Hello new on here and having issues this season with small blooms!! Example...

Here's another...

Mark619

My first guess would be lack of fertilizer.

The blooms on my roses are noticeably smaller after periods of intense heat or inadequate watering (or both of these combined, of course). The stress causes them to shut down and produce fewer and smaller blooms. More fertilizer won't help at these times. Stressed roses shouldn't be fertilized. Give them more water and more mulch instead.

The message said "this season", so I took that to mean that even early on this season as well as now this has been a problem, not just during the heat. Of course that was my assumption, and I normally get into trouble when I assume things. So we have to get more information and ask if this was a problem early on and have they been watering enough and in the San Diego area is heat stressing the plants? And we don't know if these roses have been fertilized at all, nor do we know if they have not been watered properly. So yes, zuzu could be 100 per cent correct, but still I suspect not enough fertilizer could also be the problem, that's my story and I am sticking to it(until Mark619 replies and blows my theory).

Looking at the leaves makes me think I would try more water - and mulch if there isn't much. They appear a bit fried to me.

That's how my daughter's roses look this year. She's in San Diego also, and they've had tremendous heat and very little rain, along with strict watering restrictions.
Hers were huge last year, and for sure hers never get any fertilizer.

Before you do anything that may cause them any more stress, it would be helpful to know which particular roses the ones in your photos are, how old they are, etc.
Roses take a while to get established and produce decent sized blooms. If yours are newly planted (as in just this past year) you need to give them more time.I'm in the same climate zone as you and with this heat we're having mine aren't exactly at their best, either. Mine rarely produce normal sized blooms in the summer, but they do in the spring and fall when it isn't so hot.

CindiKS said:That's how my daughter's roses look this year. She's in San Diego also, and they've had tremendous heat and very little rain, along with strict watering restrictions.
Hers were huge last year, and for sure hers never get any fertilizer.

Might be the issue I'm having!! I have never used mulch at all...

Seedfork said:The message said "this season", so I took that to mean that even early on this season as well as now this has been a problem, not just during the heat. Of course that was my assumption, and I normally get into trouble when I assume things. So we have to get more information and ask if this was a problem early on and have they been watering enough and in the San Diego area is heat stressing the plants? And we don't know if these roses have been fertilized at all, nor do we know if they have not been watered properly. So yes, zuzu could be 100 per cent correct, but still I suspect not enough fertilizer could also be the problem, that's my story and I am sticking to it(until Mark619 replies and blows my theory).

Thanks, you might be right..but them again this year is the first year I ever fertilize...I've never fertilized before and still had awesome blooms!