Susan,

If it makes any difference, know that you are not alone.

I returned from a month's stay in NC to a yard filled with rose bushes without a leaf on them. To add injury to insult the little growth here and there was badly thrip damaged. Now I must claim chemical jihad on my yard which is never easy or very safe. My advice to you is to spray until the bugs and BS are at bay until the fall when things begin to settle down a bit.

Not to contradict you or myself, but up in NC where I was staying I tried planting a few Yellow KO that were on sale at the local Wally-World and found growing roses up north were far form free of problems. The day after I planted the little darlings I went out to find almost every leaf gone, victims of dear and rabbits. When I reestablied the plant again I found myself dealing with heavy BS and insects that were eating away at the leaves faster than the deer and rabbits.

I guess the crux of my rant here is that no place is and easy place to grow roses. Someone once told me that our (SF) summers were the equivalent to the north's winters. I guess this would be the best analogy to fit our predicaments.

Don't give up the fight. Think on happiers days when your roses pushed out dozens of basal breaks and were drenched in fragrant flowers, then bring on the chemical nukes and give those bugs heck ;-)

Good luck,

Adrian.

Hybrid tea and most floribunda roses are hard to grow everywhere but California. I've gardened in Florida, and it's not particularly bad. You don't have freeze damage or severe heat ("heat index" doesn't apply to plants-- humidity makes them more comfortable). You don't have the terrible pests JBs and rose midge, or rosette disease. This is not to say roses are easy there. Of course they're not.

Most gardeners expect smaller flowers in the summer heat. That's temporary.

It sounds like you need to do something about the weevils, probably add an insecticide to the fungicide spray for part of the year. Call the county ag extension service for a recommendation. Two possible controls are spinosad and cyfluthrin, which are used against at least some weevils. Spinosad is one of the safest insecticides and is considered organic. Cyfluthrin at least is not carcinogenic or mutagenic according to animal tests. Neither of these should cause spider-mite outbreaks as Sevin and Merit will do. Bayer markets a cyfluthrin-only spray concentrate. Spinosad is sold under many brand names-- you have to read labels. Keep away from bodies of water and don't spray into open flowers. These two chemicals are also recommended for chilli thrips, if those come to your neighborhood

Take heart, I'm sure you'll be successful.

It's not you. I tried roses off and on for more than 20 years in Florida--gave up entirely. It was too much work with the constant spraying when other plants did so much better with less effort. That said, I had mostly tried modern roses. It seems like Margo Koster, a polyantha, did just fine. If I still lived there, I'd try some of the old Tea roses (or some of the other heirlooms) a try, rather than going with the modern hybrids you'll find at the local nursery. You should be able to find an heirloom rose society that can point you in the direction of roses that will do well for you and not be such a pain in the tuchas to grow.

Or you can do what I did--move to the Pacific Northwest. The weather's easier, the bugs are easier, and you can just about throw a stick on the ground and it grows. ;-)

Hi SusanP,

Gardening roses in Florida is not difficult. The best rose to get would be the "knockout" roses, they are extremely tolerant to heat and love to be placed up against brick for the added heat brick gives off.

Years ago I went to an ARS Fall National Convention and Rose Show in Orlando. I asked the same questions of the exhibitors who had beautiful roses. Most of them let their roses go during the hot summer, then prune and get them ready for a fall and early winter bloom. All grew their roses on Fortuniana root stock and some of them were over 10 feet tall(the rose bushes not the exhibitors). Fortuniana budded roses produce some really big blooms and thick canes. They had two rose seasons, late winter/spring and fall/early winter They did not have a summer bloom unless the temps were unusually cool.
They sprayed regularly for insects and fungus and used good effective fungicides, not found at WalMart or other big box stores. Exhibition blooms were protected with special insect blocking netting. They fertilized a lot and often, and kept the soil in their roses beds cultivated and loose.
We toured the Disney and the Harry P. Leu gardens and even their roses looked great even though they weren't on Fortuniana.
If you are prepared to get down and dirty with spraying and late summer pruning and you have the right root stock you can have great roses in Florida.
At the time I frequented an own root rose supplier outside Sarasota who also had great roses but he constantly sprayed his roses too. He was located in an old cow pasture and could make plastic roses grow.

Hi there-I am just getting started w/ roses the past couple of years. I am here in FL and here is what I learned and can tell you.

Blackspot is a HUGE problem. I started a spray routine once a week w/ Bayer on the roses that have a problem with it. There is no way around it but it is SO worth it!

If you hate to spray than I can recommend a rose that is wonderful. "Don Juan" climbing rose does awesome for me and I don't have to spray it. It is absolutely beautiful and has tons of blooms and buds coming all the time. I just fertilize it once a month. It was recommended in one of my gardening books as the #1 rose for Florida. It might get a tiny bit of BS here and there but not bad at all, I just picked off the leaves and it was fine.

And if you don't want to do anything at all, than I recommend the knockouts. I have a double pink hedge in the backyard that I do not water or do anything to that is in constant bloom.

Roses can be grown and it is sometimes hard but I guess it just depends on how much time you have/want to put into it...

Thank you all for your wonderful comments and suggestions. I have several double knock outs that look sickly. I do spray for bs. and fertilize and use a insecticide but I think I am going to take Karls suggestion and prune them all this weekend. The blooms are very tiny the leaves are looking like swiss cheese and by the way they are all on fortunia rootstock.The plants are less than 6 mos old if that matters which i think it does.thanks again.. Susan

Karl, in a relatively hot Central Florida location, we had good flowering all summer. What you may have learned at the convention is that hard-core exhibitors don't care much what happens outside of the run-up to the show season. During summer in Susan's SW Florida, the average high is only 91 degrees with two inches of rain per average week. These are not harsh conditions for roses.

Susan,

Are you watering often enough? If you have porous soil (sand/shell), roses can use water every 3 rainless days in summer, especially new roses from pots. Or if you have muck or marl soil, there may be a high water table during summer that calls for raising the beds. In that case, you need to dig a hole and be sure at least the upper 12" is draining. The water table normally peaks in September.

Susan,

It can get discouraging at times but don't give up. I lost about 50 mature shrubs to the hurricanes about 6 years age. Then a year or so later, the remaining 120 bushes were demolished with Chili Thrips before I figured out what it was. But now I can recognize Chili Thrip damage and stop them before they get too far, and my rose garden of 150+ bushes is flourishing again. There are a couple of things that I have found in my 26 years of growing roses in FL that may be beneficial to you.

1. You probably know this but, start with roses on fortuniana rootstock. Some grow on their own roots but the best bet is fortuniana. FYI, I am going against my own advice and trying a few varieties own root lately.

2. Just because a rose is on fortuniana does not mean that it will thrive. Some roses simply do not like the heat and humidity even if they are on fortuniana while others thrive and continue to flourish through the summer.

3. While some varieties get established immediately and will be 7 feet at the end of the first year (like Brides Dream), other take a few years to get established and bloom quality and production improves with time (Pristine was this way for me). I give any rose on fortuniana three years

4. When first planted, water every day for a few weeks. Also, hold back on the high nitrogen fertilizer until the root system is established. On established plants, I use a combination of slow release organic and synthetic fertilizer once every 10-12 weeks. Sometimes if the established roses need a boost, I occasionally use a high quality liquid that I get special order from my local nursery. Once the roses are established, you can push the bloom cycle but not before.

5. For moderns, you have to spray every 2 weeks for fungus. I use Bayer Disease Control (not the combo product)

6. For established roses, water as needed (usually 2-3 time per week in the summer) and be sure to water beyond the drip line to encourage those shallow fortuniana roots to spread out. Some people swear by drip irrigation but I water from above in the early morning.

7. I only spray insecticides for Chili Thrips. Learn to recognize the damage and be prepared to spray for them if necessary.

8. Add organic matter and mulch if available. I am probably the only person left in my neighborhood who bags their grass because I like to let it dry out and spread around the roses.

So in summary, water beyond the drip line in the morning, spray for fungus every two weeks and fertilize every 10-12 weeks. Growing roses in Fl can be very rewarding. We have a long growing season and no Japanese Beetles/

Roses that I have found which continue to bloom through the summer are Elina, Kentucky Derby, Brides Dream, Tournamnet of Roses, Belindas Dream, Heritage, Sunset Celebration, Pristine, Perfume Delight, Flo Nelson, Carefree Wonder, Iceberg, Moonstone, Midas Touch, Tropicanna. I'm sure there are others that I can't remember right now.

Good...

Thank you Michael and Glenn for you quick and informative reply. Michael My roses at least 5 of them are in pots and I use potting soil. the other two are planted in the ground with a mixture of topsoil and native soil all are mulched and if no rain I water everyday especially in Hot weather. GLENN thanks so much for your info I have Tropicana , Fragrant Cloud , Cinco de Mayo and 2 double knock outs 1 yabadabadoo, and one no name rose as I call it.they are all on Fortununia rootstock and I water frequently. ITS THE BUGS and sprays that are burning my leaves and causing holes in leaves. Glenn when do you spray for BS (time of day) and do you have those terrible leaf notch weevils? They eat the leaves then lay eggs in the soil and when hatched eat the rose roots.

can it be that you spray in the wrong time of the day? If you do it during the day, sparying burns leaves. You should spray very late in the evening or very early in the morning.

As others here have already told you, your climate could be difficult for some roses, or for many roses, but fine for others. I do not make names as I have no idea how it really is in florida, but I know that there are roses that love to grow on the alps in the snow, and other roses that love to grow in sicily. The word "rose" is just a broad overall concept for a very diversified world.

Stat rosa pristina nomine; nomina nuda tenemus