What's happening to my leaves?

[imabrdwaystar]

[color=darkblue]I have a beautiful Blue Girl rose in a pretty substantial pot in my front yard. I'm in zone 7 and I recieve full sun to partial shade. My big problem is I think it might have a powdery mildew, but I want to get your opinion.
Most of the leaves are completely over-run with these little opaque white spots...at first I thought they were holes, which my rose also has an overabundance of, but they were not. A few of the leaves are also curling or the ends have dried up.
The rose has been growing and reblooming despite the spots, the holes, the curling, and a few dried up edges.
The only thing I give it besides water is a neem concentrate which I mix with water and spray on the leaves a couple times a week.
Does my rose have a powdery mildew problem like I think it does?...Should I go ahead and replant it in the ground?...Is the neem spray hurting the leaves somehow? What is happening to my leaves?[/color]

[The Helpful Gardener]

Sounds like powdery mildew but neem should be taking care of that no problem...try mixing a cup of milk in a gallon of water and spraying with that instead of the neem one week (he said thinking we may have a neem resistant strain of mildew). Sounds crazy but it works wonders on mildew; please read other forums where we've discussed this in detail...

HG

[imabrdwaystar]

Well, this is my third day using the milk and water mixture and I have to say...so far the opaque holes and the dried up ends are gone. There's still the hole problem and the curling of a few leaves, which might be some sort of pest problem...I have no idea though on that one...but it's looking better than it began
My next question now would be, what could I give my Blue Girl to make the blooms really healthy, full, bring out the color, and last longer?
I noticed before that the blooms were browning on the edges and after a few days just dried up.
What can it give it and when would be a good time to do so

[The Helpful Gardener]

I can almost guarantee you use chemical fertilizers that are salt based nitrogen and plants will grow on it but stressed by the salts . The salts kill soil flora and fauna, much of which actually help our plants. So we begin to replace Nature's way with our own, creating plants that need our constant intervention to survive.

When we go organic, we use carbon based fertilizers with MUCH lower assays so people look at the three numbers and say "1-1-1? I want the 20-20-20 over there", not knowing that the organic fertilizer also has allies in the soil that prevent disease, add vigor and increase lifespan for your plant...

Did you know that if you hold out identical plants to a cow, one organic and the other chemically fertilized the cow will ALWAYS eat the organic one? Hmmmm....

HG

P.S. You can back off the milk for a while; it is effective for weeks at a time. Reapply after heavy rains...

[imabrdwaystar]

That's really interesting. I had no idea it does more harm then good. This must be why a few other plants in my garden are reacting funny to things that should be helping it.
I know for my rose I was using Rose Tone...my Mum might have put another fertilizer mixed with water on it a while ago...hmm...
Well, thanks for the organic tip! I was thinking of starting a compost pile too. I'll definitely look into all that in more detail now

[The Helpful Gardener]

RoseTone IS an organic (animal based) fertilizer, so that shouldn't be the issue. Chemical fertilizer makes them LOOK good, but destroys the soil flora and fauna thast helps support organic fertilizers, so the plant becomes totally dependent on further applications; I call them "junkie" plants.

Ever heard of the first big experiment in high nitrogen fertilizer? They ended up calling Oklahoma "the Dustbowl". Be kind to Mother and go organic....

HG