Believe it or not aphids do very little damage. Nearly every larger bug likes to eat them and then would stay longer to continue to help. They most likely have been killed off by previous pesticide use.

The webbing was an insect perhaps a spider and babies they were also likely killed by the spectricide.

The second photo on top in the top most set of leaves the spots are anthracnose.

In that same second photo in the bottom row the set of leaves on the left. It shows clear evidence of rose midge damage. This could be the reason for no blooms. Knowing your location would be most helpful.

The front of that set the brown cruddy looking stuff well just go away when they begin to grow under better growing conditions provided by you the gardener.

That is all that I can help with for now. Good luck to you if they do have rose midge your going to need it.

One more thing that I can think of is in the first set of photos the backs of the leaves. It looks like leaf hoppers have been sucking on the leaves. The white stuff that is suck to the back of leaves is left by at least one leaf hopper ( the fuzzy white leafhopper).

I would get Malathion, spray it twice a couple of days apart, and that will let you start from a clean slate. There are people who get rid of aphids with more gentle methods like water spray and insecticidal soap, but MY aphids are far tougher than that, can ruin all my new growth, so I like to take care of them decisively.

PattyW: thanks for all the information -- sure does sound like I am indeed wrestling with more than one problem. The original KOs were touted for their resistance to pests and disease. Is it not so w/ the Sunnys, I wonder? Would you please clarify the browning of the buds? When the buds just start to break, I can see they're completely yellow; they turn brown at some point. What's causing that? The brown outer area isn't rough or deformed at all.

In that same second photo in the bottom row the set of leaves on the left. It shows clear evidence of rose midge damage. Is this the photo you're referring to?

BenT: Thanks for the advice. Your aphids must know my aphids. :)

Hi Javiwa, To each their own, as far as how to control pests, and for certain things spraying is necessary. Anecdotally, I can say that I used to have tons of aphids in my garden, when I first started. However, as a no-spray gardener, I have found that birds, spiders, and other predators have taken the aphid population down significantly, to the point at which they are barely noticeable. If you ask at your local garden center, they probably have some lady bugs (sometimes stored in a refrigerator) that they could sell you. Here in Seattle they even sell them at the big box stores for $6 per bag. Of course you would want to wait a while before letting lady bugs out in your garden, since you have already treated your roses against insects (to avoid unintentional lady bug murder). ;)

In your numbered photos it is the number 2 on the right side. Rose midge to not do any damage to leaves.

Call out to Mosses who can say this much better than I can. But I'll try. Rose midge are little tiny insects smaller than most mosquitos. They bite the rose where new growth buds will form. They lay their miserable eggs in the rose. New growth is than killed and the stem is damaged. Most people will only notice the bud damage that they do. The real damage is even worse as they can prevent knew growth so that the rose can't set buds at all. In the photo what I see are little brown marks on the stem where the rose has quit growing normally. That little stem should have been forming flowers instead of trying to regrow from a new spot.

KS: I appreciate your reply. I really do try to minimize the chemicals and allow Mother Nature to do its thing. I touched upon this in my OP, but one year, I decided to leave the aphids alone as they covered every stem of my milkweed plants. (20' away, from inside the house, I thought the bright orange I saw were the blooms getting ready to burst. Nope...all aphids -- that's how dense they were.) At one point, there were indeed ladybugs on the bushes. Terrific, I thought. The plants succumbed and the aphids thrived, despite morning blasts with the garden hose.

I'm in Zone 8, according to GW's zone finder; Zone 9a per USDA map.

Wow, Patty...praying mantises? Very cool! DH likes to tell the story that when he was a little boy, he came upon an egg sac and brought it indoors (unbeknownst to his mom...you can see where this is going!); PMs frequented the fields where he played. He set the stick/branch (that held the egg sac) into an open-top aquarium/terrarium. Months went by and one day, while he was at school, his mom walked in to find a room full of nymphs everywhere! You can imagine the screaming that went on.

I'll have to do a bit of research on PMs in the Gulf Coast area, possibly for next spring. Thanks!

I think I see chilli thrips. Especially the backs of the leaves in #3 and the brown buds.

Thanks, Brittie -- here's a closer shot of those same leaves:

I'll google chilli thrips...wow, yet another potential pest!

I can't believe I forgot to mention this: when I looked at the bushes last week, I noticed a very large, almost-perfect circle had been bored straight into one of the almost-opening buds. When I carefully peeled the bud open, no bugs were visible; I didn't think to take photos at the time.

Now that know you are in the gulf coast area chili thrips are indeed possible. That would account for what looked like midge damage.

I'm happy that Brittie brought that up. She got it nailed it.

OK, thanks again to you both. Here's hoping chilli thrips pose a less dire threat than midges!

Yeah, with that last picture I'm 100% positive. In our area chilli thrips are at their worst in late July / August (they like the hot, dry weather), so with them already moving through your garden, you'll have to be especially vigilant during their busy season.

As you're well aware, Brittie, we've been experiencing July/August whether in June, with temps in the mid-90s already this past week. The TAMU.edu site lists several effective insecticides. Would you please share what you've found to be effective? TY.

Here is a more direct link to the A&M site:

http://extentopubs.tamu.edu/pdf/EEE-00041.pdf

I see spinosad is listed as one of the three. I've not experienced Chili Thrips (thankfully!) , but I do know it has been a miracle cure for regular flower thrips. It's certified organic, produced as a byproduct of brewing, I buy this one from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000BWY3OQ/ref=asc_df_B000BWY3OQ5039071/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=394997&creativeASIN=B000BWY3OQ&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198107334619&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7167228228396049964&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027605&hvtargid=pla-343191223834

The Ortho product smells like poison and makes me dizzy...even though I'm not adverse to chemicals, I try to stay away from that particular one.

Thanks so much, BenT! I'm quite disheartened and worried at this point, seeing the following posted by a local nursery:

Getting control: Cut off all damaged parts of the plants. Bag and dispose of damaged plant material to reduce breeding populations. <<< At this point, that'd be almost the entire bush...and a newly planted bush, at that.

And this: Only a few pesticides work on chilli thrips...Chilli thrips are problematic in Houston from May to September.

The two original KOs we had for a number years never showed any sign of insect damage. If this is an ongoing battle with Sunnys, they won't last long in my yard as I don't want to constantly have to spray pesticides out there.

ETA: Just got off the phone with a local nursery that carries a less expensive brand of spinosad (Natural Guard vs Monterey), so I'll have it in hand sooner than ordering off Amazon. And I'll be supporting a local business (yay!). I was asked to take a leaf sample down just to make sure it's chilli thrips doing the damage.

One of the sites mentioned that CTs tend to hit the new/burgundy leaf growth first. I examined the pink KO in the front yard (which hasn't shown signs of any pest issues yet). Lo and behold...found one on the newest leaves:

He's < 1/16" long, but I caught him scampering when I moved the leaf a bit.

I'm off to grab some spinosad!

Spinosad (Conserve) is what I use. I usually only have to spray it once or twice a year (and I've had the same bottle for three years now). Since your bushes are so small, I would try to only remove the worst areas, leaving the rest, because the plant will need all the energy it can get to recover. Plus, since you've got a good sized infestation there, you don't want the plant to go bonkers putting out new, tasty growth.

Roger!

Reporting back after an eventful summer -- Harvey evacuation and all! (We fared much better than most, returning to find our home high and dry.)

After two applications of Spinosad (spaced ~ two weeks apart), it appeared I had the chilli thrips situation under control. The roses seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as they put out new leaf growth and flowered here and there. At one point in late July, I fertilized lightly with Rose-tone. And in early August, I applied some fish fertilizer (diluted per container instructions). I hadn't planted anything in this area for a couple of years, and felt the need to amend the soil a bit.

Despite my attempts, these two plants never thrived and progressively just worsened. Taking advantage of Home Depot's one-year guarantee, I exchanged them for a different variety: Double Pink KOs.

These two new plants were in the yard (still in pots) for about a week, when I noticed:

Holes bored clear through several of the buds -- did I just not notice these at time of purchase?!

..and newer leaves starting to pucker. I saw a couple of thrips crawling on the underside of these leaves, but couldn't discern if they were chilli thrips or the standard variety (if there's such a thing).

A couple of the unopened buds also had aphids covering them.

I didn't want to go crazy with any insecticide just yet; so I clipped the buds that had been bored through, as well as the leaf with the larvae hatchlings. Tossed all of this, along with the caterpillar, into the garbage. I blasted the aphids off with a hose.

I thought I'd given each plant a pretty good once-over before I plopped them into my cart. After my failures with the Sunny KOs, I wanted to pick out the most healthy Double Pinks of the group. So, I don't think (?) I brought all these critters home from HD.

I'm going to give this another go...wish me luck. :)

A question about location, as I don't know if this perhaps contributed to the Sunny KOs' demise:

The yellow circles are where the Sunnys were planted, and where I was going to place the new Double Pinks. Right up against the fence in the neighbor's yard are a rogue hackberry tree (~ 18-20' - red box) and a crepe myrtle (blue box). Will my roses struggle, being planted essentially at the base of these two trees?

Root systems of trees typically extend up to 2 and a half times the size of the canopy. The roots of those trees could definitely be a factor. I have found Sunny KO to be just as vigorous as red and pink, only shorter.

Would be nice to have color against that fence. Perhaps you can choose a good container rose and put a couple containers there, assuming you have 6 plus hours of sun.

Thanks so much, barbarag. I've always so wanted yellow roses, and was quite excited when I found the KOs locally (and on sale!). I'd read the Sunny blooms don't last more than a day, and will often fade to a creamy white before day's end. But I could live with that -- and I enjoyed their light fragrance (unlike the original fuchsia KOs).

Years ago, I planted two original KOs in that same spot, and they thrived for about 5 years. I also had two althea (Rose of Sharon) trees that did very well in the same bed. The house on the other side of the fence is a rental property, and it's obvious no one takes care of the yard at all. The entire stretch of shared fence is so jam packed with volunteer hackberries and large crepe myrtles planted too close together, nothing has done particularly well in that bed for a number of years. It's been a gradual decline, so I guess that's helped with my denial. :/

I may have to reserve that area for flowering perennials for the butterflies. :)

Though, that lantana bush to the left has been showing signs of distress. I noticed half of the bush (closest to the fence & hackberry canopy) is black with sooty mold. I'd heard that hackberries invite tons of aphids, and woe be to any plant unlucky enough to be in a hackberry's shadow. I can tell that much of the hackberry leaves look quite damaged (papery thin and diseased) -- aphid onslaught, I guess.

I don't dabble in container gardening because we're gone for a couple of weeks at a time during summer, when potted plants would need daily watering. I may plant the new KOs further down the bed, to the left.

Thanks again!