At closer inspection, I noticed then, greenish/ reddish insects (aphids?), sort of tap dancing on the new growth and bud area. Which at first I sprayed with neem oil.

Unfortunately, the sun burned/deformed all that healthy growth, so I just sprayed with the hose or squashed by hand.

1) I was wondering why the lower stems browns and sort of curves, is it because of aphids?

Any insight, help, recommendation would be much appreciated.

At any rate, I doubt that the aphids are the cause, so quit worrying about them. In most cases, the aphids are an annoyance, but not a major cause of rose problems.

In my yard, I wipe off any heavy infestations of aphids with my fingers. After a week or two, the good bugs come along (like ladybugs) and devour the aphids. Problem solved. Of course, if you have been spraying insecticides, you may have killed off the good bugs like the ladybugs also.

Kate

The adult sawfly lays it's eggs into the soft cane tissue of new growth and this can cause the cane to either wilt or die off altogether which in both cases, often affects the appearance of any buds along the cane.

Those canes will also eventually rupture and hatch many initially very small young sawfly larvae. They are typically green/yellow with black spots. You may hardly see them at first, but they will grow progressively larger assuming they are not eaten by other predator insects such as wasps and you will see signs of foilage being eaten on the bush and small little black specks on the leaves which is their exrement.

When I see signs of sawfly damage on young canes like this, I will usually prune it off if the cane hasn't set buds yet. If it has set buds and I want to save them, you can run a fingernail/thumbnail along and against the cane which ruptures the sawfly eggs underneath and you will see yellow/brown liquid oozing from the wound. However, it will usually save the buds and stop the larvae from hatching and you can prune the affected area off once the rose finishes blooming.

I'm sorry for the photo. It's somewhat difficult to capture on Rosemary. Here is another photo, this time of Tamora. I've put an arrow to show the blemish. It looks like a bruised apple.

So the brownish stems is no problem either?

Bob

We've had one rainy summer. Wish I could send some your way.

We've had basically a rain shower every week. And now we're in a midst of a rainfall warning with 2" of rain....

Bob

As for the roses: I cut off all the affected stems and got rids of them, plus a single sawfly larvae. So far so good.

I took a new pictures of the Rosemary Harkness bud. Is this botrytis?

It reminds me of a festering wound...

Kate

Thanks Kate. Here is another bloom, from a warm and dry bud, less saturated :-)