On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 22:08:55 +0800, "scyap"
wrote:

I bought some pots of roses over a period of about 4 weeks. One day I
noticed some brown spots on the leaves of one of the plants and very quickly
all the plants had brown spots. They then started shedding leaves.

We need more information. Where are you? Have you left these roses in
their little tiny pots, or put them in bigger pots, or in the ground?
What kind of roses are they? Most importantly, are they inside or
outside, and have you left trays under the pots (if they are in pots)
or not? If you have, your roses are drowning and rotting. If the spots
are black, your roses have the fungal disease blackspot, which causes
defoliation. In the latter case you need to spray them with a
fungicide or learn about roses that do not tend to get blackspot.



Subsequently I bought a container of 'insecticide' where the label stated
that it was for brown spots in roses. However, after spraying, most of the
leaves fell off and the new leaves became knurled and very small.


You need to do some reading. The disease is called blackspot and it is
fungal, has nothing at all to do with insects. Keeping roses alive is
not rocket science but you do need to know a few things.

1. They are outside plants
2. They must have 6 hours of sun minimum a day to do well.
3. They need lots of water but they MUST DRAIN. In pots, no trays
underneath. In the ground, after you dig the hole fill it with water.
If it takes longer than three hours to drain I would not put a rose in
there. (Others say longer.)
4. They need protection against fungal disease in some areas (some
types more than others) and sometimes, from insects.

Go googling. It is all out there.





I have now cut off all the branches wherever there are leaves or shoots
(leaving only the stumps) hoping that this will stop the 'epidemic'.

I am indeed very unfamiliar with caring for roses and will appreciate your
advice as to what I need to do next. Thank you.

Regards,
SC Yap