It took me a long time to find out which roses worked for me, in an admittedly difficult environment, and then a rose that worked well for some years, like Burgundy Iceberg, suddenly decided to have blackspot and pass it on. I wish I could start over again with a clean slate and with the knowledge I have now. With roses being taken out or moved, I've often been left with spots to put new roses that are too close to other roses or not right for that particular rose, and glaringly empty spots. The whole thing strikes me as a hodgebodge which is further removed from my dream garden than ever. I hope that with six new roses to plant soon I can try to alleviate some of these defects. The bottom line is - roses are indispensable to me but they're not easy. Ingrid

"I've also given it some All purpose plant food." Bad idea. Never fertilize a plant that has recently been transplanted, it only shocks the plant further. In fact, I'd stop using all chemicals until next Spring and allow the plant to establish roots with nothing but lots of water to assist it.

There are a number of possibilities. It is a matter of narrowing down and eliminating as many as possible. It either happened from an above ground problem or a below ground problem. Below ground: What I would do is dig them up and examine the root systems. Dried out? Rotted? Does the soil where it was have a sour stink? Are there massive tree roots in the same area that are competing and robbing the roses of water and nutrients? Root or crown galll? Did the irrigation clog and the roses died for lack of water that went unnoticed? And so on. Above ground: signs of a disease like downy mildew or canker? Did a neighbor spray an herbicide? Photos might help.

Hi Ellen - was that your rose in the 'how to post' thread? If so, I've got some answers. It does indeed look like a hybrid tea to me - it might be a climbing variety but I'd need some more pix of the overall plant to tell. So, the pruning isn't the problem. From the looks of it, the pruning might have been a little too severe, but again, I would need to see the overall pictures. Too severe pruning on a hybrid tea is only a temporary setback and not anything to really worry about anyway. You are losing foliage because you've got blackspot. There are a number of treatments, depending on your degree of organicness. An inorganic solution that gets a lot of praise in the rose forum is Bayer 3 in 1. A more organic solution the Cornell Formula (google for exact proportions), but it's basically baking soda, dish soap, a little horticultural oil, and water. My personal solution is to pull off any leaves showing markings, and do a foliar drench of diluted fish emulsion. Anyway, there's a lot of solutions to blackspot and you can find one that works for you. Secondly - that floppy growth isn't really anything to be concerned about. It may be a result of the blackspot, or it could just be part of this plant's habit. Anyway, twiggy growth like that can be cut out. It will never get thick and strong. Thirdly, you have some dead stubs going on there. This may be the result of your pruning (too far from the bud) but sometimes roses will just die down to a lower bud than the one you chose. Cut out any dead wood. Fourthly, fertilize. You can promote basal breaks (big strong canes from the graft) with epsom salts. Scratch a tablespoon into the soil around the rose. Another break promoter is alfalfa tea. You can do a search on the rose forum for the many, many, discussions of it, but it's basically just alfalfa pellets or meal fermented in water. The good news is, it isn't declining, it's just being a typical hybrid tea rose.