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Rugosa yellowing and losing leaves

14 years ago

I have a Rugosa, Hansa and an Alba. Last year the Rugosa started yellowing so I put in some chelating iron (I live in the Midwest with a highly alkaline soil), and it recovered in spring. Again during mid-late summer, it started dropping leaves and having yellow leaves. The hansa also now shows the same symptons, though in the case of the hansa there is a lot of blackspot too. So far the alba has not shown any problems.

Any suggestions on how to cure the problem? The spring blooms were awesome with frangrance upto 100 yards. I really dont want to lose these roses!

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Comments (8)

ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
14 years ago
It's possible that in your zone the rugosas are already preparing for fall and winter by their leaves turning yellow and then ultimately dropping. I have two rugosa hybrids and don't care for the fact that they go through the winter with bare canes when most roses in my location stay pretty well evergreen. For your area they seem like the ideal rose, though.

Ingrid
serenasyh
14 years ago
ooo, please any photos of your lovely and very fragrant rugosa? I so rarely get to see rugosas here at this forum. Any great memory photos that I can ooo and ahhh over? What variety of rugosa is it? It's such a shame that people know very little about rugosas. I'm too much of a newbie and so wanted to see a lovely rugosa.
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Actually, if your water is alkaline, it may not be an easy fix at all. Most of the northeast outside of major cities gets its water from wells. The pH of well water is determined by the pH of the soil the water is sitting in. So if your water is alkaline, there is a good chance your soil is also. Rugosas do not like that. They aren't as picky as multifloras, but definitely have a strong preference for acidic soil. It is something to keep in your head going forward. When we moved here from Philadelphia, learning a new zone was nothing compared to adjusting to a much higher pH. Rifis, how much rain did you get in August? More or less than 10 inches? Edited: watering a half gallon at a time falls in the category of 'sprinkling', and isn't a good idea. If you are going to water, let the ground dry out, then put down a good supply. That would be three to five gallons for a small rose.
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york_rose
14 years ago
I'm with ingrid_vc.

Could you post some photos of the yellowing leaves? At this time of year here north of Boston the trees are in the very early stages of the leaves coloring for autumn, and rugosa leaves usually color in the autumn before falling off. (There are LOTS of rugosas here because they grow wild along the ocean beaches. The leaves usually turn bright yellow before falling off.)
predfern
14 years ago
I have Hansa and it gets a lot of "blackspot", "leafspot" or "leaf necrosis" in the fall. It seems that I have more blackspot on my rugosas than on my Austins.
Snow Pavement got yellow leaves and finally died. Its last location has proven to be a difficult place to grow roses as it remains damper than the rest of the raised bed. If your rugosas die, try planting new ones in a different location. I wouldn't try moving them now as it will probably kill them. Blanc Double de Coubert did not survive the move. They seem to have some kind of taproot. Pierette Pavement is doing well as is Foxy Pavement.
lucretia1
14 years ago
Here are a couple photos from my rugosas coloring up for fall last year. I believe the yellow one is Rugosa Alba, and the other is either Hansa or Fru Dagmar H.

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{{gwi:326051}}

They get their wonderful hips, color up, and then go nekkid until spring. Seems to be pretty normal behavior.
serenasyh
14 years ago
Very pretty Lucretia with gorgeous berries and fall foliage! I want photos of beautiful Rugosa bloooooms too! sorry everyone for hijacking this thread, but I love fragrant roses and want to see as much of the rarely seen rugosas as much as possible.
lilgreenfrog
14 years ago
Just wanted to say thanks for the info on this thread; I just planted Hansa, and would have been worried seeing his leaves do that. Good to know they color! I fell in love with this rose this spring; one of the community gardeners has it, and before the other roses had buds, it had gorgeous huge flowers; looked like a cammelia from a distance!

Lara
lucretia1
14 years ago
serenasyh,

Here's a photo from today. If you look at the lower left side of the image, you can see the leaves starting to turn yellow for the fall, so it's not a total hijack ;-)

{{gwi:326053}}

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