peskykid82
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Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 4:48 pm
Location: Staten Island, New York - Hardiness Zone 7a

Aphids and/or Rust

Hi everyone,

I planted a Hybrid Peace Rose 2 years ago. Everything went well with the planting, the rose bush seems to be thriving in its new home. However, I am having some issues with the bushes leaves. After days of searching for the problems I am experiencing, to no avail, I stumbled upon this forum and figured I would ask some experts.

Seeing as how I cannot pinpoint the issue/problem I will just state what I can see. I will also include some photos.

The leaves have brown/black spots on them, as do all the trees in the neighborhood. I was reading that it may be "rust", I was also under the impression that it may be aphids that are attacking my rose bush. I just stepped outside and saw 2 different kind of bugs on the actual rose. I cannot identify these bugs and I am not sure if they are causing the problem or if it may be the "rust" or a combination of the two.

I did take these pictures with a high quality camera, I hope the upload wasn't compressed to the point of quality loss. You can zoom in on the bloom, there are 2 mystery bugs on it. 1 on the top right 1 on the bottom left. On the rose bush photo I was able to zoom to see the spots on the leaves. If you need any further info please let me know.

If possible I would like to remedy these problems organically. I did some reading about Green Lacewings and Lady Bugs to help if the problem is coming from aphids. If it is the fungi causing "rust" I was reading its not curable and extremely hard to treat.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance for your time!!
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Last edited by peskykid82 on Mon Jun 05, 2017 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

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applestar
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I would like to close up if the spots on the leaves. I believe they are disease rather than caused by either of these two insects. Upper right is some kind of a cricket and the bottom left is some kind of a fly. I didn't look it up but there is a fly that can be problem for one foliage if you are seeing thin scraped areas.

My concern is that you may have planted your rose between juniper/cedar shrubs. There is a fungal disease called cedar-apple rust that affects all rose family (which includes apples, pears, and strawberries). I don't know if Peace is resistant. As the name suggests, the fungus alternates hosts between cedar family plants and rose family plants and affects both. Do you see any foliage that are affected -- when mature, the fruiting bodies of the fungus release bright orange spores.

peskykid82
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Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 4:48 pm
Location: Staten Island, New York - Hardiness Zone 7a

Thank you so much for your quick reply. I will add the photos to the original post for ease of reading. I will jump back on Google and see if I can find more about the items you were talking about.

peskykid82
Newly Registered
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 4:48 pm
Location: Staten Island, New York - Hardiness Zone 7a

It appears that you are correct!! After a quick Google search for "juniper shrubs" my bushes and all of the bushes in my condo complex are Juniper Shrubs. I am now off to find if there is any treatment for this problem.

From: Missouri Botanical Garden

https://ww.missouribotanicalgarden.org/g ... -rust.aspx

Cedar-apple rust (Gymnosporangium juniperivirginianae), cedar-hawthorn rust (G. globosum), and cedar-quince rust (G. clavipes) are closely related rust diseases that require two hosts to complete their life cycle. All three rusts can infect most varieties of eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) as well as many other junipers and an alternate host. Of these alternate hosts, cedar-apple rust is primarily a disease of apples and crabapples. Cedar-hawthorn rust, in addition to affecting apples and crabapples, sometimes infects pears, quince, and serviceberry. Cedar-quince rust has the broadest host range and can infect many genera in the rose family. In addition to those plants already mentioned, mountain-ash, flowering quince, cotoneaster, chokeberry, and photinia are also hosts for this disease.

The website continues to speak about the rust...



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