I just looked at the roots, and I suspect it is root rot. The male has a lot of white roots with visible hairs, but the female's roots are mostly black, and some are mushy. When I got the plant, it looked fine, and looked fine for the first week and a half. There was a very hot day here when I was gone, and I just re-read the info that came with the plants. It says "Infected plants will suddenly collapse in hot weather". It seems this plant must have been infected when I got it... I'll call them tomorrow and ask if I can get a replacement, though I don't have high hopes based on my previous experience with their customer service. Is there anything I can do to save this plant? If the wilting is a result of the roots being unable to transport water efficiently, would it help to keep the plant inside and bag the top in clear plastic? Alex

Hi, Kentstar. You've been a good sport listening to all this advice, so here're other suggestions. My best guess is that you shocked your plant and that your plant's young roots are reacting to the soil amendments. For now, less is more. Don't drown the rose. Do NOT fertilize it. Do NOT prune the rose. It can protest to the point of dropping all the leaves and still survive. One way of saying that is the proverbial, "Step away from the rose." You can't take that comment any way but as a joke with a kernel of truth behind it. Water-don't water until after you rake back the mulch and use a garden trowel to dig down in the soil about 10 inches next to (but not touching the rootball) your rose. This is where you will test for soil moisture - not wet and not dry. The surface moisture isn't very instructive. In other words, put your pinkies in the soil. Manure, Bonemeal and greensand - in general, the roots of young plants should never come into contact with your fertlizer amendments. In other words, don't fertilize young plants until they are growing well. Natural doesn't mean harmless. Even composted manures can be too strong for some young plants. The more amendments I add to soil before plant, the more time I give them to mellow and cure a bit in the soil before planting. Bone meal should be in the bottom of the hole, below the roots, not mixed into the soil. I suggest in the future that you amend your soil in advance (except for the bone meal or other source of phosphorus), water if necessary, and let is sit a few days to a couple of weeks if you buffer pH by adding lime. When you plant, put a layer of soil between your plant and the bone meal of super phosphate or whatever you use. Weather - I seriously doubt 35 or 40 degrees had any effect on your rose. I garden in Zone 8-9, and grow cuttings outside all winter with no protection at all. Temps drop down below 20, and the plants are fine. Planting Depth - In the future, consider planting own root plants deeper. The soil protects the canes from drying out while the plant adjusts to garden conditions. I'd plant up to the first set of branching canes. Good luck.

It may not make you folks feel better, but it's a comfort to me, at least, to know that other gardeners, GOOD gardeners, suffer from these problems as well. I'm in good company at any rate. The discussion was long on ideas and a bit short on prescriptions, at least for a gardener who was looking for a pill. We did have an expert from the Forest Service come out for our oaks, but he, and his diagnosis, were a bad joke. This is Italy, folks. He certainly left us wondering if he didn't cheat on his college exams (there was a big scandal about this recently in southern Italy). I think my next step is to go to the Italian gardening forum I frequent and ask where one gets a diagnosis for this kind of problem, because I do need to know. In the meantime I think I shall continue to prune away diseased growth and watch to see what happens. I appreciate the input and suggestions, will be re-reading and studying them. It probably matters that we are in our second year of drought and it is still very, very dry--we've had roughly five inches of rain since the start of July--so the plants are under stress for that. Our water supplies are limited, so we only water recently planted roses and true emergency cases. I suppose I can count myself lucky that out of three hundred roses there are only three or four that I know are sick. We had a lot of dieback during the summer but I think most of it was drought stress. Even with the drought, now that the weather's cooler the roses are leafing out timidly and replacing the growth they lost during the summer. Of course, new cases may show themselves. Thanks again to everyone. In a strange way it's reassuring to know that even when an ugly disease strikes gardening goes on all the same. Melissa

I could be wrong on this, but I think age of the plant and/or how well established it is can have an effect on its ability to handle changes in environment. My In-Laws live on the edge of a retention pond that was dug about 3 years ago. When the pond was dug, the developers put several young Cypress trees around the pond. That first summer, as the retention pond flooded, every single cypress wilted, lost leaves and seemed to be dead, which really boggled me, since I grew up around Santee River in SC where Cypress trees happily live in standing, slow moving water. But the next spring the trees came back. Now, three years later, when the retention pond floods, the cypress trees handle the extra water much better.