jerijen I'm just saying that soil & water pH may not be the problem, it might be the type of rugosa that she has. I was commenting about the heat only because of what you said you had experienced recently. I love many things about KS, but the heat plus humidity in summer is not one of them. Not having to use A/C sounds wonderful. I think michaelg is right. Get rid of the plant. There are others (other rugosa hybrids or other types of roses) that should do much better for her. Wal-Mart isn't the best of places to get roses. As you found out bug_girl deals are not necessarily all they're cracked up to be. So what kind of rugosa did you buy or did it just say 'Rugosa' and you don't really know exactly what it is? We're all here trying to help. Spraying it might not be doing it any good either. Rugosa don't do well with spraying. Shovel pruning the rose is a good suggestion. I'd listen especially to the advice given by those who live in CA.

I have these established rugosas listed by my most favorite for hips, rebloom and hardiness at the top and on down: Magnifica (my best rugosa for rebloom and hips) Fru Dagmar Hastrup (second best, but a close second!) Belle Poitevine (right in there with the top two) Marie Bugnet (love this little rose - unfortunately the stem girdlers do too and rarely leave poor Marie with more than one or two canes.) Martin Frobisher (gotta love a rose that sets such pretty blooms over the whole season yet asks for nothing at all) Mrs. Doreen Pike (if only she'd let go of her spent petals, she'd be a perfect little rose. Love the pink blooms against the apple green foliage.) Carmen (when she's in her spring flush she is awesome! Very little re-bloom the rest of the year.) R.rugosa rubra (I like this rose, but it won't stay home. Suckers badly in every direction!) Therese Bugnet (Not much rebloom from Therese and just like her sister, a regular victim of stem girdlers.) Sweet Cecilia (a bit too tender for my zone; it's hanging on but just barely. Pretty white blooms.) Fimbriata (not too impressive in bloom, ho-hum out of bloom which is usually. Canes only half hardy up here.) Dr. Eckner (definitely longs for a warmer zone, has severe die back and awkward growth thereafter with few blooms that blow in a heartbeat. Needs to be shovel pruned except that it takes up so little space it's easy to ignore!) ** Agnes (I just bought her this year so I haven't ranked her yet - but being a once bloomer doesn't bother me as long as I get *lots* of yellow blooms when she *does* bloom!) The less "rugose" they are by hybridization, the less hardy they are for me plus all of my rugosas are prone to stem girdler which can be most frustrating. As far as blackspot or powdery mildew, I don't think any of them with the exception of Dr. Eckner (which hardly even looks related to rugosas at all) are affected. If it weren't for the stem girdler problem, they'd be pretty care free. They rarely even get fertilized or watered or deadheaded.

Fru Dagmar Hastrup is one of my favorite roses. Ours has blackspot-free emerald-green foliage, abundant clove-scented flowers, and hips in the fall. The FruÂs first flush of bloom looks like the bush is covered with a flock of light pink butterflies. In six years, ours grew to about three feet tall by four feet wide. Brookside Gardens has a good display of rugosas, including Fru Dagmar, in their fragrance garden. We planted Fru Dagmar with Purple Pavement (Rotes Meer), another wonderful rugosa hybrid with double flowers, deep pink and fragrant. I donÂt recall whether it produced hips or not. Other healthy roses that we have grown include Roseraie de lÂHay, a taller rugosa hybrid with fragrant, double purple flowers, DarlowÂs Enigma, a vigorous shrub rose with abundant small white flowers and a wafting fragrance, and Marie Pavie, a small polyantha with very fragrant, abundant white double flowers. Unless you are extremely lucky, roses in the mid-Atlantic will attract Japanese beetles. Alfie gave excellent advice about removing the blooms during Japanese beetle season if/when you have a problem. The beauty of rugosas is that they look like full, healthy bushes during the growing season. Most other roses will blackspot and look lousy for most of the summer in our climate. The link below lists lots of other rugosa roses. Good luck -- Bruce Here is a link that might be useful: Spring Valley Roses

Yes indeed serenasyh I am very aware that things will get ugly befor they get beutifull a four by four is very important and I prefferance four feet down a make sure of any type of root being removed all that dirt comes out and gets reused I wont need a nice lawn this winter so yeah it too if in the way my grass grows like weeds here like weeds here only it makes better compost. The Guara is the first thing coming out ( off to the butterfly garden it goes) ditto to the summer phlox and a small shift of at least one of two minis. Mr Linclon will be set in the equivalent of a pillow top bed if it was a human. A ready compost heap and the basic mixings are all set for next weekend to conduct a site pre prep, after a spring soil test of PH and NPK and a very ready predug water checked hole Mr Lincoln will be moved to his new hom it'll be dug in the same manner as the site prep over a two day period covering the rootball area with hay untill the second day to expose his roots they'll be trimed if needed and then replanted. I am going to work it slow for 6 weeks and step it up as it shows it's growth. A bit of honesty I don't have any bussiness pushing it at all ( yeah it's that bad ) Armed and ready as you suggested and I am looking foward to good results Ill get a pic of how he sits today and when Mr Lincoln does his happy dance I'll post the befor and after pics Even if he only gets two feet more in height and maybe a couple new canes I'll be very happy Only two last problems ( nothing you suggest will help me here) One: I will have to find a new home for the bench folks. Two: one of two minis or both will also get shifted, the Mrs isn't going to be to happy about this but zero competition is zero competition