Were they potted or bare root when planted? If bare root, it appears they were dried out prior to planting and haven’t sufficiently recovered. When planting bare roots, it’s beneficial to mound the newly planted roses with soil, leaving only the top few inches of canes protruding from the mound to keep them damp, dark and cool to encourage root growth. Leaving the canes exposed to the hotter, drier, brighter conditions encourages them to produce growth and flower before they have grown the root system required to support the new growth.
It also appears they are planted close to a masonry wall. Depending upon how much direct sun that wall receives daily, they may literally be being cooked by the reflected, radiated heat. If that’s the case, there isn’t much you can do while they are so close to that hot wall. Ideally, they should be planted at least three feet from a hot wall to allow that reflected, radiated heat to dissipate a bit before it surrounds the plant growth. If you are unsure how hot that location gets, go out when the sun is shining directly on the wall and measure the temperature where the roses sit and compare that to the temperature a few feet farther from the wall. Take more temperature recordings after the sun has shone on the wall for a few hours and literally touch the all to feel the hot surface. Take more temperature recordings a little while after the sun has moved from shining directly on the wall to see how much stored solar energy the wall holds and radiates for a long time afterward. That hotter air is the equivalent of planting them in a hotter climate. It can literally cook the moisture out of them, stressing them tremendously. If this is the case, moving them away from that wall so they receive more air circulation and cooler air will help.
The light green foliage with dark green veins appear to be chlorosis, the lack of iron. The common causes are too much alkalinity in the soil or water or too little light. Being planted as closely to the foundation of the building as that photo make it appear, lime could easily be leeching from the cement in the water, locking the available iron in insoluble compounds. If that is the case, moving them away from concrete walls and walks should help alleviate the alkalinity issues. Otherwise, using a higher nitrogen fertilizer, such as Miracid, should help acidify the soil, potentially neutralizing the high alkalinity and helping to release the insoluble iron, making it more readily available to the plants.
Another very possible issue, you write one has very spindly growth with a few blooms and the second has the chlorotic foliage, both of which could be caused by too little sun. They should receive about five to six hours of direct sun daily. You can read in old rose books, and repeated in current writings, “roses need full sun”. Perhaps they did in Edwardian and Victorian London when and where that old wive’s tale was originally written, but the rest of the world usually has significantly hotter, brighter sun with little of the “London fogs” to mitigate the heat and light damage today’s more intense sun can often cause. If they don’t receive sufficient sun, moving them to a sunnier spot, preferably sufficiently away from concrete and stucco surfaces will help greatly.
Another apparent issue from the distorted leaves on the plant… you may have thrip damage on the new growth. Notice the curled, distorted appearance of the new leaves at the upper left. Thrips LOVE hot conditions. Reducing the heat helps reduce them. Perhaps rinsing the plant off with a water wand may help? I don’t want to suggest using any insecticide or miticides as they should not be used until you know the specific pest you are trying to control and most of them state not to use them in hot conditions to prevent foliage burn. If that position is hot due to being that close to the wall, using any chemicals on them may easily kill them.
Hopefully, this gives you ideas to investigate to determine what’s wrong with your roses. Without knowing the answers to these questions, it’s impossible to provide a definitive answer nor a decent suggestion how to help them. Good luck!
