Is this rose bush dead?

Hi. I moved into a house with two rose bushes about 8yrs ago. Both were doing wonderful. Id prune them back in the winter and feed them rose food inthe spring. Sometimes i would have to trim them so they didnt impede the walkway. This year one of my rose bushes was stunted. It never bloomed and only managed to have a small amount of new growth (see photos). Im not sure what type of bush it is just that it produced large white roses. Is this bush dead? Im not sure what to do to help it. Food did not. I live in CA. I think my zone is 9b.

An 8 year old rose bush should have some big sturdy canes. What happened to them? Did you cut them to the base? Did you prune them so severely?

Usually yellow leaves with green veins are a symptom of iron deficiency. But that would not cause your canes to disappear.

It looks like your rose died back to the graft and now you are getting tons of suckers from the root stock.

Have you used a herbicide near this rose recently?

Hi Kell
Thank you for getting back to me.
No herbicides. Due to my pup I quit using them 3 years ago when he arrived. I could try iron

As for pruning i cut them at the base. Been pruning the same way since i started 8 years ago. I just pruned the healthy one today. Ill take a pic of it in the morning. Its doing well. This one has always been not as vigorous. Am i pruning them wrong? I read an article on rose pruning.

I have never seen anyone prune the canes all the way to the base unless it is too old or diseased and they want to get rid it. You are forcing the graft to push out all new canes which may not happen.

I have seen people severely prune but they always leave enough cane to produce offshoots. There are a bunch of rules when pruning canes like cut them at an angle, remove any that cross over or grow inwards, prune to a bud that points outward, remove spindly shoots, remove all center growth so the pruned rose looks like a vase that is open in the center on and on.

I will tell you I am a poor one to give advice. LOL For years I adhered to all the rules but when I hit about 80 roses and got old, I started pruning with a hedge clipper with no thought to where buds on the canes were or what direction they were going in. It took about 5 minutes a rose. The roses all did great!

Then in the last couple of years, I stopped pruning at all. LOL Its a rose forest! Probably not a great idea. LOL

First you need to ascertain where all those shoots are growing from, above or below the graft. If from below, your rose is lost. You will get the red roses of Dr. Huey that is used usually for the root stock. It became popular some years ago to grow own root roses, so you may have one of those. You can usually see the graft so you can tell.

Just by seeing all those weak looking sprouts, I would say something is very wrong. Cut away any from below the graft. Keep the best looking ones that are growing above the graft. Let the rose put all its energy into those.

Though I think, just by seeing the pictures, you have just below the graph suckers. Though by not seeing it for myself, hard to say for sure. You will know for sure as it grows and the flowers will tell the story.

I have never seen anyone prune the canes all the way to the base unless it is too old or diseased and they want to get rid it. You are forcing the graft to push out all new canes which may not happen.

I have seen people severely prune but they always leave enough cane to produce offshoots. There are a bunch of rules when pruning canes like cut them at an angle, remove any that cross over or grow inwards, prune to a bud that points outward, remove spindly shoots, remove all center growth so the pruned rose looks like a vase that is open in the center on and on.

I will tell you I am a poor one to give advice. LOL For years I adhered to all the rules but when I hit about 80 roses and got old, I started pruning with a hedge clipper with no thought to where buds on the canes were or what direction they were going in. It took about 5 minutes a rose. The roses all did great!

Then in the last couple of years, I stopped pruning at all. LOL Its a rose forest! Probably not a great idea. LOL

First you need to ascertain where all those shoots are growing from, above or below the graft. If from below, your rose is lost. You will get the red roses of Dr. Huey that is used usually for the root stock. It became popular some years ago to grow own root roses, so you may have one of those. You can usually see the graft so you can tell.

Just by seeing all those weak looking sprouts, I would say something is very wrong. Cut away any from below the graft. Keep the best looking ones that are growing above the graft. Let the rose put all its energy into those.

Though I think, just by seeing the pictures, you have just below the graph suckers. Though by not seeing it for myself, hard to say for sure. You will know for sure as it grows and the flowers will tell the story.

I would say most are below the top which i think is what you are calling the graft. Ill have to read up on that. I have a few on top.

I really have black thumbs. I enjoy the roses and would like to keep them if possible. Wow 80 rose bushes!! Cutting back my 2 is hard enough to do. Thank you for the insight. You must have a gorgeous garden

All you need is some experience. Roses are such fun because you have an explosion of beautiful new growth in spring then your first flush of flowers which provides abundant color!

It is bareroot season soon. The favorite time for rose people! You should buy a few and add them to your yard. If you do a little research on which ones are disease resistant, you can have years of beautiful blooms.

Regan Nursery is so close to you!! Just down 880 in Fremont. It specializes in roses. They sell online but also at their beautiful nursery. Many years I would pour over their list deciding which ones I had to have. Then in fall they go half price and I would have to have even more. They sell them bareroot in the beginning a bit cheaper then they pot them up and charge more. Many summer days were spent walking from rose bush to rosebush enjoying their blooms.

Here is their list for 2018, so much fun! https://www.regannursery.com/New-Roses

Home Depot and Orchards used to carry a good bareroot selection, cheaper, too. Though buy them as early as you can and get them right into the ground for the best results.

And just a word of caution. If you are adding granules of fertilizer to your roses, be careful not to have any land on the branches and especially on the graft. It will burn. Also never fertilize a dry plant for it can burn the roots too and if the rose is very thirsty it can take up too much fertilizer and really hurt the plant. Ask me how I know! LOL

Good luck!!!

Thank you Kell for giving this person such good information. And, thank you for not scolding her and making her feel foolish.
I haven't gotten to the point of not pruning the roses at all, but it's taking longer than it used to. I haven't used an electric saw either, but have to say, I have considered it. :)
I do enjoy my roses, but the Japanese Beetles have taken a lot of pleasure out of them. I keep them basically with as little bloom as possible until the beetles have gone back into the soil to lay their eggs. Then, the roses bloom nicely. It's a losing battle until someone finds a control.

I have murdered so many plants in my life, I am sure I beat firelyon on that score!

What a shame beetles are just ruining your enjoyment of your roses. I bet they are ugly beetles to. I have been looking at the jewel beetles in Australia lately. At least those glam beetles would give you something as pretty as rose blooms to look at!

Kell, from what I understand the Japanese Beetles came from shipments on the east coast and are slowly moving west. We have had them here for about 7 years. My brother, who lives 60 miles southwest of me, has had the beetles for the last two years. So, you "may" get them some day. They are doing research in how to control these beetles. The beetles came over from Japan and their predators did not. :(

I am the same with Rose's. In southwest Fl here Cape Coral I thought a western exposure would be best but it may be northern down here. I love them and tried tried tried. They dont die just dont look like when I bought them year after year. No flourish. It could be I needed iron also. Have a sprinkling system I also wondered if they were over watered. But....it mostly stays dry here unless hurricane season. Who knows!

I have a friend that grew roses in Florida. As I recall she could only grow roses that were grafted onto Fortuniana rootstock that did well. I looked it up for you and hopefully you will find this information helpful.
https://nelsonsfloridaroses.com/history/our-rootstock/
http://www.b-srs.org/cgi-bin/GrowingRoses.cgi

Also you may need to amend your soil if it has a lot of sand. If my roses were not growing vigorously I will add lots of organic matter to the soil and fertilize frequently with rose fertilizers as directed on product. Roses are heavy feeders. I used to add epsom salts to the soil around the base.

Also if you have a good nursery (not Home Depot types) near you that sells roses, I would go in and talk to their rose person. I always got a lot of insight into what I was doing wrong this way.

Good luck, roses are really satisfying to grow when they flower well.

Firelyon and birder17,
Firelyon: I agree that the rose bush looks like it needs iron or even possibly overwatered. Is the rose bush getting enough sunlight during the day? I’m in South Carolina and I have red ‘Double Knockout” rosebushes (8 of them). I buy Ironite - granular, from Lowes) in a small bag and follow directions as to how much to put on my garden beds (which includes the rosebushes) and then distribute the Ironite the old way by hand-spreading it. I never cut the rose canes shorter than 12 inches. Any cut canes have pink/red nail polish applied to the cut ends to prevent Carpenter bees from eating down into the soft center ‘pith’ of the canes.
Birder17- Have you tried “Bayer Advanced All-In-One Rose and Flower Care”? Lowe’s and Home Depot carry it. Strongly suggest you purchase the 3-in-1 that has the Fertilizer, Insect Control and Disease Control, NOT the 2-in-1 still offered by Bayer, the front labels look alike. The label states the rosebushes absorb the ingredients and fights diseases and insects from the inside of the plant out. I’ve been using the 3-in-1 on my rosebushes for years with excellent results. It come in ‘Concentrate’ ( dilute with water first according to directions for roses) or Granular. Either one you use, apply as close to the rosebushes’ root stock as possible; I give the first treatment with the diluted liquid since a liquid will be absorbed up by the rosebushs’ Roots more quickly than the Granular and will protect against The insect and diseases that seem to erupt in the Spring. Six weeks later - and for the rest of the summer- I use the ‘Granular’ Bayer ‘3-in-1’ (following amount to use directions) and dig up a little around the rootstock and apply the granules around it, then water in well. This has worked for me in South Carolina and in Zone 5 of Ohio for the last 15 years. I’ve not had any problems with adult Japanese beetles eating my roses and my roses look wonderful each year.
Hope this helps!