My guess would be too much fussing. You do not need to feed newly planted roses in pots - the potting soil is full of food. So, could be too much food, or spraying burn, or being stuck out in full sun too soon, with no chance to get acclimated.

I would just make sure it has adequate water, and leave the poor thing alone in its pot to recuperate and have a chance to grow some roots.

By the way, why are you spraying it with pesticide? Kills the bees you know - seriously. They think the main cause of bee hive collapse disease, or whatever they call what is killing all of the honeybees, is pesticide.

Jackie

I agree--you are fussing too much over your new rose babies. Understandable, but roses really don't need a lot of care. Relax and enjoy your roses.

I would wonder if your roses are too wet--that drainage hole may not be draining as well as you think. Certainly, when we have really heavy rains, some of my roses get that overall spotted yellow look. As the ground dries up, the rose quits putting out those sickly-looking leaves.

You might as well take off all those spotty yellow leaves. That way you will know if the rose is still producing those leaves or functioning normal again.

But do forget the fertilizer and the sprays. The rose needs about a month to settle in and develop some decent roots. Until then, just don't let it dry out.

Let us know how it is doing in a few weeks.

Kate

Ah okay, thanks for your help :) The reason I was using the insecticide is because I have a HUGE problem with aphids and white flies on the roses and hanging fuschia plant I have. I did not know about the plight of the honey bee, and didn't realize insecticide sprays were killing them. It was not my intent to contribute to the demise of the honey bee. Is there a bee-friendly alternative to killing aphids and white flies? I just started gardening last year, and I'm in my 20s. I just joined this forum as well. I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't know much about plants, roses, fertilizers, fungus, pests, bees, etc. I'm not sure how one learns about this stuff. I have spent a few hours reading online about roses, fuschias, hydrangeas, palm tree (inherited from neighbor), and petunias. But there's more that I don't know then stuff that I know. Some of the information seems conflicting as well, so I'm not sure what to make of it.

I'll check the drainage hole. We inherited the pots. My other roses are in plastic ones that have good drainage. Will have my hubby lift them up this weekend. We had a long 2 week rain storm, and it's sunny now.

I'll withhold the fertilizer for now on the baby roses. The potting soil said that it feeds for 90 days, but I wasn't sure if that was enough? Should I wait till 90 days post-potting to fertilize or one month post potting? I guess it's okay to use the rose fertilizer on my established roses from last year? They don't have any yellow spots.

Thanks so much for your help ladies :) Like I mentioned earlier, I don't know much about plants, and am trying to learn, but there is a lot of information out there.

What size clay pots? We have had some hot days and those pots might be more like clay ovens.

I HATE white fly, we had a horrible case on our hibiscus plants. Once I removed those only a few remained and they left the roses alone.

What I do when I want to do something about aphids is hose them down. Same with the white fly. My guess is there is an infected plant some where near by. Once you can cure that plant your roses will be fine (white fly-aphids will keep coming back but over time so will the lady bugs for their favorite snack)

Where on the plant were these leaves? Are these the only leaves affected? They look like old, tired, I'm-finished-working-now leaves to me.

Most of the plant is green an healthy, but some of these yellow leaves are new growth. That's why I was worried! Might coincide with the soluble fertilizer application, so I'm going to avoid that for a few weeks, and check the drainage, and hopefully it gets better :)

Just to clarify: you aren't growing the roses indoors, are you? They are outdoors plants, in case you didn't know. And make sure they are getting at least 6 hours of sun a day.

About whether to feed them in about a month, I was thinking of roses planted in the garden. I'm not an expert on container plants, so if no one else adds advice on that, just check back in about a month and give a report and ask the container experts how long to wait before feeding them.

Roses can be pretty tough plants, so yours will probably survive this bump in the road and bloom beautifully for you.

Kate

I don't recall if you mentioned where in California you are, its a big state.
If you are in the southern part I would be concerned about the clay pots same as hippy. Those can be a cooker.

I agree that white fly and aphids should be washed off the plants with a hard stream of water from the hose. No poisons needed. Actually, if you use poisons you will not only be killing bees, but the natural predators of white fly and aphids such as lady bugs, soldier beetles, etc. etc.

I did the same thing when I didn't know any better - I sprayed poison all over the garden. The white fly problem just got worse, AND we didn't get any fruit on the fruit trees that year, because I had killed all of the polinators. We all learn by doing this sort of thing - it is normal to panic when you see those horrid little bugs, but really the "pesticide cure" is way worse than the disease.

Jackie

Also washing off aphids and whitefly with a hard spray of water is much less expensive than an insecticide! Insecticide is not only bad for bees, it's also a lot of money that can be better used to buy roses. Also the predator beneficial insects are also killed off by insecticide, so it becomes a constant losing battle. Water sprays until the predators move in and start eating the aphids is the best strategy.

One addtional thought is that we had horrific heat the past few days in Southern California--if that is where you are. That extreme heat so early in the season has been stressful for even well-established roses here because of the drought. For new plants in pots that extreme spring heat is even more stressful.

Gardening is a learning experience. Soon enough you will be expert. Just takes a little practice.

That looks a lot like spray damage to me. If they are young leaves that would be the most probable explanation. As previous posters have said don't overdo it with spraying and fertilizing and never spray when the sun is up or the weather is hot.
Nik

Okay, I will try spraying the aphids and white flies off with water. I'm out there every day, and I only have a few roses, so it won't be an issue. I read of a recipe to kill white flies that was 1 part isopropyl alcohol + 3 parts water + a few drops of vegetable oil. Would that be less harmful to bees and ladybugs, or is that still really bad? It was a recipe for white flies, not aphids so I don't know if it would work for them. It's not like the insecticide works that well :/ They always come back every week.

Yes, all my plants are grown outside. I'll attach a picture of the roses. We live on the bottom level of an apartment so the roses get some shade and some sun. There are a lot of trees surrounding our apartment as well. We live in northern California. The weather just got warm. It was raining like 2 weeks, and then was sunny for 3-4 days when I noticed the leaves like that. I thought it might be that insecticide/fungicide/fertilizer spray because it was over 80 degrees and sunny when I sprayed them. Poor leaves probably died because of that. I was just reading the other day about how you aren't suppose to spray fertilizer on your plant if it gets 80 degrees plus.

I didn't realize that about terra cotta pots :/ We didn't buy them, but inherited them from the neighbor. If I hose off the pots, would that make the roses less likely to bake during the summer? The dark pink roses we have (Miss America I believe?) have been in those black pots since last year. Another thing I learned is that black pots are bad in hot summers because they bake the plant :( But our roses have been happy. I water them daily, and the black pots have great drainage. I realize the dark pink roses need bigger pots. They grew a lot from last year. We were going to get brown plastic ones because we figured they wouldn't absorb the heat as much as black. When would be the best time to repot them? August?

Thanks everyone for your help :) I'm going to wait to fertilize the baby roses till after they finish their first bloom cycle. I'm going to start with a more dilute solution and water before and after fertilizing since it's a soluble fertilizer.

Also, I know next to nothing about pruning :$ I guess come fall I'll be reading up on how to prune those large pink roses. I prune off the flowers as they die so that it continues to bloom. Perhaps they are not well suited for growing in a container. I argued with my husband last year to get bigger pots, but he felt a pot slightly bigger than the one they came in would be fine. It was, but they definitely look like they are outgrowing it. The two pink roses look like they might be too close during winter, but it's pretty dry here in California. I figured being this close might help create a humid microclimate? Although humidity causes fungal problems, so I don't know >_

If you intend to keep those roses in pots, they will definitely need bigger pots soon. Terra cotta pots are fine, but bigger would be better. That will also help the heat issue. In our dry No CA climate, I would group the pots together as you suggest. It will not cause fungal problems as it might somewhere where it is humid.

I think your plants look lovely - keep asking questions on here, and enjoy them!

Jackie