It has happened to me a couple of times. If the rose is not big (I presume it is not?) I dig it back up and plant it in a pot with Supersoil. Supersoil is a very good potting mix and certainly much lighter than our hard clay. I can also make sure the rose is well watered. This has definitely helped a few of mine that refused to grow. I am talking here about roses I bought as bands and planted out as 1G or 5G.

If it is a big grafted rose, then in my yard at least, there is always an outside reason - a clogged sprinkler, or too much shade.

Could it be that you just had a bad specimen of the rose?

Masha

I have this problem with Sally Holmes. She doesn't like me. I plant her in others' gardens and she does fine. I moved her three times in Santa Fe. I have two of her here, one on her third location, and she still refuses to grow. Over the years, I've had a few other FTTs, but nothing else so personal.

I was thinking about this very thing this morning while walking my dog. I think the soil in my garden is much the same throughout my garden, though my front yard has richer soil. I have amended all my beds pretty equally. So it doesn't make sense to me when one plant will grow vigorously and a plant not far away won't grow at all. I don't think it is always the plant's fault either because sometimes I will have a thriving specimen from the same mother plant in a different spot. I wonder if there could be a different microclimate that close together or it could be due to an encroaching tree root.
Or maybe it could be rose replant syndrome....something left in the soil. Or maybe the ones that thrive are hogging all the water and food..if they got there first, maybe their momentum is a shadow over the other plant. But in other parts of my garden I have some planted almost as close as bedding plants and they both are thriving.

Are the ones that don't thrive in your garden planted near others? I planted a Wm R Smith years ago and it has never grown. I know it's suppossed to be vigorous. I have potted it up in hopes it'll gain momentum. Another plant I received as a gift sat there without any vigor for about two years. Once it got going, it began to look like a vigorous plant. Maybe some are iffy till a certain size and then they have oomph.
Linda

I have had this problem, of course. Usually it has turned out to be not enough light (in my shady garden I am always overly optimistic about that), a rose in a hole in our clay soil that turned into a bath tub, or other specific local conditions. However, there is one type of rose that has never thrived in my garden - any of the kinds of old once blooming European roses. Just not suited to our hot summers and mild winters. So, once I finally figured that out, I stopped trying with those, and switched to once and repeat blooming roses with lots of ancestry in Asia, where the growing conditions are more similar to ours.

Jackie

I thought I had this a couple of times and ended up throwing out roses. Recently I transplanted one "failure to thrive" plant and it had vole/mouse tunnels all around the roots. I'm wondering it if will do better without the critters living in its roots.??? I bought some (expensive) dried coyote urine that's supposed to repel them. Anyone tried that?

I have a feeling there are as many explanations as there are gardens with roses. My FTT Marie van Houtte has been pruned by rabbits several times and its spot is too shady, so after three years it's still pitiful. Mme. Lambard has been transplanted once and pruned by rabbits three times. Still pitiful. My noisettes mostly died because they were in too hot a place. Sometimes, as with the first two roses, there's still hope because they're now finally putting out some tentative new growth. It may be that the rose is just finicky and some little "fault" in your garden is making it pout. Julio Iglesias was beautiful the first year, a disaster for most of the second and just recently started producing beautiful, fragrant blooms again. In cases like this I just throw up my hands, forget about trying to understand it, and feel grateful that I won't have to throw away yet another expensive rose...

Ingrid

You have a better idea if is the plant or the cultivar by trying 3 or 4 of the same variety. Also from different sources--that can tell you something as well.

One of my 'Lady Emma Hamilton' was a miserable failure, while the other two are vigorous and prolific. If I'd just gotten the bad one, I would think it was the cultivar--but in this case it was the individual plant--they were all right next to each other, same water, same soil, same exposure.

Another example, my SDLM from one vendor is vigorous even after 10 years, a couple others from other vendors not nearly as good.

Of course this is difficult when space is limited, but it is what it is.

I've noticed with some plants other than roses that if something causes a set back at the beginning(after transplanting) they often fail to thrive. Someone told me once that if a rose has root damage it will continue to have problems. I think it could be that in some areas of my garden the soil is heavier too. It does seem sometimes that an individual rose has some problem like Hoov's Emma Hamilton and a replacement does well in the same spot. Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

I agree that there are some plants which, after suffering any setback, simply refuse to do as well as they should. Tomatoes are a prime example. If they suffer a serious lack of water or even transpalnt shock, they never really recover. I find that this issue is more prevalent in containered plants, rather than ones in open soil.

I have saved a few of these by chip budding a piece of the rose that "failed to thrive" to a rose that has roots that are established somewhere in my garden.

Many of the 20th century roses were bred without a thought given to whether they would survive on their own roots, because most of them were actually sold as grafted plants. And some of them just do not survive on their own roots. It's kind of a gamble you take when you buy 20th century roses that are NOW being sold as "own root" plants. The 20th century lavender/tan hybrid teas are notorious for lousy root systems.

BUT, when I see one that is beginning to die off -- usually from the ground up -- you can still save a bud or two and graft it to something else in your garden that either you were going to get rid of anyways, or that you can just use as a nurse plant temporarily, while you start some rootstock plants and then graft it again to one of them. The branch to which you graft the bud needs to be growing vigorously. Here's a video of how to do that. It works and it's fairly easy, but you do need to get some of the right kind of tape, which is called Parafilm M. They have it on eBay in smaller quantities. I have never gotten plain old plastic nursery tape to work -- the kind you tie plants to a stake with.

However, a note on this video -- he seems to be doing this upside down to me. My technique is to use the chips and the buds facing up on the plants. So, take your pick. And, finally, be sure to mark the branch well where you did the bud grafting. The process takes a long time, and more than once I have forgotten what I put where, and either ended up with something I didn't know what it was supposed to be, or just cut it off, and then "OOPS."

Kathy

Here is a link that might be useful: Instruction on budding roses

I've had it happen, too. If you grow enough roses I suppose eventually you will come across this. Sometimes it is the rose itself, perhaps weakly rooted, perhaps as some mentioned, it had an early setback and never recovered. Sometimes moving to the rose to a different location helps, other times not. If it's not actually growing backwards, I've had a couple of occasions where waiting a few years works. My Pierre de Ronsard originally just sat there barely growing for years, then eventually became a robust shrub. I've had the opposite happen, too; a rose that was growing well, then I moved it, and it was never so vigorous again. Most of the time they don't seem to resent being moved, but there are exceptions. Often there doesn't seem to be anything you can do, unless you're willing to try budding, as Kathy suggests.

All this is a rambling way to say that it's a mystery to me!

Rosefolly

I've made many successful cuttings from my original Zephirine Drouhin with lovely results--However one bush is a mystery to me---It is in a great location----gets good care and just does not seem to flourish like the others all around my property--
Every year I think maybe this year it will explode with blooms like the rest
But as Paula just said--"It is a mystery to me" and a frustrating one.

Florence

Gosh there are as many reasons as there are gardens. I really appreciate all the ideas. That's a great idea about grafting Kathy, especially for something I consider important. I think what I must do is to observe very carefully the next rose planted in the spot where one hasn't done well.

There seem too many reasons to be able to generalise, except to say that the causes are usually at the level of the roots or the bud union. It's a "symptom" with many "differential diagnoses".

Here are some examples in our garden:
1. Graham Thomas sulked for 2 years before wilting. Examination showed separation at the bud union. Not sure why this happened - most likely the effect of repeated freeze-thaw cycles - the union was not below ground level.
2. LD Braithwaite was a puzzle for a number of years, until I had to improve the drainage to our drive-way. Discovered that the a buried weeping hose stretched all the way to the garden bed, and passin beneath the rose. The accummulation of winter salt melters probably salinised the soil.
3. One of our Evelyns succumbed to root choke. It was root bound in a contianer before being transplanted into the ground.
4. Our previously vigorous Eglantyne and Climbing Peace are both showing signs of decline - the reason appears obvious. The 15 foot tall sequoia on the neighbours' side of the fence is now close to 30 feet. Neither of the roses are gong to win out in this lopsided competition. ( I love that sequoia - it's majestic!)

I have just this situation with two Clotilde Souperts. If I remember right, I moved one not too long after the original planting, and one cane (half the plant) died. The moved one has just never been as good as the other one which is beautiful and healthy and a big bloomer. This winter the good one barely lost any leaves. The poorer one went bare, and I think the canes are sunburned since they're burgundy colored. The poorer one is starting to show barely swollen budeyes so I'm hoping it will bounce back. For sure if I didn't have the good one I would be very dissatisfied with Clotilde, and that would be a tragedy.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Dang, didn't mean to click submit! Just thought of another factor. When I moved CS to this spot, there was a caladium closeby. Now it's even closer by, and if nothing else, it shades the rose too much. But I also think it must be competing for nutrients. I'm going to try to dig out the caladium bulbs without damaging CS. I'm glad this post came up. I planned to do this, but I think I would have forgotten.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Since what's going on under the ground is not always obvious this would seem to be a key.

So true Pam. I received a miniscule white Meidiland, not even two inches tall, four leaves. I normally plant bands directly in the ground but this one I put in a pot, with little hope of its living. It sat there for weeks with zero growth. I kept watering it and suddenly it put out several tiny new leaves! It was obviously working on its underpinnings, and I was so glad I hadn't given up on it.

Ingrid