much and is a good rose for me is producing more buds than I have ever seen on that variety.