Shiva wrote:

Now that it has stopped raining every other day, it is so hot there's
no way I'm going to work in the gardens especially since we now have
skeeter-born illness here! (I'm a wimp, it's true.)

West Nile doesn't scare me but the heat combined with humidity is doing
a great job of keeping me in the house.

I'm still chewing over what went wrong that resulted in the death of
so many grafted roses, mostly the new ones I planted bare root.

What has been different this year is:

1. LOTS of rain.
2. No anti-fungal or insecticide sprays at all since mid-May.

I planted six grafted hybrid teas this year. Two J&P (one bare root,
one potted), one Weeks (potted), and three Wal-mart rescues (all bare
root) and all of them are doing okay. Four in one location and the
other two each in a separate location. Of the six, the potted Weeks
Granada and the bare root J&P Double Delight are doing the best. So
far, though, none are dying.

Like you, I have not been able to spray this year. I've sprayed once.
I have kept up with the fertilizing - once every three months sprinkle
of Osmocote and once every two months application of rose fertilizer
stakes. This is normal procedure for me and I actually prefer to drive
in the stakes when the ground is wet.

The only difference I can think of is that I don't mulch and use
companion plantings for the most part. However, the "for the most part"
refers to most of my new roses as they do not have companion plants.

Don't know what to tell you...

Susan
shsimko at duke dot edu