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'FAIRY' rose buds blasting

14 years ago

I have have had complete bud blast on 1 out of 5 rose bushes/plants, of the cultivar named 'The Fairy'. This has occured two years in a row on a plant that has only been in the ground two years. The flower buds dry up and do not open or show color. The remaining four plants of the same variety, situated in the same flower border, have bloomed well with repeat bloom as expected. Thanks for any thoughts on the cause & remedy for this problem?

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Comments (5)

zack_lau z6 CT ARS Consulting Rosarian
14 years ago
I'd guess that something is compromising the root system of that plant. In our area, that would be tree roots or rocks. Our roses grow much better when we clear away the tree roots and rocks completely from the rose, and don't expect it to share its space with anything. A reciprocating saw or saws-all works great at removing tree roots. Fortunately, the rocks in our yard are relatively small--perhaps no more than 8 inches across, so I've been able to dig them out. Might also be voles--there are a few cats that visit our yard and prevent them from becoming a serious problem
mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
14 years ago
Did they all come from the same source? Years ago, there was some discussion of extremely inferior clones of The Fairy. Some bloomed as a malformed single, some set buds but didn't bloom. I don't remember any conclusion about what caused it, but the remedy was to remove the rose and try a different one.

In this particular case, I'd recommend layering a cane from one of the other Fairies. Depending on how they were planted, this may have already happened, since The Fairy likes to move around a bit. When the cane has grown some roots, the bad one can be removed, and replaced with the newly propagated one.
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At 20 o F, you have nothing to worry about. My experience is that roses aren't damaged by cold until temps drop below 15 o F, and even that's often ok if they're hardened off and it's brief. My Maria Shriver still has live leaves on her, even though every other rose has dropped the leaves that got freeze-dried in a November freeze (15 o F). Most modern garden roses would rather be evergreen and are not deciduous by nature. They just drop leaves because we plant them in places too cold for them to stay truly evergreen. We pile insulating material around the crowns of roses here since we never have any snow cover to speak of. Wood shavings, leaves, compost. But you won't need it if it's only going as low as 20 o F. If you had snow at xmas then your roses have been exposed to cold and should be hardened off. English oaks as a rule keep their dead leaves hanging on all winter. Most other deciduous oaks drop their leaves as wind and rain force them off.
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Pinching off the buds seems to matter more for those of us in cold zones, since we need more than anything to have a strong root system established before winter. Second to that is a strong cane or two, and blooms are not necessary in the first year except to establish that you have the right rose. People in warmer zones don't necessarily have to pinch off buds since they have a much longer growing season and a less harsh winter, unless they want to pinch buds to build strength to survive the hot periods. In zone 6, it will help your roses build strong roots if you pinch off the buds, but for stronger cultivars well suited to your zone it may not matter as much. Basically my philosophy has become to pinch off buds of anything that looks weak or is less than knee high with several branches, even if it's a year or two old. I can stand to do that because I have a lot of roses. Once the rose wants to bloom faster than I can pinch off the blooms (like Southern Peach or most of the Easy Elegance roses this year), I don't bother pinching and figure it's already strong enough. Bottom line is it's not necessary but it can make a difference in relatively marginal or small roses in your climate. Cynthia
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Hi Dale, Well from one "southern gal" to one "northern gal" I have always pruned mine back after the first flush and it has always put out new buds all over the bush but just not as "explosive" as the spring flush. I know some people don't prune as hard as I do but they always do just fine and yes mine will develope new buds but I guess the heat slows all of them down a bit. Not a rose expert at all mind you but I know what works for me. I have alot of daylilies also and now is their time to shine since all of my roses have recently gotten a very good pruning back. It does take them a little longer to rebloom I guess but the bushes just look so much better. But you know I have a much longer growing season so you might not want to prune back as much as I do. I hope someone much more knowledgeable than me (which wouldn't take much, ha ha) chimes in from your zone. Mine has always bloomed from the center canes too so I don't know why yours isn't. Strange though, huh!! I do love the little clusters of flowers don't you?? Good luck and I hope someone gives you some good advice. Take care, Judy
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Patty- I know. So many rave about her so I'm disappointed that this is def. not FF. I checked your reference picture. She is so charming. Hopefully Pat will have a couple left for me. I've read FFT stays smallish so great for the narrow borders I have. Chris-Pat got back to me already- she thinks it's not Golden Fairy Tale either but might be Sunny Sky. I have Sunny Sky so i can compare the leaves to see if they look similar. If not I definitely got a couple of yellow "mystery" roses. The bloom has no fragrance but I know they often don't on baby plants so that's not indicative that it's not GFT. I have GFT but it's had a rough winter. The leaves don't look like these at all but it could be due to the stress unless what I think is GFT was not labeled correctly since it never bloomed last year so I can't be sure. hmmm... Sharon
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petaloid
14 years ago
You say that they are all in the same flower border. By their position in the row, do they all get about the same air circulation, sunlight and drainage?

Does it look like botritis blight that is keeping the buds from opening, with browning of the petals?
michaelg
14 years ago
What Mad_Gallica said.

My Fairies abort some buds each year, but if it is happening systematically on one plant, it could be a bad clone-- perhaps a harmful mutation occurred.
scardan123
14 years ago
If that one rose was not born ill/weak, could it be that there is simply one rose too much? Can crowding be the answer? (root competition, and so on)

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