I am here visiting a friend in New York, who is upstate New York south of Glens Falls and she has about five roses and the leaves on the roses are just like all that’s left. Is like a skeleton like like lace it looks like with just like the veins and nothing else been trying to look this up to see what it is or what the problem is or what insect or whatever has gotten into this, but I can’t seem to find anything similar. Does anyone have any ideas where she lives is pretty forested and there’s not much sun and it seems really damp SOS what are your thoughts?
Ps none of her roses bloomed!
Sawfly larvae, “Rose Slugs”. Take a look here at the Missouri Botanical Gardens site about them.
The lack of flowers could be due to several issues. If they were budded roses and the scions (varieties budded to the understocks) died in the cold, leaving only the root stocks remaining, they won’t flower until next year, presuming she doesn’t prune off the flowering wood before they do.
OR, anything “green” on a plant feeds the plant through photosynthesis. If the foliage is all skeletonized, the plant’s ability to feed itself is significantly reduced and perhaps they didn’t have enough food to flower. Flowering is ovulation in preparation for seed set, pregnancy. Everything is genetically pre programmed to reproduce itself to perpetuate its species before it dies. We grow roses to enjoy their flowers. Roses flower to reproduce themselves. I remember reading in ARS funded floral research way back in the 1960s or 70s where they determined that for the florist roses studied, they required 35 PERFECT leaves to produce each perfect flower. Of course that probably isn’t universal for all types, but it illustrates the idea that foliage is necessary for the rose to have enough resources to flower.
Thank you this is exactly what it is when I get back to her house. I will take a picture and post it here, but this is exactly right. The skeleton of the rose. Looks like it’s scorched!
Much thanks,
Cece
1 Like
“Scorched” could also mean something like Chilli Thrips, but I don’t think they’ve made it up into upstate NY…hopefully not.