Avain, all of the previously asked questions are good, but much more information is necessary to even begin suggesting why your roses died. Your profile says you live in Zone 9, Southern California. Which city, please, and what is the approximate construction date of your home? Is it in a larger tract where the earth is likely engineered to provide seismic stability? That can make tremendous difference as far as drainage and the soil's ability to absorb and hold water. Were these plants installed close to a concrete wall, patio, drive or walk, or were they out in a bed in the lawn? Were they watered with the sprinklers, by hand or on a drip type system? How does the water applied to any lawn or planter areas drain? Is it toward where the roses are planted or away? Did the plants turn black, or did they simply dry up, turning beige? Did you notice any unusual smells from the soil balls when you removed them? You state you "added new soil" when you planted them. What kind of soil did you add and how much? If your home was built in the past two decades, particularly if it is part of a large subdivision, by state law the soil is engineered, compacted in to a stone like consistency to provide for seismic stability. That's great for safety but horrible for gardening. It compresses the soil particles into stone, leaving no place for water to go and nowhere for the soil to store it. I recently investigated why a five gallon Euonymus failed in a friend's planters in engineered soil. Everything I was able to excavate from that hole was BONE dry. Absolutely no moisture in the soil at all. The plant failed because the sprinklers were relied upon to keep the shrub watered and the surface of the soil looked damp, but there was no moisture IN the soil. I've also observed holes excavated in that stuff where water was over applied or ran off into the holes, creating buckets where it could only either be used by the plants or evaporate out and the plants drowned. Adding anything organic in such a situation is like plugging the drain hole in a pot, then planting in it. The organic material, when kept under standing water, forms hydrogen sulfide, the "sour" smell from pots and backed up drains. If the soil drains well and sprinklers were used to keep the newly planted plants watered, it's entirely possible they dried up. If water drains into the area and the soil is engineered, they may have drowned. If they were planted too near large expanses of concrete, it's possible the extra heat helped dry out the plants before their roots were sufficiently established to support them in the increased heat. There are many possibilities, including the fertilizer suggestion above. Might you have taken any photos of the plants before removing them? Those might help if you could share them. Kim

Congratulations on your new old rose! About maintenance, beginning rose growers are often awed by roses and exaggerate the amount of care they need. This one appears to be doing quite well on its own. Clean out any invasive plants it has growing around its feet: vines, seedling trees, brambles. Allow a layer of organic matter to stay on the ground around it: grass clippings from the mowed lawn, dead leaves and twigs from the rose itself and surrounding plants. You can let small herbaceous plants grow around the rose, which has deep roots. Prune out any dead growth. For now that's all you need to do. Most roses do better with some degree of annual pruning; find out when people prune in your area: I would guess at the end of winter. This rose looks good with its long arching canes; you will probably want just to remove a portion of the oldest canes completely, cutting them down to the ground, so new ones can grow to replace them. Remove only old tired canes, leave strong ones. You can also shorten long canes by about a third if you want to make the rose more compact. I cut pruned canes up and strew them on the ground around the rose: they'll decompose over time and feed the plant. Or you can add the pruned growth to the compost heap and spread some compost around the ground for the rose's annual nourishment. The rose may be once-blooming, with a single season of flowering that lasts a few weeks, then not again until the next year. Or it may be repeat-flowering, blooming again later in the summer. If the rose is a once-bloomer then you won't need to do more for it than what I've just said. If it's a repeat-bloomer, to get the later flowers it will need water if there's a period of drought. Roses are not thirsty plants, and can go months if need be with no water, but they need water to bloom. So if you get a summer drought the rose will need occasional deep watering, but only if it's a repeat-flowering variety. About disease, people from your part of the U.S. will have to tell you about that. I don't do disease treatment of any kind, but I live in an area of low disease pressure, and that may not be true where you live. Still, as I said, your rose has been doing well with, apparently, no care in particular. Good luck! Melissa P.S. Is this a single rose, or are there two varieties growing together? I see considerable variation in the flower color.

Hi Beth - I'm new to this forum, but not new to coastal Southern Cal rose growing, so I'll chime in too. I'm in San Juan Capistrano on the South end of Orange County and about 2.5 miles from the beach in a coastal canyon. So I know all about roses in the marine layer fog. Mildew, not black spot, is the bane of our existence here. The only blackspot I've ever seen in my garden was on florist roses. But I do spray. And the three most fragrant ones on your list -- Double Delight, McCartney Rose and Fragrant Cloud -- will mildew even with religious spraying. But, the fragrance is worth it and I grow all three. No one has told you about the rose societies here yet. There are several. I go all the way south to the California Coastal Rose Society in Carlsbad. That's probably too far for you. There are two other OC rose societies -- the Orange County Rose Society which meets very near to Huntington Beach in Westminster -- they focus on exhibitions and hold their show the last weekend of October every year at Rogers Gardens. There's also another one that focuses mostly on gardening, garden tours and garden parties -- no exhibiting -- which is the Saddleback Rose Society -- that one's a bit inland for both of us. Wholly different climate those folks have. You can get to either one by googling the names, or I've put a link in here for the OCRS. On the rest of your list, I've grown most of them, and they do just fine. But as a general rule, in coastal cool areas like ours, fewer petals is better. Many roses just won't open like they do in hot climes, and sometimes you just die waiting for a leeeetle bit of heat to get them open, which never comes. So, plan to have some that open without heat. As for colors, try these -- Pink -- Our Lady Of Guadalupe is by far the best pink floribunda. But also check out The Imposter and Lovestruck, both of which do well for me. For Hybrid Teas, I like Memorial Day. Purple -- Intrigue is okay, but try Purple Tiger -- it's better and it's striped. It does really well on the coast. For a Hybrid Tea, I like Neptune and one that Armstrongs carries called Della Reese that is a darker purple hybrid tea with occasional exhibition form. Orange -- About Face Red -- I'm still looking for a good one. Yellow -- Julia Child or Midas Touch. Or even Peace, which gets enormous blooms on the coast. Multi -- get some stripes -- City of Carlsbad if you can find it or Cabana if you can't. Have fun. I seem to move every few years just BECAUSE I get to replenish my garden. Enjoy it. Kathy Here is a link that might be useful: Orange County Rose Society

I couldn't get the link to work either. How tall is the rose? Is it compact and bushy, or gangly? You might want to go to Help Me Find, and click on Search, and type in "Dr. Huey", and see if it looks like your rose. I say that because neglected red roses often turn out to be that rose - it was/is used as rootstock, and sometimes the top rose dies and up comes Dr. Huey from the roots. If so, it is a once blooming climber, and I have seen lovely plants of it - it seems to do better on the East Coast than out here. What ever it is, if a neglected rose were mine here's what I would do: Cut off all of the dead canes. Cut it back to shape it if it needs it - don't take off anymore than 1/3rd of the bush. Mulch it - at least 2 inches of mulch all around it, but not touching the canes in the middle. Water it well. Find out what folks do in your area to winter protect their roses - I have no idea about that, as we hardly ever get even frost here. In the Spring, when it starts to put out new growth, feed it - just get any rose food (without anything else in it like poisons - just food), and follow the instructions. Then you should get more flowers in the Spring, and you can see if you want to keep it. Take pictures of the Spring bloom, and post them here, and someone will be able to tell you what/who it is. Jackie