I planted two Double Knock Out Roses on May 4th, and for the most part, they seem to be doing well. However, I have recently noticed some potential issues and wanted to ask you good folks what I may be dealing with.

Listing of the issues I am having:
Curling of a few leaves, with a grayish color on the outer edges of these curled leaves.
Yellowing of a few cluster of leaves
Leaves being chewed on

Here's a little info on the planting of my roses. The roses I bought were each in a 1-gallon container. When I planted them, I dug the holes as directed. I also bought a bag of Kellogg Garden Organics All Natural Planting Mix (2-in-1 planting mix and mulch recommended for trees, shrubs, and flowers). Even says for use with roses on the bag, which of course, is the reason I bought it. Plus, my native soil is a little on the sandy side, so I need to enhance it for planting. Here is the link to the soil I used: https://www.kellogggarden.com/...

On May 17, I bought a small bag of Vigoro Rose Plant Food and fertilized each rose bush with 3 tablespoons full of fertilizer (per directions), and watered them afterwards. Here's the link to the rose food I used: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Vi...

I just realized that the soil I bought and planted the roses in already had fertilizer in it, and I now wonder if I may have over fertilized them by adding that rose food. Your thoughts?

Also, nearly every day I have watered the roses since May 4th. I am keeping a journal on everything I do so I can look back and see what all I've done to them.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Link to larger images of my issues (Click images to see larger versions): https://imgur.com/a/gvmub1Z

Link to another forum about the leaves being chewed on:

Thank you all very much! I truly do appreciate the help!

Looks like powdery mildew to me in the first four pictures. Safer has a product for spraying the affected roses once a week to prevent powdery mildew, blackspot, etc. Others make their own spray with baking soda and a horticultural oil and spray once a week to every 10 days. These are the more natural controls as others use sytemics.

One thing -- I would STRONGLY advise against use of any oil spray during hot weather. (I mention this, because the weather maps I saw at breakfast this morning were indicating very hot temperatures in the S.E. U.S.) I learned the hard way that when hot sun hits roses that have been sprayed with oil, they will crisp up like you'd held a log-lighter to them.

As to the "grayish" areas, reh is right on target. That is powdery mildew.

You can find good information on that at:
http://www.ludwigsroses.co.za/...

That site also offers suggestions as to fungicides, to prevent (not reverse) powdery mildew.

As a once-regular spray-demon, I will tell you that spraying stopped here when my dog began to seizure. FWIW.

These days, if roses mildew to a point where they annoy me, I replace those roses with some that don't do that.

jerijen, thank you for sharing your knowledge about spraying.

Almost all the roses I purchased this year have a bad case of powdery mildew, even an AARS one has it badly. My roses normally do not have powdery mildew, but this year some have a little. How do you go about getting ones that don't have it? Does it have to do with the grower?

You know, reh, it has something to do with your immediate conditions (I have very alkaline soil and water; The heavy fog and damp we've had this year was my "old" climate. My "new" climate is warmer/drier.) Mildew can be a big issue here. Downy mildew is -- occasionally, in SOME years) and blackspot is very rare.

There may be a better way to do this, but what we ended up doing was going by trial and error. If we really wanted a certain cultivar, we tried it. If it couldn't outgrow disease problems, it didn't stay.

But I've also found that disease-resistance may -- often -- increase with the maturity of the plant. A healthy, mature plant, with a great root system, well-nourished, and well-watered, USUALLY has far fewer disease problems than it might have had, starting out. Our garden TODAY is much less troubled by fungal disease than it did 20 years ago when we were spraying! I think this may be because there are some honkin' roots down there.

=
So, I WOULD RECOMMEND -- GIVE THOSE ROSES SOME TIME TO MATURE.
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Also, I think my standards have changed. 'Mme. Lambard' has a forever home here even tho it may have mildew problems in the summer. (Well, not "may". It DOES.) Why? Because it's pretty clean in winter, and blooms like mad when nothing else does.

I gave my neighbor two roses -- chosen because I knew they would be clean for her, and bloom all the time. And she's overjoyed with them. They've lived up to the good things I said about them. They were "Grandmother's Hat" and "Ragged Robin" (aka 'Gloire des Rosomanes') But, heck. She's next door. Those might be the WRONG roses for someone else, in different conditions.

Thank you, again, jerijen. I'm curious whether the more sun a rose bush has, the less powdery mildew?

Not so much sun -- but air-flow is important, and so is good hydration. And good nutrition.

All the new roses affected most are in a sheltered, protected area, SW, and NW, so that must be why--not enough air flow around them.

I tried to wipe off those areas that may be powdery mildew, but nothing comes off. I see these spots on just a few leaves. And I do have concerns about using any type of spray on them. I'll certainly keep inspecting them every day, and if the condition seems to be worsening, I'll try a rose spray on them. It's been very hot here as of late, and they do look like they're growing well, so I'm just going to keep an eye on them for now.

Again, thank you both for your help. I truly do appreciate it. And I'm sure I'll have a few more questions for you two.

Dilute skim milk will help alot especially if you use VERY hot water.

vaporvac said:Dilute skim milk will help alot especially if you use VERY hot water.

I was just reading about different homemade sprays made with milk, or baking soda and soap. YouTube has many videos on the subject.

Thank you for the info.

Just wanted to provide an update on my roses. Been seeing a hint of red peeking through the last few days or so, and when I looked out there this morning, I was surprised to see 3 roses on display on one of my bushes! As you can imagine, I am very excited about that!

https://imgur.com/a/oDKKL9B

Congrats! You're a Dad! Beautiful offspring!

Mustbnuts said:Congrats! You're a Dad! Beautiful offspring!

Thank you very much!

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