Who knows about roses?

[B'sgirl]

My rose bushes are blooming beautifully. But the leaves are starting to turn almost white. They get white speckles on them until there are so many almost the whole leaf is white. I'll post a picture as soon as I can figure out how to do it on my new computer.

[lulu]

Daughter of a collector of old fashioned roses ;)

How well pruned are your roses? They benefit from fairly good ventilation (hence the fairly standard method of pruning inward growing stems by thirds) and can get mildew on the leaves if not well ventilated. This is white. Could this be a possibilty?

[B'sgirl]

I just planted the bush last year so it's still pretty sparse. But the sprinkler does hit the leaves and we water in the evenings so maybe mildew is the problem.

[babetoo]

looks like spider mites to me. i have aphids once in a while. use a spray that will kill both.

babe

[MexicoKaren]

I used to have over a hundred rose bushes in my yard when I lived in the Northwest. Needless to say, they became a constant preoccupation. This looks like leaf mold to me, and unfortunately, the only way to get rid of it is with chemicals. Believe me, I tried to "go organic" with my roses, but if you want to grow hybrid tea roses, you cannot do it (at least in the NW) without chemicals. Ask at Home Depot or Loews...I used to buy a systemic fertilizer that also contained a pesticide that you could sprinkle around the bottom the bush. But it probably also needs a spray. That is a lovely rose, BTW. Too hot for them here in Mexico....

[quicksilver]

It sounded like mildew, so check this site out, B'sgirl

http://allexperts.com/q/Roses-732/white-leaves-established-rose.htm

[Constance]

It's powdery mildew, kinda like black spot, but not. It's caused by high humidity. Not to worry...just spray it with a fungicide that's labeled for roses.
Even if your rose completely defoliates, do not despair. Just feed it and don't let it dry out too much, and it will come right out of it.

One way to help avoid fungus is to water your roses in the morning, and try to keep the water off the foliage. This holds true for most plants.

If the evening is the only time you have a chance to water, however, just try to keep the water off the foliage.


Note: If it has red spider mites, the leaves will dry up and fall off. You will need a magnifying glass to see the tiny red dots under the leaves, but when you start seeing spider webs around the dead leaves, you'll know for sure what you have.
Destroy the plant right away...burning is best...and spray the surrounding plants with insecticidal soap.

[B'sgirl]

Uh-oh. I am definitely seeing some webs on dead leaves down below the bush. I also found one in a curled up leaf still on the bush and small dots that just may be spider mites (I didn't look with a magnifying glass though). Does that really mean I need to destroy my most beautiful rose bush?!? And my strawberries right in front of it have the same problem with the leaves. Do I need to get rid of them? What about the strawberries on them, are they safe to eat?

Yesterday I bought an expensive fungicide/pesticide/plant food combo and I also have a fungicide/insecticide spray. Would those help with mites or is it a lost cause?

[quicksilver]

With living things, I tend to try simple first, then if necessary get alittle more agressive.

What I would first do is fill a spray bottle with room temp water (you don't want to shock your plant) and put in about 2 tbps. of dishwashing (not dishwasher) liquid and spray the plant(s), making sure you spray under the leaves, first removing those dead, creapy looking ones. Then I would sprinkle some boric acid (borate) around the base of the plant.
Keep watering like Constance said, but I wouldn't be watering every day. Maybe 2-3 days.

These deseases/fungus/mildew/bugs don't happen overnight, so give it a little bit of time. Make note of new leaf activity. The old, bad ones aren't going to recover, so forget about them. I would remove them, just to remove the problem from new growth.
It's gonna look like a Charlie Brown thing, but you have beautiful flowers, and that's what it's all about.

Take all those fancy things you bought back. Get some rose food or bone/blood meal or manure )the non-stinky kind) or fish emulsion, and rose dust.
If your plant is healthy to begin with, it is less likely to be suseptible to desease.
Sort of like us. Why do some of us get sick being around sick people, and some of us don't. Good food-nutrition, rest, less stress, etc. That's how to look at your plants.

What kind of rose is it? Do you only have 1 plant?
A companion to roses is Garlic! Believe it or not.

[MexicoKaren]

Marigolds are also a good companion to roses - keeps the aphids down.