As long as the tops look good, I would not be too concerned. They are probably building roots. Here in Florida when we first plant we try not to get the tops to grow... no cutting back... no dead heading.... for the first couple of months in the ground. That way instead of building tops they are building roots.....

If however, the rose is looking poorly on top (which you seemed to indicate is not the case) then there are other concerns going on.

I hear you. My new roses are the same.

most likely agree.. but any chance at a pic or two???

what is your native soil... how did you plant it.. how do you water ...

ken

Thanks all, I hope theyre just building roots!

I’ll take a couple pics tomorrow when it’s light again. I planted them in 2’ holes with half/half mixture of my native alkaline sandy loam soil (I’m in the foothills near Pasadena) and Dr. Earth bagged rose soil. They both have compost mulch at the base.

We get very little rain here so I hand water a couple times a week until saturation, probably a gallon each time. Every three weeks or so I feed them a diluted fish emulsion.

They had a few blooms when I bought them in early April, they were potted in 5 gallon nursery pots, and they sat around in those pots for a few weeks before I got a chance to plant them at the beginning of May. I watered them every day or two when they were in pots, they seemed to be in good health!

I’ll post photos tomorrow….

I agree that it's probably nothing about which to worry,as long as the tops look good. Roses tend to kind of shut down in heat anyway. Just keep them watered. Remember the old adage about roses: "in the first year they sleep, in the second they creep, and in the third they leap!" Yours have only been in a few months.

So grateful to have found this forum! Thank you!

Sheila, I hadn't considered that I might be underwatering them. I'll try watering them every day and see if I get any good movement. Bart Bart, love that saying and I'd forgotten it! Good to keep in mind, and I may be overworrying.

I did go get pics, so I'll post them here in case you all see something I'm overlooking:

Here's the Royal Sunset Rose. It gets direct overhead, southern and western light, but only bright shade in the morning due to fence and neighbor's house. Eventually I'm hoping to train it up a trellis that I haven't put in place yet. There's a drip line running to it but it's completely inadequate so I've been handwatering deeply a couple times a week.

Here are the Royal Sunset's top leaves --

And here are the Royal Sunset's bottom leaves --

Here is the Voodoo Rose. It's to the north side of a Chinese Pistache tree which is filled out now, blocking any Southern or Eastern sun this rose would get in the summer. Now it gets dappled shade until the sun moves overhead around noon, and it gets direct sun until sunset around 7. (Excuse the poor condition of the yard -- we are in the middle of a sheet-mulching project!)

Here's the top of the Voodoo Rose --

And here's the bottom of the Voodoo Rose, which now that I looked closely looks like a bit of a crime scene. The older leaves on the bottom are all kinda crispy, and some have this reddish-brown discoloration around the edges --

The white residue on the leaves is from a spray with soapy water I did a few weeks ago when I found spider mites.

Those photos look good Heather. I will note I have had roses here that just sat there when they were anywhere close to a tree. I would hope the water does it for your roses. I water daily here in the heat of summer and I'm not even in California.

I did relocate a rose away from a tree (In the dormant season) and it is doing much better.

Heather, I think your roses are doing fine :)

It sounds like they already had their first flush so it’s not uncommon for them to be sleepy because they just flowered, are in summer heat, and are in their first year.

Roses are pretty resilient, but next season if they still aren’t pushing new growth, then that could mean they aren’t in a good location.

That makes sense, Tina. Thanks.