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vampygirl13

potted roses---are they dead?

Melissa Mc (6b)
9 years ago

Need your advice and opinions. Sorry for no pics but I'm at work so I will try and update with one later.

I have 2 roses (Chicago Peace and Marilyn Monroe) in big pots that we bring into the garage for the winter. We put them out this year and they were green and then turned brown. They look dead but our local plant guru at the nursery says to give them some time. They are getting lots of sun and water and I gave them some fertilizer last week.

What do you think? Is there anything I can give to help them or am I too late? I'd hate to lose MM as it's a favorite and grew beautifully last summer.

Thanks!

Comments (7)

  • seil zone 6b MI
    9 years ago

    I don't know where you are but we've just started to really warm up here and I still have plenty of roses that have no growth on them. I'm going to wait some more and see what happens. You might want to take the soil temperature in the pot. If it's still in the 50's it's still too cold for them really to start growing.

  • mzstitch
    9 years ago

    When you put them out they were green and then turned brown. Sounds almost like you may have had a light frost after putting the am out as young tender leave can easily brown. How do the canes look? If any canes are turning black you will want to prune those off, otherwise give it time and if it indeed was just put out slighly early it should start greening up shortly!

  • Melissa Mc (6b)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks guys for you replies. Still nothing with these roses. The Chicago Peace is a goner for sure and the Marilyn Monroe is probably just about there. I have pruned back as much as I can. Ugh! Stupid polar vortex!

  • michaelg
    9 years ago

    Don't fertilize roses that are leafless or nearly so. They can't use the nutrients and it makes it harder for them to take up water. Be sure not to over-water, as well. Of course we wish we could do something to help a failing rose, but we can't. If it has some healthy tissue with stored nutrients, it will recover on its own; otherwise, it won't. Efforts to help (beyond appropriate watering) are likely to make recovery harder.

  • seil zone 6b MI
    9 years ago

    They're dead. I had 76 pots last year that I wintered and lost 56 of them. A LOT of them looked green and good when I took them out of storage. Then slowly, one by one, they died completely back to the soil. This past weekend I dug them all out and not one had any white feeder roots below the soil. The root ball was completely dead. I even had a couple that started to leaf out then suddenly the leaves shriveled and the cane died off. I think some of them were frozen that green color and it just stayed green briefly in the spring when they thawed out before they gave up the ghost completely.

    I also have talked to several other people in my rose society who experienced the same thing with their potted and garaged roses. They looked good for a while and then shriveled up and died.

  • nippstress - zone 5 Nebraska
    9 years ago

    That's interesting Seil (though of course disappointing). I see that occur off and on in my roses in the ground as well, when the canes leaf out just fine then shrivel never more to be seen. I think the cane stores up just enough energy to put out some leaves but without the roots it can't sustain the growth.

    I had a dramatic proof of that last year when I received a rose in a band pot that had literally no roots (the company of course replaced it). I went ahead and stuck it in a band pot to see what would happen and I was pleased to see it put out leaves, but after it shriveled and died, I pulled it out and there were still literally no roots. I guess that's why we in colder zones are most concerned about root/graft survival, since there's nothing to save the rose if that goes.

    Sympathies on these two plants, vampygirl - if it's any consolation, Marilyn Monroe gave up the ghost on me in the ground in my zone 6 pocket without a fight, so I expect she's on the tender end of HTs. Chicago Peace has more fight in it if you want to replace it.

    Cynthia

    Cynthia

  • Melissa Mc (6b)
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I belong to our local rose society and in this month's newsletter one of them theorizes that the root dies first and then the rest of the plant slowly. I think that's what happened with mine as the plant was green and growing. ugh.