What has your weather been like and how long have you had these roses. I have had years that my Roseraie de l'hay has done this. I'm thinking that it was in years of heavy rain. So if your weather has been dry that would help me also. Without more information it hard to say. Rugosa's detest being sprayed with anything but water. Even thou yours was a basically harmless spray. If your going to try any spray in the future just do one bush and see what happens.

Are all of the rugosa's having yellow buds or just one or two of them. My guess is that it's either been too wet for their liking or it was the spray. I'm assuming you have had these roses for a few years and this is the first time to see this damage.

Has your soil ph change at all? Either way mine always gets over the yellowing and keeps on going.

These bushes have been at this house for over 15 years--we just bought the house last month. We have been in a drought, and I never watered them to be honest with you, so it can't be that. We didn't have a wet spring, either.

This is happening to 4 of the bushes.

I need to get a soil pH tester, I have not done that yet.

Thanks for replying!!!

I'm guessing it's a mineral deficiency of some sort, probably iron, exacerbated by lack of rain. When I see the entire leaf going yellow, that's usually due to overwatering or too much rain which leaches out the nitrogen. Dark veining is usually indicative of iron deficiency, although a couple of other things can account for it on older leaves ie. magnesium or sulphur. Still, it looks like high PH and lack of rain making iron unavailable to the plant.

Vaporvac has good advice above except with rugosa's. Do not treat the soil. They do not even like fertilizer. Only use the most gentle organics by them. They truly are self sufficient. A good compost is all they need. Any thing to adjust their soil will make matters worse. It was most likely the spray. Did you by any chance fertilize them.

Problem is they were doing this before I sprayed them--that is why I sprayed them to begin with, I thought it was mites eating the insides of the rose buds!

Fertilized them once, also after I noticed the yellowing.

Is the yellowing on the whole bush or just the canes with the yellowing buds.

It's so hard to convey meaning in print. :( I was just pointing out what couId be possible reasons for the problem. I wasn't suggesting doing anything other than perhaps watering the plant to help the nutrients in the soil be more available to it since it's never been watered and they're in a drought. OMgosh, I'd feel totally responsible for the results otherwise, and have a hard enough time committing to my own plants. I generally stick to homemade compost and leaf mold.:) Also, that was only in reference to the leave veining, not the weird buds.

I wonder if it's always been this way. Where are you in 6a? Sometimes things go wonky in plants when their needs are interrupted during bud development and they can't recover for that cycle. However, I'm new to growing many different types of roses so I'll let those with experience carry on. I'm anxious myself to hear their recommendations as I have a Hansa cutting that just sent up a shoot in three weeks! and hope to grow one myself

In any case, you're lucky to have inherited a Rugosa. :)

Patty---only the buds. leaves and canes look great. I haven't been able to discern a pattern. What is weird is some bushes will have clusters of perfect flowers, and clusters of dead yellow buds.

Vaporvac-- thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to respond! I am going to get a soil test done--I googled the iron thing and that definitely seems to be a possibility, although my leaves are not yellow.

Cane bores are a possibility . On the off chance that it is an insect you could try cutting off the bud clumps that begin to yellow. Bag them and throw away. When mine did that once a clump of buds began to yellow the whole thing turned yellow anyway.

Thank you fduk, I have not seen bud drop in many years and forgot it can even happen. This perhaps explains what happened here many years ago.

It didn't rain here for 5 weeks....and I was so focused on the other aspects of all the gardens on this property that I just didn't mind the shrub roses. I had read that they are VERY hardy and self sufficient, almost indestructible, so I didnt worry about them. Deadheading and watering I go! Thank you so much fduk_gw!!!

Edit--is there another name for "bud drop"?

Thank you! I only fertilized the bases of the plants once, and I sprayed because the mites were just destroying everything--thick webs between all of the plants.

These are hot pink blooms and really beautiful, the only thing that was weird is that they have literally zero odor whatsoever.

I am 99% sure they are the FJ grootendorst, but if those are supposed to have an odor, then that isn't it I suppose. Ugly?! You're crazy! I love the little carnation hot pink blooms and the wrinkled green leaves. They are so great.

I have 12 of these or so along the driveway and more in back...they have been here for years and I doubt I could get them out without a huge struggle. They stay!

Your roses are absolutely gorgeous.

I have Roseraie de l'hay and it sets hips on every flower produced. Unless the jb's eat them. I do remove the early hips so that she continues to bloom all year.

Omg, the japanese beetles FEAST on these roses. I just pick them off by hand and squash them and cry inside and carry on.

The healthy blooms that I think are FJ Grootendorst: (They are spreading out like crazy, may use a trellis as another user suggested next year) These are the first flush

I love it, I've wanted to get this rose for a long time. Only reason I haven't is that my soil tends to stay too moist. My Roseraie de l'hay is always yellowing but returns to normal during drier periods

We have very sandy soil here, and under that it is straight up clay. They somehow grow with zero effort on anyone's part! The base of each plant is covered in old leaves the previous owner never raked, along with a TON of ivy.