A little more info would help: What have your temperatures been like the past 2 weeks? What did you plant them in? Native soil? A mix of native and amendment? Pure amendment? Did you fertilize them heavily at planting? Is it just leaf-dropping, or are they also wilting? Any freshly disturbed soil in the area (gophers)? If the roses were greenhouse grown and not hardened off to outdoor temperatures they may be dropping some leaves to adjust. Twice a week may not be enough once you hit hot weather.

I'm also new to roses, so I may not be the best advisor, but I see no one has addressed this yet... however, when I planted a new rose, it lost most of its foliage and sulked with only 3 leaves for weeks - then suddenly burst into growth. This has been my experience with transplants generally, not just roses - they don't like being moved, and they take time to recover from root-shock. This is not the end of the world, just an adjustment period. Ideally, roots shoot be kept moist but not soaked, but when it rains a lot you don't have the choice! My only fertilizer so far has been homemade leaf-mulch weighed down with compost - this seems to make both the original pink floribunda and the new yellow HT happy. If your soil is reasonably rich, and/or you put mulch or compost in with your rose, you should be fine on fertilizer, at least to establish the roses. I wouldn't mess with the balance unless you know something needs to be done. It is possible to over-fertilize a particular compound and mess up already balanced soil, but I'm not experienced enough to say off the top of my head how much of what is dangerous. As to the fungus, I'd think pretty strongly about spraying with either the baking-soda solution or the vinegar solution discussed elsewhere in this forum for fungus control. With transplant-shocked plants, you're not going to really have the option of cutting back infected foliage. If that doesn't work and you're not dedicated to the idea of a no-spray garden, you can try something else at that point. Most of what I know about rose-growing, I know from the FAQ and searching out relevant threads, so, even if nobody else replies, I know from experience you -can- get information out of these forums with creative enough searching. ;) Hope this helps, and good luck! --Chris

Yeah that sounds like a good idea Sheila...I never thought of something like that? How do those work exactly? And Seil I didn't plant in cardboard as in 'packaging the Rose came in' I mean I had moving style boxes I broke down and then I wet them down really good to put under mulch along the slope to deter weeds. I made sure to leave about 5" or so around each plant bare with a little mulch. I did however leave the soil on it when I planted, I didn't try to make bareroot? You think that could've caused it? I just want to know how to save these ...also it rained last night...not sure how hard because it ended at least an hour or two before I woke up so when I stuck finger in soil down so deep that I had no finger left! It felt pretty moist all the way down...but idk how much rain feel so idk if that could happen from the rain we just had overnight? And today has been overcast with next to no sun all day..so sun wasn't out to dry it out.

Hi Brendan, how wonderful that you are getting into rose gardening! I hope it brings you as much joy as it has brought me over the years. I live across the country but will offer a few suggestions that might be helpful. My reply will also bump your post up the queue so that someone in NY or nearby will see your question. Unless your weather precludes it, I think moving the roses is fine. They've hardly settled in. I'd get as much soil around the roots as is feasible in order to only minimally disturb the them. Then I'd gently set the ball of soil /rose roots in a plastic pot or bucket while you dig your hole farther from the wall. Finally, I'd place the soil/rose in the new hole, planting it as you did before and watering it well. A few things to note: -Austins can grow much larger in the US than they do in England, so I'd make sure I researched ultimate sizes in NY to space your plants accordingly. Carding Mill, in my experience, can easily grow larger than Austin's listed dimensions. -I think that getting your shrub roses farther away from the concrete wall, even if they will grow toward the sun, is a good idea. Keeping some distance between the roses and wall will help prevent diseases by increasing air circulation and give your shrub roses the room they need to spread in a balanced way. -Your shrub roses will probably lean away from the wall a bit as they reach for light, and sturdy plant stakes might come in handy to help the canes remain upright. Wishing you all the best on your rose adventures! :-) Carol