Crispy rose petals

Hi there. I'm brand new to Rose Talk and never really thought I'd be making any sort of foray into the world of roses!

Two years ago we were living in a beachfront apartment in one of Sydney's beach suburbs where I had no garden whatsoever. Then, in mid-winter 2009, we bought a 1 acre, fully developed & landscaped property which was in hibernation in the NSW Southern Highlands. When we moved in 3 months later we immediately wondered what we'd done ... ALL the roses were in full bloom, the whole 120 bushes!

After recovering from the initial shock, and the prospect of having to care for these beautiful plants, we've sat back and enjoyed watching the cycles of about 110 of them ... the other 10 have been the cause of constant headaches for all their blooming time. Nine of these bushes keep throwing huge & unruly shoots (all from above the graft) and after the initial flowering, produce no more blooms. The other bush, a beautiful deep burgundy/red gives us lots of huge buds which when they begin to open, form a shell of crispy blackened petals which prevent the flower from opening any further. These buds then become macerated and mouldy and have to be removed

Any suggestions as to how I can improve the well-being of this bush and how to manage the other nine will be gratefully received.

With kind regards,

Jenny

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Hi Jenny, and welcome to the forum! What you are describing with the crispy buds that go mouldy sounds like botrytis. You can try moving this rose to a place that gets more air circulation and sunlight than where it currently grows though this doesn't always help. It is affected by the weather as well and I see it here most when we've had very wet weather where the roses never seem to dry out. It could also be sunburn on these very dark flowers. Many dark reds don't cope with the sun very well and will burn even in light shade. I try to plant these where they only get morning sun and even then it doesn't always stop the crisping. What kind of area does it grow in?

Thanks so much for replying so quickly Simon! The rose is planted in a raised formal garden bed, at the front of a row of standard white icebergs and it gets sun all day. I'm liking your suggestion that it's getting sunburned as even though the temperatures here aren't what I would call overly hot, we do get an average summer temp in the high 20s. I have about 30 roses in this more-or-less circular area, but this is the only one with this problem. I'd already decided to try moving it to a cooler spot, but wasn't sure when this should be done.

Winter, when the rose is dormant, is your best bet, Jenny. Start thinking about where you'd like it and wait till it is well and truly asleep for the winter and then you can dig it up and move it. The reds even crisp down here in Tas so I'd say your temperatures and your UV index are more than high enough to fry some reds.

I'll have to give some careful thought as to where I can move this rose as our garden is made up of many 'rooms' and I don't want to put it into the wrong room! It would certainly look totally out of place in our David Austen Room which is predominently shady.

Thanks for all the information on identifying roses Simon .. I don't think I'll worry about their names any longer!

Don't let that put you off trying, Jenny. Some are very easy to ID. There are also people on here who are very skilled at it so it's worth a shot

Thanks for the encouragement Simon ... I'll give it a go sometime soon.