People are supposed to get their vitamins from their food; plants get theirs from the soil. Neither should depend on supplements. A plant should be able to live under local conditions. Fortunately, roses have lived all over the world all by themselves without soil ammendments, fertilzers, bone meal, phosphates, etc. Their mid-range Ph tells you they are more generalized than specialized. They won't survive in all environments, but in most, and some classes do better or worse here or there (see the discussion on killing Bourbons in Maryland in the Antique Roses forum). You should never add supplements until you have had your soil analized. 'Kill' is the important part of 'overkill.' If you have had your soil analized or the plant is showing specific symptoms of a nutrient failure, supplement that one thing. If the plant has been under stress or neglect, supplements are the equivalent of taking vitamins when you're ill. I Super-Thrive new plants and transplants and give them a good starter soil and I dig in an all-purpose organic fertilzer twice a year--plant feast days (feasting is an important part of balancing a diet; nature provides 'feasts' which we generally do not allow in our gardens). Otherwise, if a plant can't live off the local mother earth, s/he needs a new home.

Just a common old garden spider.....nothing to worry about and nothing to do with whatever may be ailing your holly (not a Japanese holly, btw). Garden spiders are good things and should be encouraged. FWIW, hollies can be cut back hard and they will backbud or produce new growth from bare stems. Your plants look perfectly healthy otherwise and with no sign of insect or disease issues so why they are so leggy and sparse now is most likely due to cultural conditions....lack of water at some point, possible cold damage at some point or issues with the root ball when planted.

The only information you have given us is 'they are the exact same tree' and that may be true but subtle differences in location can change variables in these cases. A boulevard tree, for instance may get some salt from snow plowing. A tree close to other trees will not get as much sun as others in the open. That's why you might see some trees already past peak with fall colors while others that are the exact same species still have green leaves. This year in my country, color change has been scattered with spotty frost pockets and strong winds. Some years everything seems to change at the same time, some years not so much.

I was going to say either botrytis blight or thrips. The buds in the first photo look like thrips. Watering too much, lots of humidity and rain can bring on the blight. And some roses, particularly those in light colors with many petals are appealing to the tiny insect called thrips. Once the damage has been done by thrips, there's not a lot you can do about it. In the case of botrytis, cut off the ruined blooms, and don't overwater. Diane