Bumping this up before I cut anything.

I think cutting it off would be best but would defer to a more expert opinion.

I can't say if it would be better for the rose if you were to cut it back, but I wonder if it might be a good idea to leave it as is at least until you can hunt down the yard crew to show them what happened to your plant. Sometimes showing is more effective than telling...

Good luck,

Virginia

Do you know for sure that this is Roundup? I could see that it may be some sort of spray damage, quite possibly a herbicide, but it looks odd for Roundup. The next growth flush will tell you for sure -- if Roundup, the new growth will have weird, ribbon-like leaves and stunted growth. If it is not Roundup, and if what they are using is strictly a contact herbicide (Finale, Diquat, or similar), the prognosis for your rose is far better, in that the material won't have moved throughout your plant.

How maddening! I would definitely make them aware of the damage they are doing, It certainly isn't effective on the grass right beside the bed so why spray it? I am in the camp of why spray most things anyway but what they are using is not even doing the job for which it is intended.

Thanks everyone.

Malcolm Manners: I just assumed it was Roundup, but I do NOT know this for certain. My son has seen them spraying all the edges of the park with something, but we do not know what kind of junk they use. They literally spray the stuff against that scalloped brick edge on the park side, about one foot from my roses.

This morning ended with nothing but frustration and a laugh. (What else could I do?) It seems that I will have to address my concerns to the HOA itself, instead of the maintanance crew. I raced outside today when I heard the mower behind my backyard. ( The park is adjacent to 2 sides of my property, side and rear, in an L shape.) I approached the smiling man on the mower, and realized we were going to have a problem as soon as I asked him if he would mind me showing him something. Me no Spanish. He no English. With gestures, I was able to get him to come look at my roses, but that's about it. He did know a few English words, but I've got ZERO Spanish. He seemed to see and understand that my roses looked bad but my little game of "charades", including spraying actions from the park side, didn't get my point across. He did manage to say (in broken English), " No, YOU Rosas, No park Rosas." It was rather funny, and we both had a good-natured laugh about it. Nothing was really accomplished today. I already knew they were my roses and not part of the park. For some reason he skipped mowing the whole park entrance today, after our little "talk". I don't know if he thought that's what I wanted or maybe he didn't want to risk playing any more charades with me:)

So that's as far as things have gone today. More upsetting is realizing that the 2 full-grown roses that died there last summer, were most likely spray victims as well. I was away for 7 weeks and left my sons in charge of watering. I returned to find 2 of my 4 full-grown roses in that same bed, totally dead. I mean totally. The boys said they watered, but I figured they missed those 2 bushes. I was not there to see them decline so I figured the heat and lack of water did it. Now I wonder if the park spraying did it, or at least contributed to their sudden demise.

Thanks all, I will keep at it! Lisa

I wonder if they are spraying insecticide or something like they do in areas with large mosquite populations, something foreign on the leaves could cause them to crisp in the sun.

Why don't you try putting up a couple of bilingual warning signs?

Personally, I would plant something else there. You are fighting a losing battle.

No more space! HUGE pot ghetto:)

Nik, not sure it would be left alone. Although the park is officially closed at 10pm, the younger generation find it a good place to do something after dark. I had purchased a really cute sign with the figure of a hunched over dog doing its business and a red line through it. ( That's another issue. People let their dogs "go" on my roses, often not even picking up the stuff if no one is watching.) Anyway the sign was gone overnight.

WATER!!! No matter what kind of spray was used the more water you can put on this bed the better. You want to dissipate the spray as much and as quickly as you can. Yes, I would cut off any damaged parts. Is there any way you can put some type of shield either on the fence or around the bed? Any type of barrier that would deflect the spray away from the bed would help. A tarp or even a one of those cardboard science project back drops would help deflect the spray off the roses. And if you see them out there spraying get out the hose and start spraying them off right away. If BS is a problem for you it might pop up from the water spraying on the leaves but at least it won't kill the plant.

I have a bed on the street too and people do let their dogs do their business on my roses. I just don't get it. It would never occur to me to let my pet pee on other people's gardens!!!! There is no respect of anything anymore.

My neighbor is a good guy, but their dog and kids are always all over the place and the bikes, scooters, balls and other stuff are too. The space between us used to be a patch of trees, but that was taken out when the county dug up my yard. Now I have a nice new rose bed there. I hope they don't destroy it. I can put up with a pile of dog poop once in awhile. Sigh. Good fences make good neighbors!

Yes, it's frustrating isn't it? When we bought the house I was happy to have the park on one side and in back. The houses are very close together. Now I'm not so sure. It seems I've traded one side neighboring house for a whole neighborhood of people, dogs, and kids. Plus the spraying.