22,795 Garden Web Discussions | Roses
I agree, much more sun is probably what my Julia needs since that spot probably gets less than 6 hours per day. What looks like grass at the base is actually creeping phlox, which is rooted about a foot away and I cut it back each year, but it does like to grow back in her direction. It's also a raised bed which probably doesn't help either. I have a sunny spot reserved for her in front of the house, and I do believe she will moving this fall :)
Getting back to humidity: if you live in a humid area you still need to water, humidity doesn't effect the roots. Plants get most of their water from the roots.
Always use the finger test no matter where you live: stick your finger in the soil up to your knuckle, if it's dry then water. My grandparents were farmers(who lived in the humid Midwest) and taught me that trick when I was a child.
No, chemical fertilizers don't cause blackspot. A weak plant can be more succeptible to an outbreak.
OK, thanks! I know a lot of rose growers in SE PA, from Chambersburg to Philly. The fungicide that Meredith_e provided is one that has been successful for many people. Make sure to get this specific product and not one of the combination (fungicide/insecticide/fertilizer) products. It is best to start early in the season, but the Bayer fungicide can help with stopping the progression of the blackspot infection, and help suppress future outbreaks.
seil's guidance on handling insects is spot on. Also the note on determining your tolerance for blackspot, and whether the plant defoliates (loses all of the leaves) or not.
Sorry if we seem like inquisitors, but the info was important for us, as what might be useful in SE PA might not be in NE CA. :-)
Looks like you have a Hoverfly (scroll up) in your photo, also known as Allograpta obliqua. The larvae eat aphids and thrips. The adults are important pollinators. 
Thanks jim1961. I'm in Virginia, zone 7a!Roses are beautiful, I really like the Double Red! I'm a very visual person so that helped! I guess I noticed it so much as it just really started blooming, now it's blooming so much it's going in waves and starting to look better.
Jasmyne Fisher, your rose bush is young yet it should bloom even better/more with age...
Heat will make them open quicker than usual. Cool slows them down. That's why exhibitors refrigerate their roses to keep them from opening too soon. I've had some of that off and on too. One day it's 85 and the next it's 65. On the 65 day they sit. On the 85 day they blow open fast. High humidity will also cause some thin petaled roses to stick together and not open. It's called balling. I get rid of those around here because my humidity is always high.
Why is Mister Lincoln so intensely fragrant this morning? Sometimes the scent can be really faint but this morning it's really powerful. What are usually the conditions that make the fragrance more powerful? I haven't been able to find a trend.
It's been so hot and dry here lately that the flowers are burnt up.
For the most part those roses look healthy to me. Do deadhead them and take off the yellow leaves and clean up any that have fallen and that will neaten things up considerably. If you've been experiencing the high temperatures, like most of us have, that could be part of he problem. Keep them well watered and give them a break. They might just be suffering from heat stress.
Never water roses from top, as that can make it more prone to brown spot.
I like to remove spent roses, as you would a regular rose. Esp if they're getting too big, but that's me. I think it keeps them healthy
Quail are causing problems here in Nevada in this drought. They are pecking my roses (the new ones) bare and I don`t know if some of them will live. This had never happened before. Now I have black netting around them from Home Depot. I tried the spinning pin wheels you get from $ Tree. That didn`t help. I have 3 tomato plants (no tomatoes yet) and one of them they are pecking. I found it lying on it`s side this morning. I put out a bird feeder, but the ones who flock to it are robins, so the quail are not eating from it. I too have a problem with the birds messing up the bird bath, and I am out there cleaning it up every day. I keep smelling saw dust from my bedroom and wonder if it`s a woodpecker. Oh, the problems of summer!
If you don't have grackles, count your blessings. They are noisy and can be aggressive if they think you are too close to their nest. I used to get dive bombed every morning as I crossed the street.
I live in an old neighborhood with lots of big trees and therefore, birds. They are everywhere, all kinds. I've seen a hawk snatch a morning dove in flight leaving a cloud of feathers. The most entertaining is the mockingbird who sounds like a car alarm.
What about 'Constellation'? It is a miniature rose, flowers a little more than 2" across, and said to be strongly fragrant. I just planted one, and it is nicely fragrant, unlike many minis. Flowers open with a yellow center, which fades. For me, 'Bolero' is turning out to be a dud, petals are always fried or damaged (botrytis?) and the bloom form can be gorgeous and perfect, but more often lopsided. I hear that 'Pure Perfume' is also small and fragrant, but J&P is always sold out when I want to buy one. What about 'White Licorice'? Starts out yellow, but in the hot sun turns white.
Here's the 'Constellation' that I just bought.
Bolero always looks like this for me, even in my dry climate, or maybe because of it. Even the buds have brown edges:
Noseometer,
Thank you for the suggestions and images.
I grew Pure Perfume and Bolero at my last home. I was not knocked out by Pure Perfume, although it was very healthy and can take a lot of summer heat. Bolero was stellar, but, it received filtered sun though a African Sumac during the hottest part of the day.
I actually completely changed the color scheme and made the area outside of that window a lavender rose bed.
Lynn
I finally found my answer. I noticed that all my newly planted roses have sawfly. I first noticed the sandy coloured spotted leaves. I just snipped them off and hope it helps. I am beginning to regret buying all my roses from the same nurseries. It seems the new ones are getting sawfly and rrd.
Thanks guys. We've been having these intense thunderstorms with downpours so much lately. We woke up to another one this morning after one last evening and a few last week! I just keep telling myself that all this rain is good for the roses in the long run but it's ruined a ton my my first blooms of the season before they even open up, guess I will have to wait til we get some new buds.
Just for curiosity & to be on the safe side, might clip a discolored bloom into a ziploc for observation. Same weather here recently, also thought rain damage. Yet bagging showed thrips leaving trails inside the bag, which fogged up when brought into the cool house. Taken back into the sun & looking through a magnifying glass, could see hordes of thrips swarming in the bag. So - you never know until you actually check it out. (If bagging suspect buds &/or blooms from more than one plant, keep only one rose's flowers in each bag. If you mix them together, won't be able to tell which plant has the problem otherwise.)