Just cut one little piece off right now as long as your little finger, and see what you can see. Wait a while to cut a lot, because you might get a freeze sometime soon and you don't want to stimulate the formation of tender new growth that will get killed by a frost or freeze. Rust are you talking the powdery rust disease? It sounds like you are talking about the whole plant. If the whole plant is a rust color, rather than just some fungal rust disease on the leaves--when the whole plant is a rust color, that sounds like a dead plant. If something did eat the root system of one plant and not others, perhaps it got interrupted by a predator, or moved on to another area. If other plants in the area are not affected, it does not seem likely that the root system is gone, but it IS one thing you can quickly and easily check, that's why I mentioned it.

My Jude is six years old and was purchased from Austin, so he is on Dr. Huey rootstock. After a slow start, at about age four, Jude really took off. He is a big bloomer and a monster, right next to another monster, Brother Cadfael. I prune all my Austins quite hard and they seem to like it. They are fertilized the same, too. Perhaps, Jude would bloom more for you if grafted on Dr. Huey rootstock. I have alkaline soil, but I'm sure your soil is more acid, so multiflora should theoretically do well in your area. But maybe a switch to Dr. Huey would help. I don't think heavy pruning is the culprit--just my opinion, though. Diane

Diane, I wondered the same about whether she planted Lauren's Grape seeds or a plant. I think a plant, since she said "a Lauren's Grape". I bought seeds of both Lauren's Grape and Hungarian Blue poppies this summer, and was planning on doing an experiment with planting some on Nov. 1, Dec. 1, etc., but I have fallen behind! Our climate is so mild that any of those might work. I got them because a local friend saw a Hungarian Blue in bloom outside of a business in March or April of last year. I need to check to see if my friend has planted any of hers yet :-D

The lack of rebloom has been going on for about 4 years, the plant is prob. 8 years old. I always kept thinking - Didn't this plant bloom more??!! Maybe the weather had something to do w/ it, but I'm a very faithful waterer and don't believe the plant ever lacked for moisture. I tried so many approachers to encouraging rebloom, organics, alfalfa tea (ugh), miracle grow, rose tone, hard pruning, no pruning, and the results were always the same: no rebloom save for 1 or 2 blooms. The change has been so marked I'm leaning toward the spray/midge. I'd love for others who have had trouble w/ rebloom to see if the spray helps them - their results would be interesting.