Here's my experience. I was a container gardener for a long time because I knew I wouldn't be staying in the house I owned at the time. When we moved last year, I made a raised bed & filled it with perennials and a few potted annuals. It was mulched with rock. I didn't amend the soil, and it didn't have the proper mulch. Here's what it looked like:
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I lost every single plant in that bed. It faced south, it had good drainage, and soil in Illinois is fertile, right? Well, I missed a few key steps. I didn't dig the holes the right way. I dug them the size & shape of the pot, because that's how I was used to planting in containers. My mulch did not keep the roots cool. Instead, it reflected all of the intense sunlight right at the base of the plants. In addition, the mulch wasn't "fluffy" and whenever I stepped on it, it compacted the ground & squashed my roots.

I changed everything this year & planted roses where the hot mess was. Here it is this year, with better mulch, better planting technique, and after getting an accurate soil pH reading:
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Way, way better results. Simple changes, but what a difference!
---Laura

Looks good, flaurabunda!

mutigers, try some extra water and see what happens. Poke around with your fingers and see how damp it is in the area. Some extra water probably won't hurt, and it might help a lot.

These are potted roses. They also have yellowish leave with some having holes in them. Although I did notice yesterday I have 2 blooms out of the 5 plants and those leaves are purple and healthy-looking. I don't water them everyday, I guess I'm nervous about them getting mold. Laura- maybe you have an idea about the mulch. I have very dark mulch and maybe it's too much sun absorption and I'm just frying them. I really can't remember if I dug the holes big enough or not. Would it be a possibility to dig them out and re-dig or would tht just make them worse and possibly kill them? Also, Laura, how did you post pictures on here?

E-mail me and I'll send you instructions on posting pictures.

Okay, where are the Missourians....I'm going to guess that you're at least mildly similar in climate to where I'm at...depends on whether you're up closer to Iowa or down in the Ozarks.

Water won't cause mold on your roses, so water those babies! Sounds like you may also have blackspot; do the yellowish leaves have black fuzzy blotches that turn into holes? Make sure you search around on here & look up some good photographic examples of blackspot. There are solutions for everything, once you identify the problem.

I don't think the color of your mulch is nearly as much of a concern as its composition & consistency. You don't really want anything that is so smashed & compacted that your water splashes back up onto the bottom leaves of your bushes. That was another of my problems with the river rock.

One other thing I just noticed----if they are planted on a south wall behind boxwoods, how far behind? Like ten feet from the boxwoods, or 2 feet? It the boxwoods are too close & the roses aren't getting enough sun, that would explain a majority of what you're seeing.

And I don't water everyday---just a lot of water about every 3rd day, and it gets delivered slowly so that it all soaks in, instead of running off of the sloped bed.

You mentioned that yours are potted roses. Does this mean that you bought them in pots and transplanted them? or are they still in their pots?

Thirty miles from the Missouri line, so I assume my Kansas experience might be somewhat relevant.

During July and August, it is so da**ed hot here that garden chores consist mostly of watering--desperately trying to keep up. By August, I just worry about the roses surviving--thriving isn't even an issue--until it cools down. Water, water, water! They will start growing again as the hot summer winds down.

For now, anything that manages to bloom (and most of them have gone semi-dormant in this heat), it is guaranteed to turn crispy brown around the edges--usually in one afternoon of hot sun.

Kate

flaurabunda
Black fuzzy blotches that turn into holes are leaf anthracnose, not blackspot.
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Here's blackspot
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and here's both on the same leaf.
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Have you been cutting away the dead canes every spring? Dead wood will prevent new canes from growing.

I am from St. Louis and have 3 thriving KO's. Do you mean your roses are not getting taller or are not blooming. The KO I planted last spring is tall and I want to cut it back next spring because I like the smaller rose bushes. The one's I planted last fall are blooming like crazy but for some reason did not have a growth sprout like my first rose bush (they remain about 1 feet tall). I wonder if it is the heat this year affecting the bushes getting taller (for me this is no problem)? My first KO was that was planted last spring had grown tall by the fall of the same year. It was cooler however last year.

Meh, my bad, Karl. I need to self-edit a little better.

Your bottom picture looks like my efforts 3 years ago. You name it, I had it.
---Laura

I'm still trying to figure out if the roses in question are in the ground or growing in containers at the present time?

Thank you everyone for your help-Sorry about not responding, I've been out of town for the past week.
Jim1961- they were potted roses that I transplanted into the ground in May.
Valtorrez- they are not getting bigger and not blooming. Actually, the past couple weeks almost all of them have been getting blooms on them, but we've also had a little cooler weather here lately. I've also been watering them more based on the advice here, so that may have made a difference.
flaurabunda- they are planted behind the boxwoods, about 2 feet. I've looked throughout the day and they get the sun, the boxwoods are big enough to block the sun. When I figure out how to get pictures up, I'll post some pictures of them.

Here are some pictures of my roses in September 2009. At the time, these roses were 3 years old. I dug up these roses and planted new ones this past May. I will take pictures of my new roses and post them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roses