kevinschoppe
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Location: Zone 8A Texas Gulf Coast

Death becomes my Mini Roses

"Oh Death... Where is thy Sting?" --- Obviously it is in my mini roses. They are shriveling up and are no more. I have tried watering and feeding them, and not exposing them to extreme temps. Despite this I have allready lost my Hot tamale, and I am fighting to keep my Stars n Stripes, and Childs Play Roses.

I think those darn fire ants killed my Hot tamale. I'm not sure, I am still interrogating them.

Any Thoughts?

grandpasrose
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Kevin, are these miniatures in with all your other roses? Are they behaving the same way? Why I ask is because a miniature rose is no different than a regular rose except it it smaller. It has the same needs and care requirements as any other rose.
I am wondering why you say you have lost them? Can you describe to me what has happened and what they look like, and how long a period this has been going on?
I just need to know a little more before I can assess what is happening. Thanks. :wink:
Val

kevinschoppe
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Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 10:54 pm
Location: Zone 8A Texas Gulf Coast

Well the Hot Tamale just shirveled up, and now it is nothing more than a few back twigs. My Stars and Stripe & Childs Play leaves are turing brown and chrisp, and the end of the stems are turning brown/black and this is slowly progressing down to the roots.

They are planted in big pots. We are talking about 1-3 gallon plants in planters that are about 24x24x42 pots.

grandpasrose
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Well, Kevin, this could be a number of things.
Have you looked closely at the leaves and stems of the roses for bugs or cankers, or scales on the stems of the rose?
While these roses have been in these containers, have they been fertilized?
There may be a build up of salt in the soil because they are in containers. The salt competes with the rose for moisture and this makes the rose unable to retrieve the nutrients it needs, even though the nutrients are there.
If this is the case, you might try repotting them in new soil, and when watering, ensure that water is able to run through, and out the bottom of the container, taking salts with it. Let me know what you think of any of this Kevin. :wink:
Val

dyvonnetxgal
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Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:23 pm
Location: Friendswood, Texas Zone 9a

Hi, Kevin. You know what, I have had the same issue with only one of my miniatures. They were doing grand then all of a sudden the leaves on just one of my minis started turning brown then shriveled up. I am glad that they were in window boxes separated away from each other because the problem would have spread. This happened about 2 months ago, I tried to do everything that I could to rectify the problem. Then one day I really, REALLLY looked at my mini that was having the problem. Well, come to find out it was MEALYBUGS!! Those pestering creatons....uggh.....So I tried to rectify with neem, since at the time that I saw that there was a problem with it I sprayed with neem and it seemed to do fine...........but only just a month and a half later I was down to only one green cane with a bud out of the whole bunch of canes that my mini consisted of. So the culprit I am going to guess would probably be mealybugs since our weather is still quite warm. I can't wait until we get the crisp weather in the afternoon as well. So the little buggers will drop dead and no one will have to worry about them again......lol. Well, as for all of my other window boxes and roses they are just lovely. I hope you are able to find out what is going on with your little ones. Just look at them under a magnifying glass make sure you look into the smallest crevice those little buggers are small when they start out. The adults you can see fairly well with just your eyes. :wink:

grandpasrose
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Thanks for that Dyvonne! I have been wondering about bugs myself. But til Kevin takes a look and gets back to us we'll never know! :wink:
Val

kevinschoppe
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Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 10:54 pm
Location: Zone 8A Texas Gulf Coast

Hey There-

It very well could be. I have been quiet busy. Since I live by the lake we have all sorts of wierd bugs. I think some of them are mutant bugs. I haven't looked at the Minis yet, but the Azelas do have air pockets under them. The bugs only appear at night. I know when the weather is below 60 for a majority of the time there are no bugs here. It's because it is too cold for them to survive. I have a weekend lock-in with the Chruch youth this weekend from tonight untill Sunday at 5pm.... It's going to be a long weekend, but I promise I will check on it and report back...

kevinschoppe
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Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 10:54 pm
Location: Zone 8A Texas Gulf Coast

Well I have inspected the plants. There are no bugs on them now, but to best describe the bugs is that they are very small, have about 4 wings thin and narrow brown in color with long intennas, and they made a clicking sound when you would put water on them. There were no larva or any bugs in the pots, I just replanted the roses to check to see if there were any buried bugs such as maggots or not. In the Azalea there were open pockets under the plants, but that was not the case with the roses.

Any Thoughts? :?

grandpasrose
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Hi Kevin! You must be getting quite frustrated by now! This doesn't seem to be an easy one because there seem to be so many symptoms that don't coincide with each other!
There are only two bugs that fit the description you have given for roses. One is maybe a Fuller Rose Beetle, although they usually show other signs of being there before the bush just up and dies, like eaten leaves, etc.

The other is cockchafer and if you read it's life cycle, it sounds like it might fit. The cockchafer has a three year life cycle. After mating the female digs about 20cms into the soil to lay her 10 to 20 eggs. The eggs hatch after 21 days and the larvae remain in the soil for a further two years feeding on roots.

The cockchafer larvae are a creamy-white colour, with a brown head. They are equipped with a strong pair of pincers for chewing through roots.

If you pick one up it will make a squeaking sound by rubbing a row of pegs on its hind legs against its middle legs.

When they are about 5cms long they are ready to pupate in the soil. After pupation, the adult beetles emerge in October, and remain until the following spring.
The cockchafers are brown in color, slim, with four wings.

The other thing we haven't talked about is nematodes. These are tine worms that cannot be seen to the naked eye, but can also cause these symptoms. The clue to whether you have these is if there are small lumps, knots or galls on the roots. There are usually several of them. So you should check your roots for these.

Check these out and see what you think. We'll keep on the track, don't worry! :wink:
Val

The Helpful Gardener
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Location: Colchester, CT

A lot of the miniatures are started as greenhouse plants (sold that way too, at supermarkets and places like that) and are just hot house flowers. There are a few lines of miniatures I like for the landscape, like the Palace Series, but my experiences (at the grower level, mind you, I have never gardened with these) lead me to stay away. But I'm no rose gardener; if it can't do by itself, I don't have it in my garden (mostly)...

Scott

grandpasrose
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You're right Scott, most miniatures are greenhouse grown, and often forced to meet a certain market as well. Technically, miniatures are not supposed to be any harder to care for than any other rose, but from my experience, they don't seem to have a very long life span. I have had miniatures in my garden for years, and even though they get the same care my teas do, which I haven't lost one for a few years now, I seem to lose a couple of miniatures every year, for no visible reason.
I think it has something to do with more attention being paid to the way they are forced to be blooming when brought to market, and not enough attention paid to the actual strength of the plant itself.
That's just my opinion though, as always! :wink:
Val

The Helpful Gardener
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And a most valid one; pretty much the same as mine. Great minds...

:P

Scott



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